How Much Does It Cost To Maintain A Website In Singapore?
Hi! We created a handy self-help tool that you can use to get a quick estimate of the cost of maintaining a WordPress website in Singapore. Check it out here!
{This post was first written in Jun 2018 and edited in 2023.}
In my years of experience creating and maintaining websites for business owners, I realised many people are somewhat confused about the different costs involved in maintaining a website, and they sometimes underestimate them.
So I’m dedicating this post to give you a breakdown of the various costs you need to be looking at when it comes to owning and maintaining your own website in Singapore.
I hope this will be helpful especially for new business owners and entrepreneurs to have a better understanding and make smarter budgeting plans for your company website needs. Let’s dive in!
1. Domain Name
Let’s start off with the domain name. This is often the first thing you need for a website. For instance, the domain name of our website is webbuddy.sg.
The purpose of a domain name is to serve as your web address. So that when people type your domain into a browser, it points them to your website and people can surf your site and understand more about what you do.
Assuming you have in mind a domain name for your website. How do you know if it’s still available?
The quickest way is to go to GoDaddy.sg, type in the domain name of your choice and the search results will immediately tell you whether it has been taken or it is available for you to purchase!
There are various domain extensions that you can choose from: If the main target market of your business is Singapore, you can consider going for domain extensions like .sg or .com.sg.
If you are targeting the global market, I would suggest going for .com or .net.
The following are estimates of the cost of a domain name based on the extension you choose (do note that domain fees are renewable once every year):
- .com – S$20/year
- .net -S$20/year
- .com.sg – S$60/year (requires a company registration number, UEN)
- .sg – S$60/year
Once you have decided on a domain name that serves as your web address, what else do you need?
2. Hosting
The next thing you’ll need to consider is web hosting.
In order for your website to be visible to people on the web, your website must be stored on a server. That’s where web hosting services come in.
They give you access to store all your website files and content on their server so that people from any part of the world can view your website as long as they have an internet connection.
There are different types of hosting available and they can be broadly categorized into shared hosting and cloud hosting.
Shared hosting basically means that you are sharing a server with many other websites.
The advantage of this is that it dramatically reduces the monthly fees that you pay to use their servers, ranging from S$10 to S$50 a month.
The trade-off is that your website may load slower at times when the server is experiencing heavy load or traffic.
Cloud hosting is a bit more costly, ranging from US$12 to US$100+ a month.
If you require a fast website in order to achieve a good ranking on Google and other search engines, then we would definitely recommend choosing cloud hosting.
If you’re looking for a reliable cloud hosting company, Cloudways is our recommended choice because we have been using their services for the past few years and we find their server fast and they offer good and reliable support. Our clients who are using Cloudways hosting all find their websites loading faster than shared hosting.
If you’re going with Cloudways, their basic hosting package starts from US$14 per month.
Now that we have the hardware taken care of, let’s move on to the software!
3. Website Software & Plugins
Now honestly this is a huge topic in itself but I will do my best to simplify things and help you to take away the most important concept – here we go!
Many years ago, building a website was only possible for people who have knowledge in programming languages such as HTML, CSS, Javascript or PHP (especially if you need to build a website with membership features).
Then came along the second generation of website editors like Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage that allowed people to create websites without having to rely heavily on programming but there were still many limitations as it wasn’t possible to add a forum to a website easily using these editors.
Then since 2008, technological advancements have seen Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress and others gaining wide popularity. With CMS platforms, you can now create a professional website without having to learn any coding!
WordPress is the most popular CMS in the marketplace (powering over 40% of the internet websites) and one of the main advantages is that it is free to use; there are no recurring fees to pay month after month. We will use WordPress as the reference in this article.
Most hosting providers also support WordPress, which means you can easily install WordPress on your hosting in a few clicks, free of charge, once you sign up for your web hosting package.
What I like most about WordPress is its extensibility.
Today you can be having a basic informational WordPress website. But you can choose to build in advanced functionalities like shopping carts, business directories, appointment booking systems or social media platforms onto your existing website anytime by installing what we call plugins.
There is no need to tear down what you have created earlier and rebuild from scratch.
