Whether you setup your website yourself or you hire a web designer, there are certain costs involved.

Registering a domain name

This should run about $20 per year.  Sometimes domain name registrars, such as name.com, run specials but most of the time it is $10 a year for the domain plus $10 a year for privacy. Privacy is optional but I do recommend it.

Hosting

Your website files have to live somewhere. Some times your host and domain name registrar may be one in the same.  Some times it may be two different companies.  Web hosting varies in cost from $5 monthly to hundreds. The host I prefer to work with charges $15 per month for their “tiny” account, and almost all my clients fall into this category. The next level up is $30 per month.

Email hosting

If you want to use a domain email address such as jane@janesmith.com, you’ll need to host the email account.  Some hosts include this in their web hosting package.  Some domain registrars offer it as an add on for a very low cost.  I use Google Apps for Business, which is $5 per address. Expect to pay 0 – $5 per month.

Software licenses

WordPress itself is free. I own many themes and can use them for my clients.  If you were to purchase a premium theme yourself, expect to pay anywhere from $30-$200. Some themes, such as Divi and Pro Photo, require each client to have their own license. The most common theme I use is Pro Photo, which is $199 for the full release or $89 for an upgrade if you already own a recent older version.

There are also templates and child themes, if you are designing a site yourself.  Pro Photo sells templates (and I will be releasing my own templates for sale soon as well) starting at $45 and going up to $600.

Photos and Fonts

If you are a photographer, then images are not a problem! Most of my creatives and soloprenuers in other industries usually need good quality images. For portraits of yourself (almost always recommended!), expect to pay atleast $200 for a good quality headshot, and $500+ for a more in depth lifestyle session. You’ll also needed photos for your site.  I prefer Adobe stock, who charges $10 per image for a license.

Most of the time we can use free fonts.  Google Fonts has a huge selection of high quality professional fonts. For logos, I also have access to Adobe premium fonts through my Creative Cloud subscription.  Some times a client falls in love with a specific font that we need to purchase, but this is the exception. If this happens fonts can cost anywhere from $10 to hundreds. The most we’ve ever had to spend is $60.

A quick wrap up

For clients that choose to work with me, here is the run down of typical costs outside of my fee.

Hosting: $15 – $30 monthly

Domain name: $20 yearly

Email: $5 monthly

Pro Photo License: $89 – $199  one time fee (photographers only and we don’t have to work with Pro Photo but it has many advantages)

Send me a note for details about my fees. I’m happy to give you all the information up front but just need to know a bit about your project to give you an accurate quote.