Most new business professionals and entrepreneurs are bootstrapping when they’re starting their new venture. Hiring a staff or agency isn’t always financially possible, and so they’ll try and learn and do as much as they can to get their business to a viable start with a limited budget. When it comes to the cost of building and maintaining a website, business professionals need to consider more than just the initial price of investment, they’ll also need to consider the quality (and functional features) and the amount of time it will take to launch. While WordPress and Squarespace have different pricing structures, there are hidden costs associated with both platforms, from time investment to ongoing maintenance.
Let’s break down the costs involved in building and running a website on each platform, so you can make an informed decision about where to invest your time and money.
WordPress: A Customizable, Pay-As-You-Go Approach
With WordPress, the cost can range widely depending on your needs and how much customization you require.
Cost Breakdown for WordPress:
1.Domain Name:
Typically you can purchase your domain for an annual cost of $10 to $20 per year. You can purchase your domain from a variety of providers, such as GoDaddy or IONOS (Formally 1and1).
2.Hosting:
WordPress doesn’t include hosting, so you’ll need to factor that in. Shared hosting plans start at around $3 to $10 per month, but if you need better performance, expect to pay for managed WordPress hosting, which can range from $20 to $100+ per month for higher traffic or resource-heavy websites. We recommend SiteGround for their great customer support, server performance, and pricing tiers.
3.Themes and Plugins:
While there are free themes and plugins available, many businesses go for premium options to achieve a more professional look and enhanced functionality. Premium themes range from $30 to $100 that may be one time or have an annual license that includes regular updates. Plugins can cost anywhere from $5 to $200+ per year depending on the functionality you need.
4.Developer Fees (Optional):
If you need custom functionality or advanced design, hiring a developer can cost anywhere from $50 to $200+ per hour. If your project requires extensive custom coding, expect a web development budget starting at $500 to several thousand dollars, depending on the complexity of your project.
5.Maintenance and Security:
Since you’re responsible for managing updates, security patches, and backups, you may want to invest in a managed service or security plugin. Budget $10 to $50 per month for these services, or more if you opt for premium backup and security solutions.
Time Investment for WordPress:
•Building the Site:
Depending on your experience, building a WordPress site from scratch can take anywhere from 20 to 100+ hours. If you’re using a pre-built theme and plugins, it will take less time, but customizations will add hours to the process. If it is your first time, prepare to spend quite a bit of time learning some technical aspects of the infrastructure setup. You’ll want to have a good idea for where you want your website to be and look initially and what growing it with additional features and functions will entail.
•Maintenance:
WordPress requires regular updates, both for the platform itself and for plugins and themes. Budget a few hours per month for this, or pay for a managed service if you want to offload the responsibility. You’ll also need to periodically monitor performance, security, and backups. Many of these tasks can be automated, and that will save you a lot of time. You can also hire an agency to monitor and maintain your website and perform the necessary updates and backups for you so that you can toss that hat away.
Squarespace: All-Inclusive with Transparent Pricing
Squarespace offers an all-in-one solution with pricing that covers hosting, design templates, and even e-commerce features if needed. While the price is more straightforward, you may end up paying more for features that come standard in WordPress via free plugins.
Cost Breakdown for Squarespace:
1.Domain Name:
Squarespace offers a free domain for the first year when you sign up for an annual plan. After that, the domain renewal costs about $20 to $40 per year.
2.Monthly Subscription:
Squarespace’s pricing is subscription-based. Plans range from $16 to $65 per month, depending on whether you need basic website functionality or more advanced e-commerce features.
Personal Plan: $16/month – Basic website with a few pages and no e-commerce functionality.
Business Plan: $23/month – Adds e-commerce and marketing tools.
Basic Commerce: $27/month – Ideal for businesses selling products online.
Advanced Commerce: $49/month – Includes advanced e-commerce features, such as abandoned cart recovery and subscriptions.
