How Much Does a Website Cost? What Changes the Price

Ask five agencies what a website costs and you'll get five very different numbers. That isn't always because someone is overcharging. "A website" can mean a five-page brochure site or a customer portal with logins and payments, and the work involved is completely different.

Rather than quote a range that would be wrong for most people, this guide explains what actually moves the price, so you can read quotes with a clearer eye.

The things that change the price most

How many different kinds of page there are

The number of pages matters less than the number of page types. Twenty service pages built from one template are much less work than five pages that each have a unique layout. When you count your pages, group them: home, service, about, contact, blog list, blog post, and so on.

Custom design or a template

A good template is quick and affordable. A custom design takes longer because someone has to work out the layouts, test them and design each state (mobile, tablet, desktop, empty forms, error messages). It's worth paying for when your brand, or how people use the site, really matters to the business.

Who writes the content

Content is the most underestimated part of a website. If your text, photos and product details are ready, the build moves quickly. If someone needs to write the copy, organise the information or arrange a photo shoot, that's real work, and projects without ready content are the ones that run late.

Features beyond pages

Each of these adds noticeable work:

online booking or appointments
payments, subscriptions or a shop
customer accounts and dashboards
search and filters across many items
multiple languages

Connections to other systems

Linking the website to your CRM, accounting software, inventory or a booking platform means working with someone else's API, its limits and its quirks. One simple integration is usually fine; several can be a project in themselves.

How editable it needs to be

A site where you can edit every page through a content manager takes longer to build than one where the developer makes changes. It usually pays off within months, because you're not paying for every small update. We explain the options in what a headless CMS is.

The running costs people forget

The build is a one-time cost. These come back every month or year:

Domain name: a small yearly fee.
Hosting: from very little for a simple pre-built site to more for a busy shop or web app.
Email: business email on your domain is usually a separate subscription.
Paid tools: some CMS plans, booking tools, form services or plugins charge monthly.
Maintenance: updates, backups, security fixes and small changes. Our maintenance checklist lists what this covers.

When comparing quotes, ask for these to be listed separately. A cheap build on an expensive set of subscriptions can cost more over three years than a dearer build that's cheap to run.

How to compare two quotes fairly

Put the quotes side by side and check whether they include the same things:

Number of page types and pages, and whether design is custom or template-based.
Content: who writes it, who sources images, and how many rounds of edits are included.
Features: listed one by one, not just "contact form and more".
SEO basics: page titles and descriptions, a sitemap, redirects from your old site's URLs.
Speed and mobile testing: whether they test on real phones and measure page speed.
Ownership: whether the code, domain and hosting accounts will be in your name.
What happens after launch: a support period, and the cost of changes after that.

If one quote is far lower, it usually leaves several of these out. That might be fine for you, but it's better to know.

How to keep the cost down without cutting corners

Have your content ready, or at least planned, before the build starts.
Launch with what you need now. Booking, a blog or a second language can come later.
Use a template for simpler pages and save custom design for the pages that sell.
Reuse page types. Ten services can share one well-designed layout.
Choose tools you won't outgrow quickly, so you're not rebuilding in a year.

Getting a quote you can trust

A trustworthy quote follows a conversation about what the site needs to do, not a fixed price list. When we quote, we break it down by page types, features and integrations, and list the running costs separately, so you can see where the money goes.

If you're at the stage of choosing who to work with, these questions to ask a web development company will help. Or tell us about your project and we'll tell you what's involved; here's how we approach web development.