Ask five agencies what a website costs and you will get five different numbers, all of them defensible. That is not because anyone is lying. It is because the word "website" covers a five-page brochure and a twenty-page site with a booking engine, and nobody agrees on what belongs in the quote.
This is our attempt to make the number make sense. It is the same breakdown we use internally when we scope a build, and it should let you read any quote you receive and work out what is actually in it.
The four things that actually move the price
Almost every quote you receive is driven by four variables. Everything else is detail.
1. How many unique page layouts you need
Not how many pages - how many different layouts. A site with forty service pages that all share one template costs less than a site with eight pages that each look different. When you brief an agency, count layouts, not URLs. It is the single fastest way to make quotes comparable.
2. Whether the content exists
Design is fast when the words are written. When they are not, someone has to write them, and that someone is usually billed. Sites stall in the content phase more often than the build phase. If you can supply final copy, say so in the brief - it genuinely lowers the number.
3. What has to connect to what
A contact form is cheap. A booking system that checks live availability, takes a deposit, writes to your calendar and triggers a reminder sequence is not. Integrations are where quotes diverge most, because each one carries its own testing and failure handling.
4. Who owns it afterwards
A site built so your team can edit it costs more upfront than one only the agency can change. It costs dramatically less over three years. This is the trade-off most quotes never spell out.
What you get at each budget level
Rough bands, based on what we see across the market rather than what any one agency charges.
Under $1,000
A template, lightly customised. Fine for validating an idea or holding a domain. You will be working inside someone else's design decisions, and the page speed will be whatever the template gives you. Realistic, not shameful - many businesses should start here.
$1,000 - $3,000
A small custom site, typically four to seven pages, built on a proper CMS with basic on-page SEO and a working contact form. This is the level where the site starts being an asset rather than a placeholder. Most local service businesses live here comfortably.
$3,000 - $8,000
Custom design across multiple layouts, technical SEO built in from the start, analytics and conversion tracking configured properly, and a CMS your team is trained on. Usually includes some content work. This is where a website starts paying for itself through search.
$8,000 and up
Bespoke functionality: e-commerce, booking, member areas, API integrations, multi-location structures. At this level the build is a software project and should be scoped like one, with a written specification you sign off before anyone opens a design tool.
The most expensive website is the cheap one you replace in fourteen months.
The costs that are usually missing from the quote
These are not sneaky - they are simply outside the build. But they are real, and knowing them stops the second invoice being a surprise.
- Hosting - anywhere from $5 to $60 a month depending on traffic and whether you need staging.
- Domain and SSL - usually $15 to $40 a year, and SSL is often free.
- Premium plugins or licences - page builders, form handlers, booking tools. Annual, and they renew.
- Photography - the single biggest visual difference between a site that looks expensive and one that does not.
- Maintenance - updates, backups and security. Skipping this is how sites get hacked.
- Traffic - a website does not bring visitors on its own. Budget for SEO or paid campaigns separately.
Fixed price or hourly?
We quote fixed scope, and we think you should insist on it for a website build. Hourly billing transfers all the estimation risk to you: if the agency is slow, you pay for it. Fixed scope forces the uncomfortable conversation about what is included to happen before the work starts, which is exactly when it should happen.
The trade is that fixed scope needs a defined scope. If your requirements are genuinely unknown, a short paid discovery phase - written specification, wireframes, a real number at the end - is more honest than a fixed quote based on guesses.
Questions worth asking before you sign
- Who owns the code, hosting and domain when we are done? The answer should be "you", without hesitation.
- What happens if we want to change something after launch? Ask for the hourly rate now, not later.
- Is conversion tracking part of the build or an extra? A site with no tracking cannot be improved.
- How many rounds of revisions are included? Vague answers here become invoices later.
- What is explicitly not included? The best agencies answer this quickly and in writing.
Why two quotes for "the same site" differ by 3x
This is the question we get asked most, usually with two PDFs open side by side. The gap is almost never margin. It is scope, and it hides in five places.
Design: template, customised template, or original
A theme configured to your colours is a day of work. An original design across six layouts, with mobile treatments drawn rather than inferred, is two to three weeks. Both are legitimately "custom design" in a proposal. They are not the same product.
Content: who writes it
The cheaper quote usually assumes you supply final copy for every page. The expensive one includes a writer. If you have never written a services page, budget for the second, because sites stall here more than anywhere else - we have watched a build sit finished for four months waiting on eleven paragraphs.
SEO: shipped-with or bolted-on
Technical SEO built into the spec - URL structure, heading hierarchy, schema, internal linking, speed budgets - costs more upfront and far less later. A site that ignores it needs the same work retrofitted within a year, usually by someone else, at a higher price.
Tracking: included or an extra
Analytics, conversion goals, call tracking and a dashboard are a day or two of setup. Without them you have no way to know whether the site works. Surprisingly often, this is simply absent from the cheaper quote.
Revisions and support: bounded or open
"Unlimited revisions" is either a fiction or priced in. Two rounds with a defined feedback window is a real commitment. Read this line carefully - it is where fixed-price projects turn into arguments.
Rebuilding versus improving what you have
Before you buy a new site, it is worth checking whether you need one. We are often able to tell inside an hour, and roughly a quarter of the time the honest answer is "keep this and fix four things".
Improve the existing site when: the structure is sound but pages are slow; the design is dated but the content converts; you rank well and a rebuild would risk that; the problem is really tracking or traffic rather than the site.
Rebuild when: you cannot edit it without a developer; it is not properly responsive; the platform is unsupported or insecure; the URL structure is a mess that cannot be fixed incrementally; or your business has changed enough that the information architecture no longer describes what you sell.
A rebuild also resets things you may not want reset. Existing rankings depend on URLs, internal links and page-level history. Migrated carelessly, a new site can lose a year of search progress in a week. Any quote for a rebuild of a ranking site should mention redirects without being asked.
Payment structures you should expect
- Deposit then balance - typically 40-50 per cent to start, remainder on launch. Standard, and reasonable for both sides.
- Milestone payments - split across discovery, design sign-off, build and launch. Better for larger projects because it forces checkpoints.
- Monthly build - the cost spread over six to twelve months, usually bundled with maintenance. Easier on cash flow. Read the exit terms carefully; some of these are leases, and you own nothing if you stop.
Be wary of full payment upfront from an agency you have not worked with, and of any structure where you own nothing until the final invoice clears months after launch.
What a website cannot fix
Worth saying plainly, because it saves people money. A website will not fix a service nobody wants, pricing far above the market with nothing to justify it, or a phone that goes unanswered. It will not create demand where none exists.
What it does well is capture demand that already exists and is currently going to a competitor. If people are searching for what you do in your area, the site is a good investment. If they are not, spend the money on finding out why first.
What we do
Our own packages start at $1,500 for a landing page and run to ongoing retainers where the build and the marketing sit with one team. Every tier is quoted as fixed scope, and every account, asset and line of code stays in your name from day one - including if you leave.
If you want a number for your own project, send us the scope and we will come back with a quote and a timeline rather than a discovery call. You can also see the full package breakdown or read how we approach custom builds.