When building a website, a company needs to know in advance how much money it is likely to create an efficient solution. On average, web development costs can be up to £200 upfront, with monthly maintenance costs of about £50. If you hire a designer or developer, these costs might increase to £5,000 upfront and £800 per year for maintenance. There are several important aspects to consider, and most of them require investments. What's more, there are hidden expenses to be aware of. Let's find out more about them.
What are the regular web development costs?
Launching a website is just the beginning. To keep it up and running smoothly requires regular investments in web hosting, security, maintenance, and optimisation. Here are some of the ongoing web development costs to expect:
- Web hosting: To display your site online, you'll need a web host. According to Forbes, prices in 2023 range from £50 to £400 per year, depending on your traffic. Upgrading to a more robust server becomes necessary as your traffic grows.
- Domain registration: Your domain name needs to be renewed regularly and can costs around £20 per year. Premium or brandable domains can cost substantially more.
- SSL certificate: An SSL certificate encrypts data and identifies your site as secure, boosting SEO and converting more sales. Prices range from free to £200 per year.
- Plugins and add-ons: WordPress sites rely on plugins for features like contact forms, testimonials, and email subscriptions. While some are free, premium plugins cost £100 or more per year.
- Webmaster/content manager: Managing a large site requires dedicated staff to update content, check for errors, and ensure uptime. This can cost up to £5,000 per month for full-time work.
- SEO specialist: To rank well in search engines, most companies need to hire an SEO expert. Their monthly fees range from £500 to £5,000 depending on workload and the level of expertise.
- Imagery: Unique, high-quality photos and graphics make a big impact but come at a cost. From £30 to £450 per hour for custom photography, or from £59 per month from stock sites like Shutterstock.
In short, while launching a basic website can be very affordable, maintaining, securing, and promoting it properly requires significant recurring investments. But those web app development costs are necessary for achieving your online goals.
Introduction to hidden web development costs
When starting a new website, the upfront costs are usually clear. However, there are many ongoing unforeseen expenses that are easy to overlook at first. If you want your site to perform well, secure it against threats, and attract your target audience, you must consider them seriously. With the right expectations, you can confidently invest in web development safe in the knowledge of what it takes to maintain a site.
Web app development costs: upfront vs. ongoing expenses
When budgeting for web development, it's important to understand both the initial costs and the regular recurring expenses needed to maintain and optimise your online presence.
The upfront web development investments get your site off the ground. These include:
- Domain name registration
- Website builder subscription or custom development fees
- Web hosting setup
- Design, copywriting, and content creation
- SSL certificate purchase
- Any required plugins, add-ons, or extensions
These one-time expenses create the foundation for your website. Budget at least £500-£2,000 to build a basic but professional site. Complex ecommerce sites cost much more.
After launch, ongoing web development expenses are required to keep your site running smoothly. These include:
- Web hosting fees
- Domain name renewals
- SSL certificate renewals
- Plugin, add-on, and extension subscriptions
- Imagery and design updates
- Ongoing copywriting and content creation
- SEO services
- IT support and troubleshooting
- Webmaster/content manager salary
Aim to minimise upfront investments by using website builders and buying only essential features. But don't skimp on recurring expenses on web development. Tracking both short and long-term expenses is crucial for budgeting wisely.
Scope creep: the silent budget killer
You've done your research, set a reasonable website budget, and launched your beautiful new site. But requests for small tweaks and new features start creeping in, and suddenly, your investments have doubled. This phenomenon is called scope creep - when project requirements expand over time, inflating budgets. The web development price can skyrocket when this happens.
Scope creep in web development stems from a few key factors:
- Lack of proper planning -No clear content strategy or technical requirements outlined upfront;
- Moving targets - Business goals or target audience change mid-project;
- No priorities - Nice-to-have items get added along with need-to-have features;
- Weak boundaries - Inability to say no to incremental modifications that accumulate;
- Poor communication - Changes requested without awareness of the budget impact.
