A cheap website costs a lot: what hides behind a 3 million VND price tag

There are plenty of “website for 3 million VND in a week” offers on the market. For a simple task it can be a reasonable option. In other cases it is the launch price, not the cost of ownership, and the difference shows up within six months to a year.

Three ways to build a website

Website builder. Fast and cheap at the start. Then a monthly subscription, limited speed, a template look, and lock-in to the platform. Moving the website elsewhere is usually not possible.

WordPress with a template and plugins. The most common option in Vietnam. Flexible, with many ready-made solutions. At the same time, every plugin adds weight, a potential vulnerability, and often a paid subscription. A website running 20–30 plugins loads slowly and needs constant updates.

Pure code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). More expensive at the start, because every screen is made by hand. The website loads fast, does not depend on plugins, needs no security updates, and can be moved to any hosting. This is how we build our own websites and most client websites.

Hidden costs of a cheap website

• Paid plugins and subscriptions. A free template often needs 3–5 paid extensions to work properly.
• A rebuild after a year. A slow template website brings no enquiries, so it gets made again. Paid twice.
• Invisibility to Google and AI. A website with no structured data, low speed and weak semantics barely appears in search results or in ChatGPT and Gemini answers.
• Dependence on the contractor. If the domain and hosting are registered to the contractor, the website does not belong to you.

Seven questions to ask a contractor before signing

1. What will the website be built on, and why?
2. What mobile PageSpeed score do you guarantee?
3. Who will the domain and hosting be registered to?
4. What is included in the price, and what is paid separately?
5. Will there be structured data and multilingual markup?
6. How much does support after handover cost, and what does it include?
7. Can I see live websites you have built and check their speed?

When a landing page is enough

One service, one offer, one audience: a landing page for 5–8 million VND will do. Several business lines, different customers, language versions, articles for search: you need a multi-page website. Overpaying for structure you do not need, and saving on a website that does not work, cost the same in the end.

The cost of a website makes sense over a three-year horizon, including support and rebuilds. If you want to calculate that for your case, write to us.