the spread between the cheapest and most expensive quote most businesses receive for what they describe as the same brief. The difference is almost never the markup — it is what the word "website" was taken to mean.
The four honest price bands
Ignore for a moment who is quoting. Websites fall into four groups by how much original thinking they require, and the price follows that almost mechanically.
| What you get | Best for | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Template, lightly customised Your logo and copy on a bought theme |
Testing an idea, very early stage | $300–900 |
| Custom landing page One offer, written and structured to convert |
A single service or campaign | $800–2,500 |
| Custom multi-page site Original design, CRM and analytics wired in |
Established businesses with real competition | $2,500–7,000 |
| Store or bespoke system Catalogue, checkout, integrations |
Selling online at volume | $6,000–12,000+ |
These are build costs. They exclude the advertising budget, which is paid to the ad platform directly and should never be bundled into a development invoice.
What actually moves the number
Four things drive cost, and none of them is the number of pages — which is why pricing "per page" tells you almost nothing.
- How much is written from scratch. Copy that has to be researched, structured and argued costs more than copy you supply. It is also usually what decides whether the site converts.
- How many systems it talks to. A form that emails you is trivial. A form that creates a CRM record, triggers a sequence and reports back into analytics is a day of careful work.
- How distinctive the design must be. Adapting a proven layout is fast. An interface nobody has seen before takes iterations, and iterations are the real cost of design.
- Who owns the result. A studio that guarantees performance is pricing in the rework it may have to do for free. That premium is usually the most rational part of the quote.
Reading a quote properly
Two quotes, same number, completely different deals. Check these before comparing prices at all:
- Revisions. "Two rounds included" and "revisions billed hourly" are different products. Unlimited revisions is also a warning sign — it usually means nobody has agreed what finished looks like.
- Ownership. Confirm in writing that the design and custom code become yours on final payment, and get a list of third-party licences (fonts, plugins, stock images) you will need to maintain.
- What happens at launch +30 days. Who fixes what breaks? A studio confident in its work covers this period without an argument.
- Access. You should receive hosting, domain and analytics credentials. If a supplier holds your domain, you do not own your site.
Where cutting cost is reasonable
Not every economy is false. These are usually safe:
- Launching with fewer pages and adding as you learn what visitors ask for.
- Supplying your own photography, provided it is genuinely good.
- Writing first drafts of copy yourself for a professional to edit.
- Skipping animation that serves no purpose beyond looking busy.
And these usually cost more later than they save now: skipping analytics, skipping mobile testing, skipping a real content plan, and choosing the cheapest hosting available.
A reasonable expectation
For most service businesses competing locally or regionally, a properly built custom site lands between $2,500 and $7,000 and should pay for itself within the first year through enquiries it captures that the previous site lost. If it cannot plausibly do that, the problem is the brief, not the budget.
Frequently asked
Why do quotes for the same brief differ by 10×?
Because "website" describes anything from a single template page to a custom system with CRM integration. The gap is scope and ownership, not markup. Ask what happens when the first version underperforms — studios that own the outcome price that risk in.
Is a cheap website worse than no website?
Sometimes, yes. A slow, hard-to-use site actively costs you enquiries that a phone number on a directory listing would have captured. If the budget cannot cover doing it properly, a single well-built landing page beats a sprawling weak one.
What should never be an extra line item?
Mobile responsiveness, basic on-page SEO, SSL and a contact form that actually delivers. In 2026 those are the floor, not upgrades.
How much should I budget for the year after launch?
Plan for 15–25% of the build cost annually: hosting, updates, security patching and small content changes. Sites that get no attention after launch lose ranking within months.
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