How much does a website cost? Every payment you'll actually make in a year
"15,000 baht and it's done" sounds nice and clear, until month eight, when the shop needs to change its menu prices. Here's every cost a website brings, and what a year really adds up to.
Key points
- A website has at least five costs: the build, the domain, hosting, changes and fixes.
- Domain and hosting are yearly costs. Forget to renew and the whole site stops working.
- In our worked example, a site built for 25,000 baht costs about 36,500 baht in year one and about 11,500 baht in year two.
- Typical market ranges: agencies charge around 15,000-50,000 baht up front, and custom-built systems around 150,000-800,000 baht.
- If you change prices, menus or promotions often, check the cost of changes after handover before comparing build prices.
"15,000 baht and it's done." The owner of a made-to-order food shop that had just expanded into the unit next door was relieved to hear it. A clear number, paid once, nothing more to think about.
Two months later the site went live, full menu, a big photo of basil pork with a fried egg filling the screen.
In month eight, pork prices went up and a dozen menu items needed new prices. The owner messaged the web designer and got a reply that evening: "Sure, that's 800 baht per change." In month eleven, an email in English arrived about renewing something. Nobody opened it. Early the next year, a regular customer called to say the shop's website wouldn't load.
The 15,000 baht was a real price. It just wasn't the whole price.
The website price you see when you hire is the first payment, not the only one
Ask how much a website costs and nearly every answer you get is the build fee: the money you pay to bring the site into existence. It's the most visible number, and it's the one owners compare between providers.
But a website isn't a shop sign you put up once. It has rent for its name, rent for its space, and someone has to update it every time the shop changes. These costs arrive a little at a time over the year, some of them in English emails nobody opens, so they rarely make it into the decision.
If you want to know what a website really costs, think in years, not in one payment.
How many costs a website has, and what each one is
The domain is your site's name, like yourshop.com. It's paid yearly and renewed every year. Prices vary by extension and provider. It's a small cost, but forget to renew and the whole site disappears, and someone else may register the name.
Hosting is the rent on the server that keeps your site online around the clock, along with the security certificate that puts the padlock next to your address. Some providers include the first year and start charging in the second. Some leave it for the shop to arrange. Ask clearly at the start.
Maintenance matters because a site nobody looks after slowly breaks. The software behind it needs updates, add-ons need updates, data needs backing up. Some providers charge monthly for this. Some don't charge because they don't do it, which costs more in the long run.
Changes come up constantly: new prices, new photos, a promotion, an extra page. If the shop can't make them itself, each one costs money, and the waiting costs more. A promotion that reaches the site a week late has already lost a week of selling.
Fixes are the ones nobody plans for. A form that stops sending, a hacked site, a layout that breaks on a new phone. They tend to arrive on the least convenient day.
Doing the maths for a full year on a one-off website
Take an imaginary shop. It pays 25,000 baht for the build, makes changes every two months and needs one fix a year. The other numbers in the table are assumptions to show the shape of it. Real prices depend on the provider.
| Item | Year one (baht) | Year two (baht) |
|---|---|---|
| Build | 25,000 | 0 |
| Domain | 500 | 500 |
| Hosting | 3,000 | 3,000 |
| 6 changes at 1,000 each | 6,000 | 6,000 |
| 1 fix | 2,000 | 2,000 |
| Total | 36,500 | 11,500 |
Year one costs 11,500 baht more than the agreed price, close to half the build fee again. Year two still costs over ten thousand, with no new site. And this is a shop that only changes things every other month. A shop that runs a new promotion every month will see a much longer row for changes.
The owners who say "I've never paid for a change" are usually the ones who haven't touched their site since launch. They pay in a different way: prices online that don't match the counter, customers messaging to double-check, and some who don't message at all and go elsewhere.
Typical website prices in the market, and what each route gets you
Website prices vary hugely, because "a website" can mean anything from a single page to a system that runs the whole business. These are typical market ranges for a rough comparison. Individual providers will differ.
An agency delivers in 3-6 weeks and usually asks for around 15,000-50,000 baht before starting. You get thought-through design, but changes after handover are usually billed per job or under a separate maintenance contract.
A freelancer is usually cheaper than an agency, though prices range widely with experience. Easy to talk to and flexible, but everything depends on one person.
A custom-built system, say a booking system tied to your stock and accounts, takes 3-6 months and costs roughly 150,000-800,000 baht. It suits businesses with genuinely unusual processes and someone to look after the system afterwards.
A monthly service is paid monthly or yearly. A team builds the site and keeps looking after it. The first payment is small, but you keep paying for as long as you use it.
Which route suits which business, and how each one behaves after launch, is compared in detail in freelancer, agency or monthly.
Questions to ask before you pay the first website invoice
Before transferring the first payment, get answers in writing. These questions don't make you look fussy. Anyone who has built websites for a while can answer them straight away.
- Whose name is the domain registered in, how much is renewal each year, and who pays it?
- Is hosting included in the price, for how many years, and what does it cost after that?
- Can the shop change text, photos and prices itself? If not, how much is each change and how many days does it take?
- Is the site backed up, and who do we contact if it goes down?
- If we stop working together one day, do the site and domain stay with the shop, and can we move them?
The answer to the third question usually tells you the most about what a year will cost. A shop that changes its menu every month and a shop that never changes anything should choose differently.
Paying monthly instead of a lump sum, and which shops it suits
A monthly plan suits shops that change things often: seasonal promotions, prices that move with costs, and no wish to hand over a large sum on day one. Maintenance, changes and fixes come in one payment you know in advance.
To be straight about it: if your site will barely change for years and you already have someone reliable looking after it, paying once may be cheaper over the long run. The simple test is to multiply the monthly fee by twelve and set it next to the table above, for both year one and year two.
woowey builds websites for businesses on a monthly plan. Our team builds the site and keeps looking after it, you can change the text, photos and prices yourself, everything is backed up daily, your existing domain can be connected, and a subdomain comes with the plan if you're not ready to register your own name yet. Prices for each plan are on the pricing page, and paying yearly gets you 12 months for the price of 10. If you're not sure which suits your shop, tell us.
As for the food shop, if it had done the full-year maths on the day it heard "15,000 and it's done", it might still have hired the same person. It would just have asked two more questions: can we change the prices ourselves, and who will the renewal email go to?
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to build a website?
As a typical market range, agencies charge around 15,000-50,000 baht up front and custom-built systems around 150,000-800,000 baht. On top of that come yearly domain and hosting fees and the cost of changes.
What's the difference between a domain and hosting?
The domain is your website's name, paid yearly. Hosting is the server space that keeps the site online around the clock. A website needs both to work.
What yearly costs come with a website?
At minimum, domain renewal and hosting. If the shop can't edit the site itself, there's also a cost every time information changes, plus fixes when something breaks.
Is it cheaper to pay once or pay monthly for a website?
It depends on how often your site changes. If it barely changes, paying once is usually cheaper over time. If you change prices or promotions often, a monthly plan that includes changes and maintenance usually works out better.
The woowey team
We build websites and systems for businesses
We build websites, booking systems, online stores and back offices for Thai businesses, then look after them every month. What we write here comes from what we see working with real shops.
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Type what you need. The woowey team builds your website and systems, then looks after them every month.
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