How Much Does It Cost To Create A Basic Accounting Business Website?

Quick Answer

Low-End cost: $9/month (Mighty Sites)
High End Cost: $5,000 + $49/month (Custom WordPress Site)

Intro

If you're thinking about creating a basic website for your accounting practice, you need to know what to expect in terms of cost.

Most small business accounting firms don't need any more than a one-page to five-page website built on a professional theme.

Simple websites like this can usually be created for under $1000, including the domain name and hosting cost. Expect ongoing monthly fees for software licensing, hosting, and help to make updates.

If you need something custom, a website builder like Wix, WordPress, or Squarespace might be the right solution. These will cost upwards of $20- $49/month plus the cost of building, managing and updating the sites (your time or a freelancer's time).

For the fastest and easiest platform to produce a simple, professional website for your accounting business, you can use Mighty Sites Accounting Business Website Template for only $9/month.

Let's explore the options for creating a basic website for your accounting business and the associated costs.

Choosing The Right Website Platform

Choosing the right platform for your website can be challenging because there are many factors to consider. There are a million different platforms, so sometimes it's hard to tell what the best one is for you.

But this guide will help simplify everything, and then it'll be easy to choose the best options for what you need.

Mighty Sites

Estimated cost of $9/month

Mighty Sites is the most basic but also the cheapest, fastest and easiest website builder solution for creating a basic accounting business website.

The process involves entering basic details about your business. Then the Mighty Sites system will automatically generate a new professional and mobile-friendly website for your business.

It is that easy to edit. You can even do updates right from your phone.
Click here to learn more about how the Mighty Sites system can be effective for your business.

Wix

Estimated cost of $22/month - $59/month

You could use Wix to build a website for your accounting business. This is an excellent way to get started without learning how to code.

Wix is a website-building software that allows you to create websites without knowing any HTML or CSS. It's great for people with no coding experience who want to start their own business.

It's also a great option if you're looking for an affordable way to start your website. Wix offers different plans that start at just $16 per month and go up to $59 per month depending on the features you need and how many pages you want.

The downside is that Wix requires you to learn how to build websites using its system. Building a website on Wix will be time-consuming, and there will be a learning curve, just like any new software system.

So plan for the time it will take to learn the system and build your website. Or budget to pay someone to do that for you.

Squarespace

Estimated cost $33/month - $65/month

You could use Squarespace to build a website for your accounting business. It's quick and easy, and the templates are beautiful and modern.

You can also use Squarespace to create a blog or portfolio site.

They have plans starting at $33 per month, which is affordable considering what you get.

One downside to consider about Squarespace is that you'll need to know how to code HTML and CSS to customize your site beyond what they allow you to do with their drag-and-drop builder. Also, like Wix, you'll need to learn how to use their website builder to build your website, find images and write copy. This is a time-consuming process you will need to do yourself or pay somebody.

WordPress

Estimated cost: $500 - $5,000 for set up, then $20/month - $50/month for hosting

You could use WordPress to build a website for your accounting business.

WordPress is a free and open-source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. The software is available for download from WordPress.org, which can be installed by the user or hosted by a web hosting service that supports WordPress.

WordPress has many plug-ins, which are free and open-source tools that extend the functionality of WordPress. These enable users to add extra features such as advertising, search engine optimization, e-commerce capabilities, social media integration, or video hosting.

Once your WordPress site is up and running, you may be able to make updates yourself. However, WordPress can be pretty challenging to set up, host, and customize a theme. Therefore, it is imperative that you plan for hours of studying to learn how to be a WordPress developer or plan to hire someone to set up your WordPress website for you.

Paying to Have Your Accounting Firm's Website Built

Estimated cost: $500 - $5,000

If you don't want to build your website yourself nor use a website generator like Mighty Sites, you will need to pay a freelance marketer or web developer to make your website for you. That will likely be costly. The cost of hiring a professional will depend on the features of your site, how complex it is, and how long it takes them to build it.

