Let’s come to cost. There are three major costs:-

• Domain Name
• Hosting
• Design & Development

Let’s talk about each in detail:

Domain:- (name of your website):- It’s a fixed cost, which costs around 600–1200 INR/Year. You can buy them from domain registrars like GoDaddy or Bluehost.

Hosting:- You need a computer called server to keep your website file which is always connected to the internet. For this, you need a Hosting Providers (Ex:- Namecheap, Bluehost, Siteground, Dreamhost etc).

Before coming to cost there are few things you should understand.

Like your mobile has limited RAM and Storage. Same is there in case of the web server. Your mobile’s RAM decides no. of apps (depending upon size) you can run simultaneously in cases of server it decides how many visitors it can handle at a time.

(It is just an illustration of major factors, there are many factors also which matters)

Hosting Cost, You can get it for free also(with many restrictions on RAM, Storage etc). That only I would recommend who is learning web development & have a very tight budget

You should opt for paid hosting. Which starting around 3k per year to 5k per year (Enough for most of the Small and Medium-sized business). There are also dedicated hosting which many large organisations opt for which can costs more than 10K INR per month too.

I use Namecheap & 20i to host my 90% of the client website.

SSL:- (Green padlock symbol with the secure word in URL bar in most browsers). You can get this for free but many paid hosting providers it’s just a click or a contact to support. The free certificate if enough in most cases of small and medium business.

Business emails:- This is also something you can get for free many hosting providers give 5 or more free emails with their most of hosting plans. 5 emails are enough for most of the small and medium-sized business. In case you need unlimited email a bit research is needed and many hosting providers provide this too free with their hosting plans.

Note:- It’s important to know your need or say the potential amount of size and amount of use of your website. So that you spend just for what you need. You can migrate your site from one hosting provider to other anytime.

Migration Cost:- For medium-sized informational websites (like of a school, college etc) just a few hours to a day. Depends on the developer how much he charges. If your site is on CMS like WordPress, Joomla etc.

Let’s come to the most important part least known to a typical customer and most flexible cost.

Design:- If what the developer takes for his time is excluded. It can cost zero to anything like 20K+ even for a simple website (like of a school/college etc.)

Let me explain you this with a simple illustration.

Suppose you need to edit a photo (you just need to add a text over it) you know one photo editing tool Adobe Photoshop. You go and buy it for one year for around 8K INR.

Although you could have done the same with many free tools even with the gallery app of your phone but lack of knowledge of available tools cost you much.

Similar things happen in design also, for example, there are tons of good free Themes which can easily fulfil your needs but you or your designer may be convinced to go buy premium themes (although you don’t need that much or will never use extra premium features).

We all know technology is getting cheaper day by day.

Like app in your phone adds extra features there are ( in PHP, WordPress, Joomla etc) plugins which add an extra feature like QnA Platform, Classified Platform, Chat, Push notification etc to your website. They could be free or paid. In many cases, you can get almost the same thing for free of a similar version from another provider for a few dollars.

So, It’s important that your developer has the knowledge of free tools also and thinks in your best interest in order to get the best for your hard earned money.

Cost of designing (in the Indian market) varies from 5K (like for a small static informational website to 50K+ like for an e-commerce website.

Remember your design cost will largely depend on the skills/qualification of developer and the time he invests on your project and time depends largely on the process, not the final result.

A simple illustration, you can hire an IITian to teach maths to your kid of 5th Standard or Hire a 12th Standard student good at maths and explaining things. Although both with give the same amount of time and will teach almost the same but you will have to pay much higher in 1st case.

Summing Up:- You can get your website live with as little 1k including domain, hosting and design or can cost you 20k+ too you need a large website with lots of features.

This answer has been written in the context of needs of most of the individual, small or medium businesses with a purpose to create awareness so that they can get what they need at the best budget.

By now I hope your most of queries related to website cost have been cleared yet.

I am a self-taught Web Developer, who always researches a lot before spending money so that I get what I actually needed at the best price. Be it a domain name, Hosting provider to themes or plugins.

Your Upvote can help this answer to spread to more no of people. Where too many misleading answers are moving out there.

If you are a self-employed professional, small business owner, run institution/school/college/coaching etc. Feel free to reach to me. I’m sure I will be one of the best fit for you.