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Planning for the costs and management of your website is essential, but it doesn’t have to be expensive, overwhelming, difficult, or time-consuming. You can start a website that includes everything you need, managed in one place, for a very small investment.
Here are 4 important facts to keep in mind before you build a website:
- Time is money, friend.
- Free platforms are limiting.
- WordPress gives you the most control and longevity.
- Great support saves precious time and money.
You’ve got big dreams, and worrying about what a website costs, shouldn’t be the reason you are holding back from starting a website and sharing your brilliance with the world.
4 Small Business Website Cost Considerations
Instead of dissecting and comparing costs across the web, let’s instead look at the 4 key considerations that factor into the real cost of starting (and maintaining) a small business website.
1. Time is Money, Friend
World of Warcraft references aside, this is a popular saying for a reason. It’s true. And in the real world, it’s even more important to keep in mind.
If you’re like most of our small business customers, you’re strapped for time and juggling a lot of responsibilities and obligations, and you know that time is the real killer when it comes to website costs.
Think about all the time it takes to:
- Research all the platforms, tools, and website design templates available and which are the best fit for you
- Actually build your website, write the copy, and design it to match your brand
- Manage your website and all it’s associated components
We totally get it! Your time is valuable, and getting started can be scary when you don’t have a lot to invest. In our years working with small businesses (and from our own experiences) we saw first hand the problems facing start ups, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and website owners, so we set out to find a better way to help people get online quickly, easily, and affordably.
You need a website that supports your goals, doesn’t break the bank, and saves you precious time (before, during, and after it’s built).

New to website building?
Let’s Simplify the Website Building Process
If you’re like most people, when you decided to DIY your website, you dove head-first into the technical details. The problem is creating your dream website doesn’t start with a template or technology. It starts with proper planning. Get started planning an amazing website with this free webinar!
Website Planning:
Practical Steps for
Planning a Website
Free Webinar
2. Free Platforms Are Limiting

Starting on a free platform, like WordPress.com, Blogger, or Medium, may seem like a good idea, but please don’t. They options are great for personal, journal style blogs and musings, but if you are serious about your small business, they are not for you.
Free platforms are limiting, look unprofessional, and in the long-run create more work for you when you end up needing more control and are forced to switch platforms to get it.
You can build a beautiful, professional website to showcase your personal brand or business with a small budget, and I’ll explain how in a moment.
3. WordPress Gives You the Most Control & Longevity

WordPress.org provides you the most flexibility and room to grow.
Often referred to as “the real WordPress”, WordPress.org is an open-source, self-hosted content management system. It is also free, though it’s not normally thought of that way because you are responsible for obtaining your own website hosting and domain.
It also powers 40% of all sites across the web and is highly flexible and easy to use. We love it because it puts bloggers and website owners in control of their content. You can choose your own domain name, have tons of theme options, and you can monetize it more easily because you are not subject to the restrictions or limitations typical of website builders.
We consider ourselves WordPress experts, with the know how to build and maintain high-traffic websites. All of our website templates are powered by the real WordPress and our Mai Engine Plugin. (Yup, you can update your theme with the click of a button.)
4. Great Support Saves Precious Time & Money