Outsourcing options for building your small business website:

You can outsource the entire project (domain registration, hosting, building, etc.) to someone who has already been doing this for years. This way, they will charge more, but you get more value because they have already figured out what works and doesn't. They also know how to build a website with all the bells and whistles so that it performs well on search engines like Google and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
You can outsource only certain parts of the website, such as designing or coding or even just some content writing. You will get what you want without technical knowledge about how things work behind the scenes.

You can use the following sites to find freelancers to help you build your website:

Upwork (preferred)
Fiverr

Of course, you can try building your website yourself. When you get stuck, you can use a quick and easy solution like the Mighty Sites Accounting Business Website Template.

Alternatively, you could fork over the hard-earned cash to hire a freelancer to do it.

Registering A Domain Name

Estimated cost: $12/year

You will need to register a domain name for your accounting business website. This is an essential step in creating the foundation of your website.

Registering a domain name is easy and can be done through any domain registrar. Still, it's crucial that you choose a good one. Your domain name should be easy to remember and reflect the nature of your business.

If you have decided on a name for your business, it's time to register it as a domain name. Many companies offer this service, but we recommend using GoDaddy or Google Domains because they are the largest and most secure registrars.

Suggested Registrars

Hosting Your Website

If you use WordPress for your accounting business website, you will need a hosting company to host the site.

Hosting is the place where your website lives. The hosting service provider will provide you with a web space allocated to you, as well as other features required for your website to work.

The most common type of hosting service is shared hosting. With this hosting, you share resources with other websites on the same server. This means that if one site on the server gets too many visitors, it can slow down all other sites on the server at the same time. Shared hosting may not be suitable for large accounting firm websites that require fast response times from their website.

Hosting Companies for your Basic Accounting Business Website

Bluehost starting at $4.95/month
WP Engine starting at $30/month
Host Gator starting at $2.75/month
Siteground starting at $3.99/month

P.S. Hosting is included in the $9/month plan from Mighty Sites.

Miscellaneous Costs

There are other costs to consider when building and maintaining a basic website for your accounting firm.

Design Changes & Updates

You must remember that you will need to pay money for someone to make updates or design changes to your website.

There are a few options:

You can hire an employee or contractor who knows how to code and build websites, but this can be very expensive.
You can hire a freelance developer (or coding contractor), but this can also be expensive. In addition, if you have a deadline approaching and you need your website updated immediately, it may not be possible for you to find someone who is available on short notice.
You can use a web design agency instead of hiring freelancers or in-house developers. This is often more cost-effective and allows for more flexibility than hiring employees or contractors who know how to code.

Image Licenses

You may need to pay to license images for use on your accounting firm's basic website.
If you are using photos or images on your website, you may need to pay a licensing fee to use them. This is especially true if you want to use the work of professional photographers or artists.

There are many options for choosing free images for your website. Still, sometimes it's better to pay for quality images — especially if you're trying to build a brand or establish credibility with clients.

Third-Party Apps & Integrations

You may need to pay for third-party web applications on your accounting firm's basic website.

For example, you might want a blog feature or a podcast player. You can find web applications that offer these features for free, but you'll often have to pay for premium versions that allow you to customize them.

For example, some apps provide a primary blogging platform for free, but if you want more customization or integration into your website's design, you have to upgrade to the paid version.

You may also need to pay for third-party services such as Analytics and MailChimp to track your marketing efforts' effectiveness.

Don't assume your web developer or platform includes every feature in the base plan for free!

Conclusion

As you can see, the overall costs can vary widely depending on how much work you want to do yourself. Just be sure you understand the expenses to ensure they fit into your budget!

These costs might vary depending on what you want to include or exclude. Likewise, some items may be negotiable if you work with a freelancer.

The best thing to do is look at your situation and compare.

We hope this helps clarify what it will cost to develop a basic website for your accounting business.

Good luck with your project!