3.Design Templates and Features:
Squarespace includes a selection of high-quality, responsive templates at no additional cost. There are no additional fees for themes or templates, unlike WordPress, where premium themes are often necessary for a more polished look.
4.Additional Costs:
Squarespace’s integrated tools may reduce the need for third-party services, but some features (like advanced marketing integrations) could still require additional investment, such as paying for email marketing services or external plugins.
Time Investment for Squarespace:
•Building the Site:
Squarespace is designed for users with little to no coding experience. You can build a simple site in 5 to 20 hours, depending on how much customization and content you need to add. Most of the process involves selecting a template and adjusting it to fit your brand.
•Maintenance:
Squarespace takes care of updates, security, and backups for you. This significantly reduces the time you’ll need to spend maintaining the site. Business owners can expect to spend less than 1 hour per month on upkeep—typically updating content or adding new features.
Important Considerations for Business Professionals
1.Budget Flexibility:
If you’re operating on a tight budget, WordPress offers more flexibility. You can start with a low-cost hosting plan and add features as your business grows. Squarespace, while convenient, has fixed subscription costs that may not scale as efficiently as your site’s needs grow.
2.Time vs. Customization:
WordPress demands more time to learn, build, and maintain, but in return, you get unmatched customization and scalability. Squarespace, on the other hand, saves time with its ease of use but sacrifices flexibility. Consider how much time you can dedicate upfront and over the long term when making your decision.
3.Long-Term Growth:
If you anticipate significant growth in your business or need advanced functionality like a custom-built e-commerce system, membership site, or integrations with other platforms, WordPress is a better long-term solution. Squarespace is great for small to medium-sized businesses that value simplicity but may fall short as your business scales.
4.Tech Expertise:
If you don’t have technical expertise and don’t want to hire a developer, Squarespace is the easier, lower-maintenance option. WordPress, while powerful, requires either tech knowledge or the willingness to invest in professional support.
Our Final Thoughts on Cost and Time Involvement
When choosing between WordPress and Squarespace, it boils down to balancing cost, time, and flexibility. WordPress allows you to start small and grow with your business, but the hidden costs in development, maintenance, and plugins can add up. Squarespace provides a more predictable cost structure, but if your business outgrows its capabilities, you may need to switch platforms down the line. If you’re a business professional looking for a quick, hands-off solution, Squarespace’s ease of use is hard to beat. However, if you’re in it for the long haul and envision a website that evolves as your business grows, WordPress offers the versatility to make that happen if you’re willing to put in the time.
Not every website project is the same and so we couldn’t recommend one of these to everyone. Hopefully after reading this article and seeing the different options you now have a better idea of which platform will be best for you and your business.
At first glance, design and development may seem so similar that only one is necessary. However, a good grasp of the difference between web design and web development is crucial to ensure a successful and effective website project, for both the client and the digital team.
Web Design Web design focuses on the visual aspects and user experience of a website. It includes designing the layout, color scheme, typography, imagery, and overall aesthetic. This process uses graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or Sketch to create mockups and wireframes. Web designers are skilled in graphic design, typography, color theory, and user experience (UX) design, which are all essential for creating visually appealing and user-friendly websites. The end product of web design is a set of static visuals or mockups that showcase the planned appearance and layout of the website.
Web Development Web development, on the other hand, is about building and maintaining the functionality and interactivity of a website. This involves writing code to implement the design elements and create interactive features like forms, navigation menus, animations, and dynamic content. Developers use programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to construct the structure, style, and behavior of web pages. They possess skills in coding, scripting, and problem-solving to bring the design concepts to life and ensure the website works correctly across different devices and browsers. The outcome of web development is a functional website with interactive features and dynamic content.
The Balance An imbalance between web design and development can lead to a website that is either beautiful but clunky or unattractive but functional. When design dominates, the site may look great but perform poorly. If development overshadows design, the site may be fast but lack visual appeal. Understanding these roles helps clients set realistic expectations, plan effectively, and communicate clearly, resulting in a successful final product. Balancing design and development is essential for a website that is both appealing and functional.
