Total estimated annual cost of owning a website

I don't have a website and looking to get one set up next month.  Any of you who have a website can tell me what is the estimated total annual cost of owning one?  

thank you

This is going to be a huge range.  Peanuts if it is a DIY site.

Kelly

Hi Cory,

I'm owning several websites, it all depends on the data storage.

You can start for $200 for a basic website per year. (Domain registration & hosting)

Cheers,
Robert

And you only rent your domain name with dues each year

It also depends on what you are using the website for. Will you be showcasing your work in order to obtain new clients or will you also be selling photographs, etc on the site? 

The canned sites you can pick up for under $40 bucks a year, while if you get your own.  Something like a Wordpress site, Godaddy hosting, you might have hosting that will cost you let's say $8.00 per month.  Domain cost is only $14.95 (for a .com).  If you want to get some of the other extensions, they can run more.  Then unless you know coding you will have to pay a programmer and designer to put your page together for you.  Might  need to have a monthly retainer for upcoming work too.  

Hope this helps.  

Depends really is this site for business, or pleasure? Are you just looking for a hosting site that all you have to do is load them? Or are you wanting to build your own site? The costs vary widely. All photo hosting sites have tiers that cost more the higher you go.

About 10-12 years ago, I paid $2000 to a website designer to set up my initial website.  Although I was pleased with the website, the downside was that every time I wanted to add new images, I had to go thru my webmaster which was an additional cost.  I then opted to design my own site using software from my webmaster.  It was extremely tedious where I had to decide the pixel size of thumbnail images, the number of columns and rows, etc.  Fortunately, the evolution of image websites with many format options had rapidly occurred.  So, when I decided to expand my website, I was able to select from several new companies including Zenfolio (which I ultimately chose and have been very satisfied with), SmugMug, Shutterfly's subsidiary (I think the name was Storefront) and a fourth one that I can't remember the name.  Each of these companies offers several levels of membership ranging from basic (just posting images) to posting images with complete order fulfillment.  I pay $140 a year (it's a bit more now for a Business Level website).  Each of these companies has a fulfillment partner and each company offers many site format options.  Most offer free 30 and/or 60 day trials.  Also, you can use another company for registering your domain name for ~$10-$13 each year.  Doing this means that your website domain name doesn't have to include the website hosting company's name.  Zenfolio even provides instructions facilitating this.  So, checkout two or three image website companies, i. e., what they offer, ease of use, fees (including whether or not they allow you to set the prices on your images to your customers), formats, maximum image sizes, etc.