The cost of creating a photography website is the most common question among the photographers who want to make a photography website. It is a good question indeed, after all, web designers are expensive and cost a lot per hour. I recently wrote an article on Is it worth it to make a photography website? and found that high cost was the main thing deterring many photographers from creating their website.
So, how much does it cost?
That is a question which doesn’t have a direct answer. How much does a photography shooting cost for a day? $100? $1000? or ten thousand? It truly depends on a lot of factors right? Same is the case with creating a website. You can get it for as low as $10 per year if you are willing to create your site on your own. Just like the photo shot by average Joe is not as good as the one shot be a professional photographer, the quality of your site would also be not great if you are not a professional web designer.
The cost of creating a photography website costs from $10 to $50,000 depending on how you choose to build it.
What are my options?
- Make your site using WordPress
- Use a DIY builder
- Hire a Freelance Web Designer
- Hire a Web Design Agency
Making your photography site using WordPress
This is the perfect option fo 99% of you. WordPress is a free open source content management system which powers on 25% of the websites on the internet. I have written a good article on why one should use WordPress to create a photography website here.
Benefits
- Lowest cost – It will only cost the price of a theme, domain and hosting. Total would be around $100.
- It gives maximum flexibility. You can change pretty much anything without touching a single piece of code.
- You truly own your website. Unlike DIY builders which lock you into their website forever.
- You can add any features you like, and lot of plugins are available to make it super easy for you
- There are millions of articles online to support for any questions you may have. Knowing something is as easy as a google search.
- There are a lot of good quality WordPress themes, so you can get a website just the way you want it.
This is our preferred way of making a website.
Using a Do it Yourself Website Builder
There are services such as Squarespace, Wix, Weebly which provides cookie-cutter templates on which you can place your content and make your websites. It is good if you only want a website like how they show it in their templates. You won’t be able to do much customization and you would probably get locked into their service forever. It costs just as much as a WordPress website but lacks the flexibility. You won’t be able to add special features to these sites.
Millions of people use it because of their huge advertisement and easiness, but a lot of people end up with creating a bad website due to the limitations of their templates.
Hire a Freelance Web Designer
You can find freelance web designers online who would be willing to make your website in the $500 to $1000 range. This would be much cheaper than hiring a web design agency. Be sure to check their previous work portfolio before hiring anyone, and do not pay more than 40% in advance. You may want to divide your project into different phases.
Hire a Freelance Web Design Company
This costs in between $4000 and $50000 depending on which company you choose and what you want. You get a lot of people working on your site, but in my opinion, the sites they build are just about 5% better than the websites created by a good freelance web designer. So, unless you have a lot of money to throw around, I do not consider it to be worth it to spend that kind of money on a website.
This is probably okay for big photography studios who just want a highly customised website.
Which web design option to choose?
It is up to you. We suggest to try out WordPress with a good web hosting and NOT wordpress.com which is a service similar to DIY web builders. Millions of people use WordPress and they simply love it. Remember that a right WordPress theme is required to make it easy to make a WordPress website. A bad theme can make it hard and confusing.
Conclusion
There are website creating options at all price ranges. So, there is no excuse for not making a personal or professional portfolio website for your business or hobby.
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