As a business owner, your website and domain are crucial assets in your digital presence. There may come a time when you decide to terminate these services. Before you do, it’s essential to understand the consequences of this decision, not just for your immediate operations but for your long-term digital footprint. In this article, we’ll explore what actions may happen when a website and its associated services are terminated, cancelled, or abandoned, focusing on aspects like email services, domain name status, data backups, and more.
Loss of Website Access and Functionality
When you terminate your website services, the most immediate impact is the loss of access to your website. Depending on your service provider, this may be immediate or at the last day of your contract. This may also include loss of your content, graphics, images, software, and functionality. In some cases a backup or transfer can be requested, but it will need to be performed before the termination.
Other actions may include:
No More Content Updates: You can no longer update or change your website’s content
404 Errors for bookmarked or externally linked pages
E-commerce Operations Cease: If your site includes e-commerce, these functions will stop, affecting sales and customer interactions
User Access is Revoked: Customers or clients will no longer be able to access your site, leading to potential loss of business and client trust
Disruption of Email Services
If your email is hosted through your domain provider, terminating your website may disrupt sending or receiving emails. Depending on how your mailboxes were setup, you may not retain a copy locally on your device(s) of your mailboxes. People who try and email you may receive bounce-backs or undeliverable messages. Ask your provider first about options to archive, download, or transfer your email and mailbox folders. If you have P.O.S. (Point of Sale) systems, calendars, they may need to be reconfigured if they utilize an email account with your domain name. Another thing to consider is logins to banks, government agencies, or other third party institutions, you’ll want to change your contact email to another address that you have access to or getting it updated after you lose access to the registered email account may be difficult to support.
Domain Name Release and Potential Repurchase
This is a big one that not many people realize. Your domain name, the digital address of your business will be available for anyone else to purchase and register. Depending on how much traffic your domain received and it’s ranking, it may be on the radar from some bots and software that are waiting for the chance to scoop it up and hold it or resell it for a profit. There’s very little legal obligations to get a released domain back. Though not impossible, but may be costly and avoidable by just keeping the domain registration active with a nominal annual fee.
Grace Periods and Redemption
Typically, there’s a 30-day grace period during which you can renew your services without losing your domain. Check with your service provider before you close your account to ask about this. Reactivating your domain post-grace period can be costly and is not always guaranteed.
Data and Backup Deletion
The termination of your website services also impacts your data. This includes but isn’t limited to any content, graphics, images, and photography. Unless you have a backup, you will lose all the data on your website. In some cases you may want to ensure you have a recent backup or copy of your website, because having one from a long time ago may not contain any recent or updated content. Some providers may offer data transfer services or backup and retention services for a fee. There is a nifty website that we use occasionally to research an archived timestamp or snapshot of a website through The Wayback Machine.
SEO and Online Presence Impact
Many business owners invest a lot of time and money on improving their online presence and search engine results page (SERP) ranking. To lose this may be detrimental and not a first thought when considering terminating your website and domain services. The SEO ranking you’ve built up over time will be lost, affecting your online visibility. Any external links or references to your website will lead to dead ends, potentially harming your brand’s reputation.
Legal and Compliance Issues
Depending on your industry, there may be legal ramifications to research and consider. Certain states, governments, and/or industries require data to be kept for specific periods, even after a business ceases operations. You might need to inform clients or users about the termination of your website and services, and give them a means to respond and record or document that response.
Wrapping this up, I want to leave you with some key takeaways to remember. Terminating your website and domain services is a significant decision with far-reaching implications. It’s not just about losing a site; it’s about disrupting your business’s digital presence, losing critical data, and potentially harming your long-term online reputation. Before making this decision, consider the consequences, explore alternatives, and ensure you have a plan for data backup and migration. If you would like help with this, promptly contact us so that we can act quickly and potentially save you money and peace of mind.
