Cheap is Expensive: Hidden Costs of "Low Cost" Websites

We’ve all seen those ads on Facebook or in spam emails: “Your complete professional website for 299€”. Or even “do it yourself for free”.

When starting a business, the budget is limited and the temptation is strong. But in web development, as in construction or mechanics, you get what you pay for. What you save on the initial bill, you end up paying with interest later on.

Let’s analyze the hidden costs of a cheap website.

1. The “Frankenstein” Template Trap

For 300€, no one is going to design and program a website for you. What they will do is take a prefabricated 50€ template, change the logo, and paste your texts. The problem is that those “multi-purpose” templates load thousands of lines of useless code to be able to serve equally a pizzeria or a dentist. Result: a slow, heavy, and generic website that Google hates.

2. Eternal Micropayments

The business model of these offers is usually the “bait”. They charge you little for the website, but tie you down with recurring services:

• Inflated Hosting: They charge you 20€/month for hosting that is worth 5€.
• Mandatory Maintenance: If you stop paying, the website “breaks” or disappears.
• Premium Plugins: “Oh, you want the form to work? You need the Pro version (+50€/year)“.

3. The Opportunity Cost (The most expensive one)

This is the cost you don’t see on the bill, but the one that damages your business the most.

If your website takes 5 seconds to load, you will lose 50% of visits. If your website doesn’t convey trust because the design is broken on mobile, you will lose potential customers.

How much money do you lose every month from customers who enter your website and leave without contacting? It is focused much more than it would cost you to make a professional website.

Investment vs Expense

• A cheap website is an EXPENSE: It is money you throw away on something that gives you no return and gives you problems.
• A professional website is an INVESTMENT: It is an asset that works 24/7 to bring you customers and pays for itself with the sales it generates.

If you plan to be in business for the long term, build your house on your own solid foundations, not on sand.