Guide · 6 min read · updated
What a business website costs, and what you are paying for
Where the money goes in a business website: pages, copy, design, build, testing, hosting and care. Fixed prices from $440 to $2,640. Get a quote.
Most website quotes are hard to compare because they bundle different things. One quote includes copywriting, another assumes you write every word. One includes hosting for a year, another leaves you to find it. The price only means something once you know what sits inside it.
The parts of the price
Every website project has the same six parts. A cheap quote usually skips some of them; an expensive one usually adds parts you did not ask for.
- Concept. Which pages exist, what each page is for, and what the headlines say. This is planning, and it is the cheapest place to fix a mistake.
- Design. How the home page looks on a laptop and on a phone. Other pages follow the same system.
- Build. The working site, on a private preview link.
- Test. Phones, forms, links, titles and speed, checked before anyone outside sees it.
- Deploy. The site goes live on your domain with SSL, and you get the logins.
- Care. Hosting, backups, certificate renewals, uptime checks and quick edits, every month after launch.
What drives the number up
Three things move the price more than anything else: the number of pages, who writes the words, and whether people can buy on the site.
- Pages. Each page needs a purpose, content, layout and testing. A one-page site and a ten-page site are different jobs.
- Copy. If you supply finished text, the job is faster. If the studio writes it, that is real work and should be priced as such.
- Commerce. A shop needs products, variants, a checkout, order emails, tax and shipping settings, and test orders. It is the biggest step up.
Fixed prices we use
| Package | Price, no VAT | Main difference |
|---|---|---|
| Page | $440 | One page and a form |
| Brochure site | $790 | Up to five pages, you supply the words |
| Launch | $1,320 | Five pages, words written for you, live in 5 working days |
| Redesign | $1,580 | Moving an existing site, redirects, speed |
| Complete start | $1,670 | Only a company name: domain, wordmark, words, photos |
| Business site | $1,940 | One page per service, proof, booking link |
| Shop starter | $2,640 | Up to 50 products and a checkout |
Work above $3,300 is scoped on a call. Every package has caps on pages, revisions and images, and you can add more with priced add-ons up to that ceiling: extra pages are $66 each, so 30 pages stays at or under $3,300. The full list is on pricing.
The monthly part people forget
A website is not finished on launch day. Certificates expire, plugins and dependencies need updates, forms stop delivering when a mail setting changes, and hosting needs paying. Budget for this from the start. Our care plans are $54 or $110 a month (no VAT charged), and the guide on what a care plan should include covers what to look for anywhere.
How to compare quotes
- Ask who writes the words and how many revision rounds are included.
- Ask who owns the domain. It should be you, in your name.
- Ask what happens the month after launch, and what it costs.
- Ask what is tested before launch. If the answer is vague, the testing will be too.