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THE FULL COST

What a website costs, including what people find out later

The price discussed at hiring is the build, which is one of several amounts. There are costs that recur every year and costs that only apply to certain businesses. This sets all of them out before you decide.

Ask for a full cost estimateSee every package price

Two piles: paid once, and paid yearly

This is where budgets go wrong — the build price goes into the plan and the annual bills arrive the following year unbudgeted, even though every one of them was knowable on day one.

Paid once: the build, and the content. Paid yearly: the domain, the hosting, and maintenance if you choose it. Both piles belong on the same sheet of paper when you decide.

Cost by cost

Package figures are the real prices in use. The provider bills depend on which provider you choose.

  • 01

    The build — paid once

    Portfolio THB 1,500. Landing page THB 3,000. Five-page corporate site THB 10,000. Online store THB 20,000 to 50,000. Every package includes 3 revision rounds and a year of cover.

  • 02

    Domain — every year

    The name of your site, billed by the registrar. Register it in the name of the business: it is the one thing that cannot be recreated if it slips away.

  • 03

    Hosting — yearly or monthly

    Where the site runs. Prices vary widely by what the site is: a site with no back office costs materially less to host than one with a database.

  • 04

    Content and photography — paid once

    Text, product photographs, video. Free if you produce it yourself, a separate cost worth budgeting from the start if you commission it.

  • 05

    Maintenance — optional

    THB 15,000 to 30,000 a year. Not compulsory. A site with no systems and static content can be left alone and called on when needed.

  • 06

    Payment processing fees

    Online stores only. The payment provider charges a percentage per transaction. That is their bill rather than part of the build, and it belongs in the cost of goods sold.

Three things people find out late

Not hidden costs — costs nobody mentions during the price conversation because they have not happened yet.

  • Renewing the domain. If it is registered in somebody else name and that person becomes unreachable, the cost is not the renewal fee, it is changing the name of the business online.
  • Content that does not exist yet. Most sites that run late are not late because of code, they are late waiting for text and photographs.
  • Work added mid-project that was not in the original scope. The fix is writing the scope out properly at the start, not forbidding changes of mind.

How to budget against the actual job is in the article on what different budgets buy .

What makes quotes differ by several times is covered separately.

Questions about cost

Do the package prices include domain and hosting?

Those are provider bills rather than labour, so they are always separate, and they should be in accounts held by your business. At the estimate stage I will tell you what kind of hosting the site we discussed needs, so the annual figure can be budgeted correctly.

Can I pay once and have nothing recurring?

The domain and the hosting cannot be avoided for as long as you want the site to open — those two recur for every website that exists. Maintenance is the optional one.

Why does a website builder look so much cheaper?

Because it is billed monthly with no build cost. Compared over three to five years the totals are often closer than expected. But the real difference is not price: it is what you get, and how easily you can leave.

Budget is tight. What should I cut first?

Cut pages and features you do not need yet. Do not cut registering the domain in your own name, and do not cut writing the scope down. Those two cost more later than they save now.

Are there hidden charges?

The scope and price note comes to you before work starts. Anything chargeable is in it. If something reads unclearly, ask before agreeing — nothing is owed at that point.

Want the total for your job

The kind of site, roughly how many pages, and the systems you want. I will break out both the one-off build and the annual bills to expect.

Ask for a cost estimate