“How much does a website cost?” The usual answer is “it depends”, which helps nobody. So here we work it out in numbers: we split a site into its items, put each item’s real price beside it as Illevante’s pages show it today, then add them up for four different sites, from a CV to an online shop. At the end we list what doesn’t show on the first invoice and surprises many people.
01Item one: the domain
The domain is your site’s name, paid yearly. Its price depends on the extension, and more important than the first year’s price is the price, because you’ll pay it every year after:
| Extension | First year | Renewal | For |
|---|---|---|---|
| .com | $17 | $17 | The best-known name, for an audience at home and abroad |
| .net | $20 | $20 | A second name beside .com, or a technical business |
| .shop | $6 | $54 | A store that wants a name saying it sells |
Note .shop: its first year is cheaper than .com, but its renewal costs three times as much. .com, by contrast, renews at the same $17 as its first year, and you can register it for up to ten years at once.
02Item two: hosting
Hosting is where your site’s files live. For most sites is enough, and these are Illevante’s cPanel plans:
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| cPanel Start | $2 | $20 | Blogs and personal sites: 5 domains and about 35,000 visits a month |
| cPanel Power | $4 | $40 | Businesses and their several sites: unlimited domains and about 75,000 visits |
| cPanel Infinity | $6 | $60 | Stores and high-traffic sites: about 150,000 visits |
Paying yearly costs less: Start is $20 for the year, while paying month by month comes to $24. Every plan carries a 45-day money-back guarantee.
03What comes with the hosting at no extra cost
This is where the real price differs from the written one. With Illevante’s cPanel hosting, these items are part of the plan and cost nothing on top:
- Mail on your domain: Unlimited email accounts, webmail, and compatibility with Outlook, Gmail and phone apps.
- An SSL certificate: Every domain and subdomain gets a certificate through that renews before it expires, so the padlock shows in the address bar.
- Backups: Automatic JetBackup backups kept for 15 days on Start, 30 on Power and 45 on Infinity.
- WordPress and apps: Softaculous installs WordPress and more than 280 apps in a few clicks, from shops to forums.
04When do you pay for an SSL certificate or a VPS?
The included certificate is enough for most sites. You pay for a separate one when you want the OV or EV level, which writes your organization’s details into the certificate, or a certificate not tied to the hosting. Certificates start at $12 a year for PositiveSSL, and Instant SSL at the OV level is $35.
A is what you need when your application requires reserved resources and full access, such as a custom app or a large shop. CoreVPS servers start at $3.50 a month and are billed by the day, and if you want a control panel on it, its license is added monthly, such as ISPmanager Lite at $8, with a free month with any VPS plan.
05Four sites, four bills
Now we add up the items for four realistic sites, at first-year prices and paying yearly:
| Site | What it needs | First year |
|---|---|---|
| A CV or blog | .com with cPanel Start | $37 |
| Beirut Smiles Dental, ibtisamat-beirut.com | .com and .net with cPanel Start | $57 |
| An online clothing shop | .com and .net with cPanel Power | $77 |
| A shop that wants its company details in the certificate | .com and .net with cPanel Power and Instant SSL | $112 |
If your project is an application on a VPS, count $3.50 for every month the server runs, which is $42 if it runs all year, then add the domain and any control panel license.
06The variable item: design and content
Everything above is fixed and known in advance. Building the site itself depends on who builds it: if you build it yourself on WordPress with a ready theme, you pay nothing beyond the figures above except whatever paid themes and plugins you choose. If you hire a designer, their fee is added according to the size of the job; ask them about maintenance after delivery, since that’s a yearly cost too.
07Costs that surprise many people
- ProblemAn extension cheap in its first year and dear at renewal
- FixRead the renewal price before you register, and choose an extension whose price holds, such as .com.
- ProblemA cheap hosting offer with no mail or backups
- FixAdd up the price of what the offer leaves out before you compare it with others.
- ProblemPaying monthly for years
- FixPay yearly once your site settles, and save the price of two months or more every year.
- ProblemThemes and plugins that renew yearly
- FixCount them with the hosting; they’re part of the site’s cost, not just its design.
- ProblemThe domain in the designer’s name
- FixRegister it in your own name from the start; moving it later costs time and may cost money.
In short: a complete site with your name, your mail and its certificate starts at $37 for the first year, and stays close to that in the years after if you choose an extension whose price holds. Start with the plan that fits you today, and move up when your site grows.
