How much does a website cost and what the price depends on
People ask what a website costs as if there were one number. There is not — just as there is no single price for a house. A fair price is still not a guess. It is made of a few things you can point at and compare.
If two studios quote very different sums for what sounds like the same site, they are usually not quoting the same work. One may be fitting your logo onto a ready theme. The other may be designing the pages around your texts. Both can be honest. They are just different jobs.
What the price is made of
- How many kinds of pages there are. Ten service pages that share one layout cost less than five pages that each need their own.
- The design. A ready theme with your logo is cheaper. A design made for your content usually explains the offer more clearly, because the pages are drawn around what you actually say.
- What the site has to do. A contact form is straightforward. Booking, a client area, a calculator or a link to accounting software adds real work.
- Languages. Each language needs its own texts, its own addresses and a proper check. It does not double the design, but it does add time.
- Texts and photos. If they are ready, the build moves. If they still have to be written or edited, that is a separate piece of the job, and it should be in the quote.
Where our prices start
As a rough guide, not a final invoice: a landing page averages ~$1,790, a corporate website ~$2,990, and an online store ~$4,990. The quote is fixed after a short kickoff. Apps, software and SEO are priced after we know the task.
How to compare two offers
When the numbers are far apart, ask both studios the same four questions:
- Is the design made for my texts, or is it a ready theme?
- After launch, can I change texts, photos and pages myself?
- Who owns the domain, the hosting account and the code?
- What happens after the launch: updates, backups, small changes?
The answers usually explain the gap better than the total on the last line. A lower price that leaves you paying a builder every month, or calling a developer to change every sentence, is not always the cheaper site a year later.