As the internet continues to evolve, website security has become a crucial aspect of ensuring a safe and trustworthy online experience. One of the most significant developments in this regard is the use of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates. In this article, we’ll explore the reasons why it’s essential for websites to have an SSL certificate and why Google requires it.
What does it mean?
First, let’s define an SSL certificate. SSL is a standard security protocol that establishes an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data transferred between the server and the browser remains private and secure. SSL certificates are digital certificates that are issued by trusted third-party providers, known as Certificate Authorities (CAs). These certificates verify the authenticity of a website and encrypt all data transmitted between the website and the user’s browser.
Now, let’s get into why SSL certificates are crucial for websites
Data Protection One of the most significant benefits of SSL certificates is data protection. Without SSL, all data transferred between a user’s browser and a website is transmitted in plain text. This means that anyone who intercepts the data can read and use it for malicious purposes. SSL encrypts all data, making it unreadable to anyone who intercepts it.
Authentication SSL certificates also provide authentication. They verify the identity of the website, ensuring that users are communicating with the website they intended to. This helps prevent phishing scams, where attackers create fake websites to steal user information.
Improved SEO In 2014, Google announced that HTTPS (the secure version of HTTP, which uses SSL) would be a ranking signal in its search algorithm. Websites with SSL certificates are given a higher ranking than those without. This means that having an SSL certificate can improve a website’s visibility on search engines, which can lead to increased traffic.
Trust SSL certificates also create trust between websites and their users. Seeing the padlock icon in the browser bar and the “https” in the URL reassures users that their data is secure and that they can trust the website they’re visiting.
So let’s talk about why Google requires SSL certificates. In 2018, Google started marking all HTTP sites as “Not Secure” in the Chrome browser. This was part of Google’s plan to make the web a more secure place. Google wants to encourage all website owners to adopt HTTPS by making it a standard for all websites.
Google has also stated that websites without SSL certificates may be penalized in search rankings. As we mentioned earlier, SSL certificates are a ranking signal in Google’s algorithm. Websites without SSL certificates are seen as less trustworthy, and their rankings may be lowered as a result.
Our agency, Design Theory, has been informing our clients about a campaign we’re performing to have all of our client websites configured with an SSL Certificate. Great news if you’re already a client of ours, and if you’re not but want to get your SSL Certificate installed on your website, give us a call or email and we’d be happy to help you!
To wrap things up, SSL certificates are crucial for website security, data protection, authentication, SEO, and trust. Google requires SSL certificates to make the web a safer place and to encourage website owners to adopt HTTPS. If you’re a website owner, it’s essential to obtain an SSL certificate to ensure your website’s security and to maintain your search rankings.
A couple of weeks ago I presented at WordPress Orlando on Client Transparency in Creative Development. For those of you who weren’t able to attend or wanted to watch the presentation below is the video. Be sure to watch all the way to the end as the Q&A session was also recorded at the end of the video, as well as some commentary from other members of the WP Orlando community. Of course if you have any questions please feel free to Contact Us and we help.
Earlier this week I did a presentation at my local WordPress Orlando MeetUp about Client Transparency. This talk was a really open look at what it’s like being a creative, dispelling some perceptions on the creative lifestyle, as well as some insight into the thought process of a designer or developer working with the average client. I’ll be honest and say that most of these views are my sole perception, however many other creatives have echoed the same emotions and feelings.
The purpose of this though was to bring some light and understanding to both sides of the table when it comes to working through creative projects. The better both creatives and clients understand and respect each other, the better the development process will be and increase working relationships for long terms.
If you were unable to attend the live presentation, it was recorded and will be shared soon.
![Developer and Client Transparency Presentation [VIDEO]](https://jpdesigntheory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Client-Transparency-WP-Orlando-Jeans-Picture-1080x675.jpg)
