Website Cost Calculator: What a Website Really Costs Over 3 Years
This calculator estimates the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a business website across three years — not just the launch price. Most owners budget for the build and then discover that renewals, licences and their own maintenance time cost more than the site did. The formula is:
```
3-Year TCO = Domain + Hosting/Platform + Build & Theme + Plugins & Licences + (Maintenance Hours × Your Hourly Rate × 36)
```
What each input means. Domain is the annual registration fee for your name. Hosting/Platform is the monthly server or site-builder plan. Build & Theme covers one-time design costs: a premium template or a freelancer's build fee. Plugins & Licences are the recurring app, form, backup and security subscriptions most sites quietly accumulate. Maintenance is the time spent on updates, edits and fixes, valued at your own hourly rate — ignoring it is the most common budgeting error our editorial analysis sees.
Worked example: DIY builder vs. freelancer build, 3 years.
| Cost item | DIY website builder | Freelancer build |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Domain ($15/yr × 3) | $45 | $45 |
| Hosting / platform | $23/mo × 36 = $828 | $25/mo × 36 = $900 |
| Build fee / template | $59 one-time | $2,500 one-time |
| Plugins & licences | $12/mo × 36 = $432 | $240/yr × 3 = $720 |
| Maintenance time @ $30/hr | 2 hrs/mo = $2,160 | 0.5 hrs/mo = $540 |
| 3-year total | $3,524 | $4,705 |
The freelancer route costs $1,181 more over three years, but consumes 54 fewer hours of the owner's time. Which option wins depends entirely on what an hour of your time is worth.
Limitations — when not to rely on this. The calculator uses flat monthly figures; it cannot model traffic-based hosting overages, e-commerce transaction fees, redesigns, or migration costs when you outgrow a builder. Treat the output as a planning floor, not a quote.
> [!TIP]
> Re-run the estimate with your maintenance time valued at the rate you would pay a contractor, not $0. Owner time is the line item that reverses the DIY-versus-freelancer answer most often.