Deciding on a web design company for your business website can be exciting and confusing.
After researching for Boston web design services you might have noticed that companies charge different prices for what might seem the same website project. One company might charge $100 for a 5-page website while another charges $50,000.
While that $100 website price might seem appetizing, the phrase “you get what you pay for” plays a role here. Not every website company has the same values and goals, which is one reason prices fluctuate.
The company charging $100 for a website most likely isn’t looking at the best ROI for their clients but rather serving cookie-cutter sites that most of their clients have “boring!”
But that other company charging $50,000 is looking to get an ROI for their clients, but then you say to yourself, “I can’t spend $50,000 on a website right now.”
So now you’re stuck and don’t know what to do and how to get your business website. At this point, you might look into the DIY route and give it a shot for yourself.
Before you let those thoughts stir up, let me save you the headache and show you the main costs to consider when looking to get your small business website professionally done.
Design and Development: This is where the meat and potatoes of a website project go into. This mainly depends on two factors, the design you want to achieve and how many pages are going into it. Most small business websites today don’t need to be a piece of art to achieve results. Second, the number of pages you desire will affect the project’s cost. So then you might ask yourself, “How many pages does my small business website need?” If you don’t know how many pages you need, the usual business website has 10-15 pages.
Domain Name: If you are unfamiliar with a domain, a domain is like a website’s address. It’s a unique name you type in a web browser, such as “google.com.” It’s like finding someone’s house using an address instead of longitude and latitude coordinates.
A domain will cost about $20 annually to keep it. Depending on the domain name you want, somebody might already own it and are reselling the domain. This is why the price of some domains can cost more than others. 
Not sure where to search for domain availability. Check Google Domains Checker. Hosting: This is where your website will live on the Internet. Just like a house, you have to pay for the land your home sits on. Hosting is like buying land, but instead of Earth, it’s the World Wide Web, a.k.a. the Internet.
The cost of hosting depends on what type of servers you’re hosting on, the space, loading speed, security, customer support, and so on. Business website hosting costs about $10-$100 per month.
If you want to learn more about hosting and what to look out for. See our guide to website hosting.
Maintenance: Once your website is live, you must keep it updated and secure like anything else. When you buy a new car, you still need maintenance for the engine to work correctly. It’s the same for a website because the Internet constantly evolves. When you get a website for your business, the main point should be gaining more business and new customers. So if your website isn’t working as it should because of a lack of maintenance, it’s doing more harm than help.
Monthly maintenance can include done for you, website edits, backups, monthly updates to your plugins, and CMS. Ongoing maintenance can cost you around $50-$500 per month.
Now that you know the basic costs of getting your business website up, It’s time to choose a web design company to build your website.
Some web design companies have upfront web design pricing, while others will wait and see what they can charge you.
If you’re looking for a website here in Boston, here are a few Boston web design companies pricing.
