The most common question we get is some version of "how much for a website?" It is a completely reasonable question and it is nearly impossible to answer cold, in the same way "how much for a building?" is impossible to answer without knowing whether you mean a kiosk or a school.
What we can do is explain what actually moves the number, so you can read any proposal, ours included, and tell what you are paying for.
The four things that drive the price
1. How many distinct pages there are
Not how many pages exist, how many different kinds exist. Twenty pages that share one layout is a small job. Five pages that each need their own design is a bigger one. This is why studios quote in page counts, and it is a reasonable proxy as long as everyone understands what is being counted.
2. Whether anything has to be dynamic
A site that shows the same content to everyone is fundamentally simple. The cost rises sharply the moment it has to do something:
- Accept payments
- Have user accounts and logins
- Show different content to different people
- Connect to a system you already use
- Let non-technical staff publish new content themselves
Each of those is a genuine step up in cost, and each is worth refusing until you actually need it.
3. Who writes the content
This is the hidden one. Most projects that run late run late because the copy and photos never arrive. If you supply finished text and images, you are paying for a build. If the studio has to write your copy and source your images, you are paying for a build plus editorial work, and it is usually the larger half.
Neither is wrong. But a quote that assumes you will deliver the content, compared against a quote that includes writing it, is not a like-for-like comparison, and the cheaper one may be the more expensive one.
4. What happens after launch
Ask specifically. A price that ends at launch day and a price that includes a year of hosting, domain management, SSL, and a support window are different products. Support is where a lot of the real long-term value sits, and it is also where a lot of quotes go quiet.
The comparison trap
Two quotes are only comparable when they cover the same page count, the same dynamic features, the same content responsibility, and the same post-launch period. Line those four up before comparing numbers. Most of the time the "expensive" quote turns out to include things the cheap one silently left out.
What is worth paying for
Some things look like line items you could cut, and cutting them costs you more later:
- Owning your domain and hosting accounts. Non-negotiable. If your developer holds these, leaving them becomes a hostage negotiation. Register in your own name, with your own email.
- Performance work. A slow site is a site fewer people see. This is not decoration, it is whether the thing functions for your audience.
- Basic search-engine fundamentals. Unique titles, real descriptions, sane heading structure. This is a few hours of work at build time and expensive to retrofit across a finished site.
- Mobile-first construction. Not "it works on mobile", designed for mobile first. Most of your visitors are on a phone.
- A real handover. Documentation, logins, and a walkthrough. You are buying an asset, so make sure you receive it.
What usually is not
- A custom CMS when you publish twice a year. Pay someone a small fee per update instead.
- Heavy animation. It costs money, slows the page, and rarely changes anyone's decision.
- A rebrand bundled into a web project. Sometimes needed, but it should be priced separately so you can see what you are agreeing to.
- Stock photography packages. Real photos of your actual work beat stock every time, and cost nothing.
- A retainer with no defined scope. If you cannot say what a monthly fee buys, you are not buying anything.
Five questions that expose a padded proposal
- Who owns the domain and hosting account when this is finished? Any answer other than "you do" is a problem.
- What exactly happens if we want to move to another developer? A confident studio answers this easily.
- What does it cost to change a page next year? If they cannot say, the number will be whatever they want it to be later.
- Which parts of this could we drop, and what would we lose? An honest partner will tell you. A padded quote gets defensive here.
- Who is writing the content? Get this in writing. It is the single most common cause of a project stalling.
How we price it
We publish our package prices openly on the services page rather than making you request a quote to find out, because we think "contact us for pricing" mostly exists to work out how much you can afford.
Our three packages are structured around page count and complexity, each includes hosting setup and a post-launch support window, and maintenance afterwards is charged per update rather than as an open-ended monthly retainer. Registered nonprofits qualify for a discount, which is stated publicly rather than negotiated case by case.
You may find cheaper. You will certainly find more expensive. What we would encourage, whoever you go with, is to line up the four cost drivers above and compare like with like before you decide.