If you want to build and host a website but don’t have any idea about how much it will cost, then this post aims to answer all your questions. We’ll look at all the things you’ll need to pay for upfront and the ongoing expenses needed to keep your website online. The good news for anyone just starting out and with a very small budget is that it can be far less expensive than most people think.
The essentials
To launch your own website, you need three basic things. These are the website, a domain name and web hosting. The website is what people see online, the domain name is the website’s name (e.g., yourwebsite.com) and web hosting is the service that puts your website on the internet and keeps it there. Below, we’ll look at varying cost options for each of these essentials.
A website
Believe it or not, it can cost nothing to build a website. All you need is a good website-building program and many of the very best ones are completely free to use. The most popular of these is WordPress which is used to build 43% of all the world’s websites. WordPress and similar programs are also incredibly easy to use. You don’t need any specialist computing or coding skills to create a website, it is basically as simple as making a PowerPoint presentation.
Another popular option is to use a website builder. These are extremely easy-to-use tools that let you create websites by dragging and dropping web page elements into place and adding your own text and images. Often, as with the eukhost Website Builder, these come with a range of additional features, such as 24/7 technical support, web hosting included in the price, hundreds of free themes and hundreds of thousands of free, hi-res images. Web builders vary in price. Ours comes with a free trial and costs from £3 (ex-VAT) a month for a one-page website, up to £21 (ex-VAT) per month for a large online store.
The final way to create a website is to have one built for you. This can be the best choice if you want a site with a specialist range of features and you don’t have the time to build one of your own. However, prices can range from a few hundred pounds to many thousands, depending on the type and size of website you are having built.
Domain name
Buying a domain name is essential as it’s the address you’ll need for people to find your website on the internet. When you buy a domain name, however, what you actually buy is an annual or two-year registration to use it. To keep hold of the domain name, you’ll need to keep reregistering it. Prices vary depending on the type of domain extension you choose (e.g., .com, .co.uk, .org, etc.); however, a typical price is around £10 a year. Registration is with the ICAAN internet authority, however, you can search for, register and pay for new website domains directly from an ICAAN-authorised web host, like eukhost.
Web hosting
Web hosting is the engine that powers your website on the internet. A hosting account comes with a specified amount of storage for your website’s files and data and provides the resources your website needs to perform well online, such as RAM, CPU and bandwidth. Some hosting accounts also come with a great deal more, such as email accounts, server security, 24/7 technical support, user-friendly control panels and uptime guarantees, all of which are important for keeping your site functional.
There are different types of hosting available. The main ones are shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers and the cloud. There are also specialist forms of hosting, such as WordPress hosting for WordPress websites.
Shared hosting is an entry-level solution that is used by the majority of the world’s websites. Here, a large number of small websites share the storage and resources of a large server. Our cloud-based cPanel Hosting, which includes the use of the industry-leading cPanel control panel, is a modern version of a shared hosting plan. This is ideal for small websites with a relatively small number of visitors. Prices start at just £3.73 (ex-VAT) per month, rising to £7.47 (ex-VAT) for the largest plan. These include email hosting, free daily backups and a wide range of other features. Specialist WordPress Hosting, meanwhile, starts at just £4.39 (ex-VAT) a month.
VPS (virtual private server) is the next level up from shared hosting and provides your business with its own dedicated RAM, storage, CPU and bandwidth resources. You don’t share these as you would on shared hosting, thus ensuring your website always has the speed and performance it needs. This powerful package is for growing businesses with bigger websites and higher volumes of traffic. eukhost VPS Hosting prices start at £15.54 (ex-VAT) per month, rising to £124.53 (ex-VAT) for the very largest Linux VPS plans. Windows VPS is also available, though is a little more expensive due to the licencing costs for the Windows operating system.
Dedicated servers are highly powerful machines for organisations that run extremely large websites or other demanding applications. From a performance perspective, these are the fastest and most powerful servers and come with large storage, CPU, RAM and bandwidth resources. Generally, these are used by organisations with larger IT needs. Standard eukhost dedicated server prices start at £83.45 (ex-VAT) per month, rising to £479.19 (ex-VAT) for the most powerful models. You can also choose your own specification of server, though this could cost more.
Cloud computing is an increasingly popular choice as it offers flexibility and reliability. You can choose a cloud package that has all the resources you need for everyday storage and traffic but, if you need to use more, you can temporarily scale up, on-demand, to ensure your needs are covered. You pay for any additional resources on a pay-as-you-go basis. The other advantage of the cloud is that it offers 100% uptime guaranteed, making it the best choice for websites that need to be permanently online. eukhost cloud servers start from just £23.41 (ex-VAT) a month, with the largest plans only £220.29 (ex-VAT).
Conclusion
So, how much does it cost to build and host a website? If you had a very limited budget, you could effectively build a website, pay for the domain and host it online for around £65 a year. That’s about £5.50 a month. As your website grows and you get more visitors, you may eventually need to upgrade to a larger or more powerful plan. However, by that time, your business should have a bigger budget at its disposal.
For more information about all our hosting plans and their features, visit our homepage.
*(Prices above are accurate at the time of publishing but are subject to change.)