WordPress plugins offer you the convenience and flexibility to adapt to your evolving needs as your business grows over time. There are many plugins out there that you can choose from and you will be able to find some great ones that are even free to use!
The downside of WordPress is that due to its popularity, it is very vulnerable to hacking. So it is extremely important that you keep your WordPress website updated whenever there is a new patch released by WordPress so as to minimise security vulnerabilities.
While WordPress itself is free to use, you just have to be mindful of some costs that may be incurred depending on specific plugins and themes (which are design templates that control how your website looks) that you choose to use.
Most of them are free, but some require you to pay an annual license fee in order to use them.
It all depends on your preferences. If you do choose to use paid themes or plugins, then just remember to allocate additional budget for it.
Always check with your web designer if he/she is using any themes or plugins that require you to pay any annual fees. This is important so that you are aware of the costs before you give the green light for them to use it for your website.
When using WordPress, most likely you will be using some specific theme as the main layout of your website. Most of the basic themes are free in the official WordPress directory. However, it is more common to use paid themes for most businesses because they look more professional.
A paid theme can cost about USD$89 per year (for example, the Divi theme). So make sure you factor the theme license into your budget.
Another cost to factor in is the plugin licenses. While most plugins are free, there may be cases where you require the full features of a particular plugin. Then in such a case, you will need to pay for the advanced version of the plugin.
Take for example, if you require all the features of WP Form plugin (a plugin for contact form), then you will need to pay USD$99 per year for the license. Fortunately in WordPress, there are many free alternatives plugins available. If you have the time to do some searching and trial, you will find that the Contact Form 7 plugin is free for all features that WP form can provide.
Having said that, it is better to allocate about USD$50 to USD$200 per year for plugin licenses.
Just a note about theme and plugin licenses, you may not need to renew the license every year. The reason is that in most cases, you may not need to regularly update your theme and plugins (especially theme) unless there are security vulnerabilities.
Even if the theme and plugin license expires, you can still continue to use the theme and plugin in your website, just that you do not have the latest version and also, there is no support once your license lapses.
4. Upkeeping of the website
Just as a car needs regular servicing and maintenance to keep it running smoothly every day, your website needs routine care to make sure it is kept safe and healthy too!
Imagine what it’s like to have your car break down on you one day. The same goes for your website.
There needs to be regular, proactive intervention in order to prevent website downtime problems that cause damages and losses to your business.
To give you a rough idea, website maintenance work includes updating your website content (so that it stays relevant to your business) and making sure your website software is kept up to date periodically (especially for WordPress), which could potentially cause your website to crash if it is overlooked.
It is also crucial to make sure your website assets are backed up properly so you won’t have to worry about losing important data, as well as looking into other critical security aspects such as regular scanning for malware and safeguarding your website from hackers.
If you are technology savvy and are capable of managing the website maintenance work on your own, that’s great!
But for many business owners, time can be a huge challenge. Or you may prefer to spend your time on other priorities of your business rather than on patching or updating your website. In that case, you will need to consider ongoing website maintenance services.
If your website was created by a web designer, he/she may be able to help you to maintain your website for a fee. Do check with your web designer on the services covered in their web maintenance package which should include:
- Helping you to update your website content
- Doing offsite backups for your site every day (never save the backup on the same server as your hosting!)
- Scanning for malware every day
- Strengthening your website security to prevent spam and hacking
- And basically help you with any website issues that you might have!
Web maintenance packages in Singapore typically starts from S$50 to S$1000+ a month depending on the maintenance scope.
Here at WebBuddy.sg, we make our website care packages affordable for small businesses and entrepreneurs, starting from S$45 per month. You can find out more about our WordPress maintenance plans here.
There you have it!
I hope this post has been useful and if you have any questions, feel free to contact us if you need our assistance!
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If operating website and make earning, do we need to submit income tax for government in Singapore? Need to register a company name for this ?
Hi Kai,
You will need to report the income in Singapore. It is better to register a company name for your business online too but not compulsory. Hope this helps.
If open a affiliate website, do we need to declare affiliate link in our blog post?
Hi cksheng,
Yes, you would need to declare that is your affiliate link. Hope this clarifies.