Prevent scope creep from draining your web development budget with these tactics:
- Document requirements at the start and get stakeholder sign-off;
- Build in processes for change requests, impact analysis, and approvals;
- Prioritise must-have features first, holding off on non-essentials;
- Implement change freezes at key milestones to lock in scope;
- Revisit the budget impact of changes before approving;
- Say no to unplanned requests.
Left unchecked, scope creep can multiply web development's true cost. But some expansion is inevitable.
Maintenance and updates
Keeping a website running smoothly requires ongoing investments in web development that are easy to underestimate. These overlooked maintenance and update expenses quickly add up.
Websites are complex tech products requiring:
- Regular software, plugin, and platform updates to fix bugs, close security holes, and improve performance. Neglecting updates causes tech debt that gets costlier over time.
- Monitoring and troubleshooting to quickly detect and diagnose problems like downtime, speed issues, or errors. Having access to technical experts is key.
- Backups and recovery systems to prevent data loss and restore functionality after disasters. Losing your site even briefly has dire consequences.
- Scaling web hosting plans as site traffic and resource demands inevitably grow. Insufficient hosting capacity crashes sites.
Websites also need regular refreshment of their meat and potatoes - content. Ongoing spending on content includes:
- Writing and production for blog posts, articles, and new web copy to attract visitors. Fresh content is the lifeblood of websites.
- Design and multimedia assets like video and graphics to visualise new content. Static sites look stale.
- Editing and maintenance of existing pages to update facts, keep messaging consistent, and improve SEO.
Factor ongoing tech maintenance, troubleshooting, content production, and site enhancements into your annual budget. A common rule of thumb is to budget 20% of the price of total web development per year. Planning ahead for these overlooked expenses will keep your site continually operating at peak performance.
Security risks and the price of vulnerabilities
Websites are under constant attack by cybercriminals seeking to exploit vulnerabilities. The financial damages and reputational harm from a breach can far exceed the money you could spend on properly securing your site.
Top security threats include:
- Malware injections that infect site visitors
- Phishing scams to steal customer data
- DDoS attacks that take sites offline
- SQL injection to access databases
- Cross-site scripting to hijack sessions
- Pirated content and intellectual property theft
Effective security requires continuous investments in:
- SSL certificates for encryption and data integrity
- Firewalls, antivirus, and intrusion detection
- Regular penetration testing and vulnerability scans
- Ongoing patch management as threats evolve
- DDoS mitigation and traffic scrubbing services
- Data backup and disaster recovery systems
While individual solutions vary in cost, collectively they require significant yearly budget allocations. However, the price of being unsecured is always higher – just one breach can devastate brands, revenue, customer trust, and compliance standing. In 2023, it could cost millions, which is a gigantic sum. For long-term success, view cybersecurity as an indispensable business expense.
Unseen time investments: impact on project timelines
When estimating timelines for your website project, unseen hours spent on vital behind-the-scenes work can lead to missed deadlines. Factor in these hidden time investments upfront.
Thorough planning and oversight take considerable time and include:
- Requirements gathering through stakeholder interviews
- Analysing business goals and user needs
- Defining technical specifications
- Creating wireframes and sitemaps
- Developing governance processes
- Conducting progress reviews and approvals
While crucial, few account for this time in their cost estimates.
Creating engaging content requires significant unseen time on:
- Researching topics and sources
- Interviewing subject-matter experts
- Writing original text and editing drafts
- Sourcing or producing visual assets
- Indexing and optimizing pages for SEO
This content development is often overlooked but is vital to maintain a quality websites.
Rigorous testing and fixes demand time on:
- Testing usability and functionality
- Identifying issues and reproducing bugs
- Retesting fixes and enhancements
- Optimising loading speeds and responsiveness
Without accounting for these refinements, sites won't be ready on schedule.
Build in ample time for these behind-the-scenes website development essentials. Tight deadlines inevitably lead to compromised quality, costly delays, or overtime expenditures down the road.
Third-party tools and licensing fees
Websites often rely on third-party software tools and services that require recurring licensing payments. They can quickly stack up.
