+ Hi, how much does a website cost?
– What kind of website do you need?
+ Just a normal one, you know.
As an agency founder I have this conversation often. It's impossible to answer with one number, because the word “website” can mean a one-page business card, an online store with thousands of products or a platform with personal accounts.
I won't give specific figures in this post: the price changes with the market, the team and, above all, the project itself. But if you know what sets the price, you'll be able to compare the quotes you get properly.
1. The type and purpose of the site
The first question should be “what for”, not “how much”. Is the site's job to bring calls, take orders or make the brand known?
- A landing page — one product, one goal, one page.
- A corporate site — the company, its services, projects, contacts.
- An online store — catalogue, cart, payments, order management.
- A platform — user sign-up, personal accounts, complex business logic.
Each step up means many times more work than the one before.
2. Design: a ready-made template or custom
A ready-made template is fast and cheap, but it looks like hundreds of other sites and doesn't fully fit your brand. A custom design builds the user's path around your business: what they see first, where they decide, which button they press. The difference isn't only in looks, it's in results.
3. Features and integrations
Online payments, a delivery service, a CRM, warehouse software, SMS notifications, a map, multiple languages, personal accounts… Every item on that list is a small project of its own: you have to talk to another system, handle errors and test it. The biggest difference between quotes often comes from right here.
4. Content
Who will write the texts? Who will take the photos? Who will fill in hundreds of product cards? Content is often the part of a project that runs late the most. If that work is handed to the team too, it's added to the price, and that's normal.
5. A ready-made system or custom development
Ready-made content management systems like WordPress give you a fast start, but they also bring plugin dependence, updates and security worries. I wrote about this in detail in “Hack protection”. A custom solution on a framework like Laravel takes more time, but it fits your business exactly and stays under control. The right choice depends on how the site will grow.
6. SEO and speed from the start
Building the site and thinking about SEO afterwards is like building a house and thinking about the foundation afterwards. The right structure, speed, mobile friendliness and a technical base for search engines are cheap when they're built in from the start and expensive when they're fixed later.
7. After launch: hosting, support, security
A site doesn't end at launch. Hosting, the domain, an SSL certificate, backups, updates, small fixes — these are either included in the price or a separate cost. Make sure you check whether the quote says so.
A brief to get an accurate quote
The clearer you write, the more accurate and comparable the quotes will be. Put this in your brief:
- The site's purpose and target audience.
- 2–3 sites you like, and what you like about them.
- A list of pages.
- The features and integrations you need.
- Who will prepare the content.
- The deadline.
- The budget range.
Don't hide the budget. If you give a range, the team can offer you the smartest solution that fits it.
What to watch for in a cheap offer
- No contract — that's the first warning sign.
- Whose name are the domain and hosting in? They should always be in yours.
- Who holds the code and the admin access? You own the site, so the access should be yours too.
- Is there support after launch? Who will you call when an error comes up?
- Is the portfolio made of real sites? Follow the links, open the sites yourself, check their speed and how they look on a phone.
The bottom line
The cheapest website is often bought twice: once cheap, then once right. When you compare quotes, look at what's behind the number, not at the number itself.
If you have a specific project, get in touch and we'll estimate it together. If the idea isn't fully formed yet, let's write the brief together in mentorship.