Don’t underestimate the power of great support! Other providers or developers may charge for more than basic support.
Or, if you piece together your software and tools from multiple providers, you then have to worry about juggling multiple support channels or a lack of real understanding of how everything works together.
The Mai ecosystem makes these problems a thing of the past. Everything we build works together seamlessly because it was built to do just that. We understand the full-stack of web development: web servers, network security, information technology, web design, mysql, html5, and user experience. Web technologies are constantly changing, and our team stays current to ensure your WordPress website performs for you.
Plus, with Mai Theme, not only do you get expert, fast support from our team of developers and designers when you need it, you also get access to our blogging community where you can interact with us, as well as your peers and fellow business owners. It’s a great place to ask questions, get feedback, share successes, and learn from what’s working for others.
Now that we’ve touched on these important cost-related considerations, it’s time to look at how you can get started with Mai.
Mai Theme + Mai Design Pack Bundle
This is the perfect option for DIY-ers—especially those with a small business. It’s quick and easy to make your website look like the demo (starter site) of your choosing in seconds with the Mai Theme Setup Wizard. Check out this video to see how:
Mai Theme provides a powerful, flexible, customizable foundation that delivers the features and options you need—even those you don’t know you need yet!
By bundling Mai Theme with Mai Design Pack, not only do you save $50, but you also get access to all the pro features you need to take your site to the next level, like premium WordPress plugins that allow you to add:
- testimonials
- notices – custom callout notices to draw attention to anything you want)
- icons – over 7000 choices, customize color, size, space, and more)
- favorites/recommendations
- table of contents
- FAQs & other expandable/collapsable content
- archive pages – build robust, SEO friendly archive pages
- custom content areas for global & condition-based CTAs, and more
This bundle is also a great option for web developers and designers, because you get all this, plus all Mai website templates and starter sites, and can use the templates for unlimited sites on any WordPress hosting platform. Everything works seamlessly together, meaning you can trust Mai to give you a solid foundation for all your custom web development projects.
Mai Solution
One of the biggest pitfalls for new small businesses is the technology and website maintenance.
Configuring all the software you need to run your website peak performance is complicated, and if you don’t do it right it could affect your website’s user experience, SEO, speed, and more.
Deciding on the best plugins and hosting plan is overwhelming when there are so many choices, and once you do, you need to monitor and manage those components as well.
All of this becomes an even bigger challenge when you are juggling multiple accounts and multiple fees.
If you’d rather skip these headaches, and leave it to the experts, then Mai Solution is your best option.
Mai Solution gets you up and running without technical time-sucks and frustrating hidden fees because our BizBudding team handles everything for you.
“We support small businesses with their content and marketing. A constant issue our clients face relates to website struggles. We’re so pleased to be able to point them to Mai Solution. It resolves a set of common issues small businesses face when it comes to their sites. Mai has made the web a fun place to be again!”

Mai Solution includes:
- Super-fast hosting that is both secure and professionally backed-up
- All Mai Theme website templates and starter sites that empower you to customize everything on your site down to the tiniest of details
- The Mai Design Pack, which gives you access to all of our premium plugins and copy+paste block pattern library
- Managed hosting so all WordPress and plugin updates are taken care of for you
What About My Domain, DNS, & SSL Certificate?
We do not provide free domain names, but you can buy a domain name at cost through us. That means you pay only $8.03 per year for a .COM domain name when you purchase Mai Solution!
Plus, with Mai Solution we will also set up and configure DNS and your domain name for you (in addition to WordPress, Mai Theme, and plugins).
We manage DNS through Cloudflare, authoritative DNS that boasts the fastest performance of any managed DNS provider.
Mai Solution also includes WordPress web hosting and a free SSL certificate for every site we host.
If yours is an ecommerce site, then we’ll also install and set up WooCommerce, so you can start selling from your new website right away.
Get Your Small Business Website Launched Today
Starting a small business website is inexpensive, low maintenance, quick, and easy with Mai Theme, the Mai Design Pack bundle, or Mai Solution.
- No code or programming required.
- No need to hire expensive consultants, designers and developers.
- No hours wasted figuring out what you need or where to start.
All you have to worry about is planning and creating your content. (We are sharing a free webinar on this topic soon. Join our email list to make sure you get notified when it’s ready.)
Pick the path below that is best for you to get started today.
Three Ways to Start a Website with Mai Theme
Choose from Mai Theme, the Mai Design Pack Bundle, and Mai Solution. If all you need is a theme or website template, Mai Theme is the best option for you. The other options include everything you get with Mai Theme, plus additional features and/or services.
Mai Theme
$99/year
All website templates
All starter sites with sample content
Mai Theme Setup Wizard
Expert support
Mai Community access
Best Deal for DIYers
Mai Design Pack Bundle
$128/year
Save $50 when bundled
All website templates
All starter sites with sample content
All Mai premium plugins
Mai Pattern Library (copy+paste block patterns)
Mai Theme Setup Wizard
Expert support
Mai Community access
Best for New Bloggers
Mai Solution
$14/month
All website templates
All starter sites with sample content
All Mai premium plugins
Mai Pattern Library (copy+paste block patterns)
Mai Theme Setup Wizard
Expert support
Mai Community access
Managed hosting, software, and DNS
Hassle-free setup