Common third-party solutions include:
- Email marketing platforms to manage campaigns and subscriber lists
- Live chat services for instant customer support
- Payment gateways to process transactions
- SEO/SEM tools for optimisation and analytics
- Content delivery networks for faster content delivery
- Backup and monitoring tools to manage infrastructure
SaaS-based tools use subscription pricing models ranging from £5-£25 per month for basics like email marketing and live chat or £2,000-£6,000 for enterprise-level SEO analytics and infrastructure.
Relying on external best-in-class solutions allows you to focus internal resources on core competencies. But factor their licensing fees into budgets. Investing in the right tools ultimately fuels growth and ROI.
Talent retention and staffing challenges
Skilled website developers and digital marketers are in high demand and short supply. The costs of talent retention and staffing churn are often overlooked.
Talent risks include:
- High turnover from burnout and lack of growth opportunities
- Recruiting fees reaching 20% of annual salary to replace lost staff
- Lost productivity and errors during transitions
- Diluted institutional knowledge from exits
- Expenses for training and professional development of new employees
Hiring challenges include:
- Lengthy vacancies from understaffing key roles
- Inflated salary offers amid talent wars
- Difficulty finding professionals with niche skills
- Costly outsourcing to fill talent gaps
- Lower output and delays from understaffing
Effective retention and staffing strategies involve:
- Competitive compensation and benefits
- Training, mentoring, and career development
- Flexible work arrangements
- Succession planning and knowledge transfers
- Expanding recruiting channels and nurturing talent pipelines
- Retaining on-call contractors to fill gaps
While talent acquisition expands budgets, it pays long-term dividends in higher calibre work, reliability, and agility.
The opportunity cost of delayed launches
Missed launch deadlines can significantly impact revenue and market share - but these invisible opportunity costs often get overlooked in website budgets.
Every month of delay means:
- Lost sales from lack of online presence and ecommerce capabilities
- Missed opportunities during peak buying seasons or special events
- Reduced confidence leading to fewer conversions once the site is live due to perceived unreliability
Falling behind while competitors advance in the market leads to a loss of market position, as their websites:
- Claim more search actions, collecting more visitors
- Build network effects and brand affinity over time
- Gain more customer insights to refine products
- Blunt the impact of your eventual launch
Like a rocket that misses its ideal orbit window, delays make achieving goals exponentially harder:
- Recapturing lost revenue opportunities requires heavy marketing spend
- Dislodging rivals demands even more dramatic action
- Credibility must be rebuilt after failing to deliver on time
Avoid writing off opportunity costs as sunk. Model them rigorously to catalyse on-time web development. They are the loudest case for prompt execution.
Strategies to mitigate hidden costs in web development
While unseen expenses are inevitable, proactive planning helps minimise budget creep and reduce hidden costs in web development.
- Set realistic timelines: Pad estimates for unforeseen complexity in web development and content production, testing, troubleshooting, and rework after launches, oversight, and governance activities. This buffers against timeline delays that drive up expenses.
- Get formal stakeholder approvals at key phases: Doing this after planning will help you lock in scope and prevent feature creep. If you get approvals at design reviews, you will catch issues early before coding. Getting them during functionality testing allows you to detect defects before launch. Finally, by getting signoffs during post-launch review you are preventing ongoing scope expansion.
- Build internal capabilities: Reduce reliance on external web development vendors by cross-training internal talent for specialised roles, hiring flexibly to meet project needs, retaining consultants on retainer to fill gaps, and developing centralised governance expertise.
- Embrace iterative delivery: Take an agile approach that focusses first on business-critical functionality, delivers in rapid sprints for user feedback, adds enhancements incrementally after launch, and thus prevents over-scoping projects upfront.
Conclusion
Budgeting for a new website inevitably involves some degree of uncertainty. While upfront costs of web development may seem straightforward, unseen ongoing expenses and risks make total costs hard to predict. By illuminating the range of expenses websites face after launch, web development company like Andersen can set proper expectations with clients. Clients can then plan their investments realistically for the full lifecycle of a successful online presence.
With informed budgets and proactive management, companies can cost-effectively achieve their digital goals. Though surprises may still emerge, strong foundations prevent hidden costs from undermining websites yielding high value and ROI.
Copyright 2023.Featured post made possible by Tatsiana Kuchminskaya chief financial officer at Andersen.