In 2025, having a presence on the internet for an individual or an organization is no longer an option but a necessity. Thus, developing a website showcasing the offerings, on-doings, and vision of your organization is essential, and you must do so as soon as possible. With the advancement in technology, it has become quite easier to develop a website as various options are available. One such option is Joomla CMS. Joomla is a popular CMS (content management system) that offers a robust set of features for building feature-rich websites.
Joomla has nearly 2.7% market share in the CMS development market and is considered an easy-to-use platform for building websites. If you are looking for Joomla development services, then you have landed on the right website and article.
In this article, we will explore all the aspects of the Joomla website development cost and the various factors that influence its cost. Let’s begin with the basics.
What is Joomla?
Joomla is an open-source Content Management System that is used to develop websites and online applications. It is free of cost and extendable, and it is separated into frontend and backend templates (administrator). It has been developed using PHP, OOPS concepts, software design patterns, and MySQL (for data storage).
The strength of Joomla lies in its open-source nature, supported by an active community of developers. The extensions available and customizable templates can help in adding a variety of functionalities along with aesthetic design to websites.
It often ranked as a second or third choice (behind WordPress and alongside Drupal. We appreciate Joomla for its flexibility, powerful content management capabilities, and strong multilingual support.
Joomla Costing Structure:
As we mentioned above, Joomla is open-source in nature, and that’s why it is absolutely free of cost. You are not required to pay a single penny as a licensing fee for Joomla. Thus, it unlocks the internet opportunities for budget-conscious individuals and small businesses.
Nevertheless, though the core software is free, there are certain other expenses associated with the development of functional and aesthetic-appealing design. You can leverage Joomla development services to build a fully-functioning and user-captivating Joomla website.
Average Cost to Build a Joomla Website:
As you scroll down, you will understand that there are a plethora of factors that influence the cost of Joomla website development. But just to give you an overall idea, the average cost of a small website (up to 7 unique pages) starts at $2,000 to $3,000, which includes the cost of Joomla development services as well.
There is no upper limit to Joomla website development cost as there are many stages and nuances at each of them. Let’s dive deeper.
UI/UX Design:
There is an adage, “First impression is last impression,” and it is completely true for websites as well. As per Northumbria University, 94% of the first impressions are design-related. The UI/UX designers’ work is not just limited to the visual appeal of the website but also pays attention to usability and functions. They understand the target audience and the preferences, analyze competitors, and define the end-to-end journey of a user’s interaction. They create wireframes and showcase them to the client. After getting the client’s approval, they build the final designs.
Considering the hourly rate of designers in the Southeast Asian region as $10-$15 per hour, the average custom design can lie in the range of $500-$2000.
Frontend Development:
After the design approval, the frontend developers will start working with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript to create the front end of the website so that a user can see and interact with it directly. Once the prototype is ready, the developers will start working on it and then turn it into a running website.
In India, the frontend developer hourly rate lies in the range of $25-$30 per hour. It can cost you around $2,000-$3,000.
Backend Development:
Backend developers are like the cardio surgeons who maintain the inner workings of the website. They build and maintain the mechanisms that process data and perform actions on websites.
They are responsible for data storage and processing, security, integration with third parties, and other functions that users do not see. To put it simply, they create and manage the technologies that allow the user-facing portion of the website to exist.
There are different technologies involved in the backend development, which depend on the website type, and the number of hours highly depends on the features and functionalities. If we consider the average hourly rate at $40 per hour, it can cost around $3,000-$4,000.
Admin Panel:
The admin panel manages the content and website users. A simple admin panel allows you to manage the website’s text, images, and videos on your own. Its cost is generally included in the backend development cost.
Factors Influencing Joomla Website Development Cost:
In Joomla, you can develop a wide range of websites with varied features and functionalities. There are different factors and elements that are considered in Joomla CMS Development and website development. To make it all easier for you, let’s understand each of these factors.
a. Type of Website:
Based on the purpose of the website, there are four major types of websites with significant differences in development costs. Let’s know about them:
Personal Website:
Do you want to create a website showcasing your skills or portfolio? Then, you can use a personal website that is customizable and helps you showcase your experience and skills or even tell a story of your professional life.
Landing Page:
A landing page is a standalone web page designed primarily for marketing campaigns with a single purpose or focus. It’s where the user “lands” after clicking on an ad in social media (or another channel) and is expected to take the desired action, such as installing an app, making a purchase, signing up for an event, and so on.
Corporate Website:
This type of website showcases the offerings and details of a business. It presents a company or organization and communicates what it does and how it can help visitors. The common pages of a corporate website are the homepage, About Us, products or services, FAQs, careers, Contact Us, blogs, and others.
E-commerce Website:
As the name suggests, you can buy or sell products online on the e-commerce website. Joomla lets you develop an e-commerce website by installing a plugin. It will provide all the required features and functionalities of an e-commerce site.
b. Website Development Technology:
The technology employed for building frontend, backend, admin panel, and others also influences the cost of development. On the front end, there is a wide variety of JS frameworks available, such as Angular, Vue.js, React.js, and others. The expertise of developers in these frameworks asks for extra costs.
Similarly, in the backend, there can be newer technologies such as AI, NLP, RPA, and others. There are various programming languages that can work with Joomla CMS. However, the popular one is PHP. It is a very popular programming language that gives you a large pool of developers to choose from.
All these varied technologies are possessed by developers of different levels of expertise, which may incur high costs.
Although you can hire joomla developer for your projects with octal IT Solution.
c. Website Size:
The size of the website refers to the number of pages and page templates. Apart from landing page websites, which usually consist of a single page, other types of websites are built of different numbers of pages.
d. Hosting:
Hosting is essential for a website to store and deliver the content while keeping the data safe & secure. There are four major types of hosting:
· Shared Hosting: It is a very common type of hosting that is generally suited for small websites with no critical data. It is also a very cost-effective option. If you have less than 10,000 monthly visitors, then we will recommend this hosting to go for.
· VPS Hosting: The “Virtual Private Server” hosting is slightly better than shared hosting and is suited for small and medium-sized businesses. It provides dedicated server resources, customization, and faster loading speeds.
· Dedicated Hosting: If you want your own server, then you can go for dedicated hosting. You will get higher speed and security, but it is also costlier than other options. If you are an enterprise-level company with more than 100,000 visitors, then you can go for dedicated hosting.
· Cloud Hosting: It represents a collection of distant servers, each with a unique set of duties. When one of them fails, the other takes up the responsibilities, and the website continues to function. As a result, the website has fewer downtimes and server issues. Type of web hosting to consider for medium and large businesses or pages with 50,000 or more monthly visitors.
e. Complexity:
The complexity of the website’s design and development increases the number of hours required for development, which in turn increases the cost. Implementing advanced features such as AI search, AR & VR, RPA, and other technologies-based applications will increase the development cost.
f. Location of the Development Team:
The location of the development plays a paramount role in defining the development costs. There are different hourly rates of development in different corners of the world. In North America, the hourly rate can lie in the range of $50-$80 per hour, while in Southeast Asian countries, the hourly rates are $25-$40 per hour.
That’s why we always recommend hiring a Joomla developer from Southeast Asian countries. Here, you get high-quality development at highly affordable rates.
Wrapping Up:
In this article, we have gone through all the major aspects of the Joomla website development cost. Though the platform is free of cost to use, there are certain other associated fees that you must be aware of. If you are looking for a custom mobile app development company or a website development company, then look no further than Octal IT Solutions. Let us know your requirements.