How much does a website cost, and what goes into the price

Asking “how much does a website cost” is a lot like asking “how much does a renovation cost”. You can repaint one room, or you can change the layout of the whole apartment and rewire it. Both are honestly called a renovation, and either one can be the right call — it depends on the job.

Websites work the same way. A one-page site for a single service and an online store with a catalog and payments are very different amounts of work, so they cost different amounts. Below we break down what the price is made of, what people usually forget to budget for, and how to compare quotes from different providers. And we’ll name our own prices up front, so there’s no suspense.

Why quotes differ so much

When you collect quotes, the spread is huge. It’s not that someone is being greedy. It comes down to how much of the work each provider takes on.

• A DIY website builder. You pay for a subscription and do everything else yourself: copy, photos, structure, settings. Cheap in money, expensive in time.
• A freelancer. Often builds the site from a ready-made template. That works well if the job is simple and you know exactly what you want.
• A studio. Takes on the analysis, structure, design, build and search setup. You answer questions and sign off.
• A large agency. The same work, plus account managers, analysts, separate departments and rounds of approvals. That makes sense for big companies, but a small business ends up paying for processes it doesn’t need.

So compare what stands behind the totals, not the totals themselves.

What goes into the price

Number and type of pages

This is the biggest factor. A landing page is one page. A corporate website has several: a homepage, a separate page for each service, contacts, work. An online store adds product pages and a catalog with filters. Every unique page means its own structure, copy and layout.

Copy and photos

If you already have clear service descriptions and good photos, the work moves faster. If the copy has to be written from scratch and photos found or shot, that’s a separate chunk of work. We usually write the copy ourselves after a conversation with the owner: it’s faster than waiting for someone in the company to write it.

Design

A template with your logo and colors swapped in costs less. A design made for your specific business — with a well-thought-out first screen, its own presentation and, where it fits, a 3D scene — costs more, but it doesn’t look like a dozen of your neighbors’ sites.

Features

A contact form is simple. Online booking with time slots, a price calculator, a client account, online payments, syncing products from your inventory system — each of these adds work. The key is not to order features “for later” that nobody will use.

Search readiness

Page titles, meta descriptions, structured data, a sitemap, loading speed, a proper mobile version. If this isn’t done at launch, you’ll end up reworking a site that’s already live.

Moving an existing site

If you already have a site that brings in clients, a rebuild means moving the content and keeping the page URLs. We covered this in detail in our article on redesigning without losing rankings.

What a website costs with us

Our prices start at:

• Landing page — from $290. One page for one offer: a new service, a promotion, a Google Ads campaign.
• Corporate website — from $490. Several pages, with a page for each service so people can find it in search.
• Online store — from $690. Catalog, product pages, cart and checkout.
• Redesign — from $390. A new version of your current site that keeps what already works.

“From” means the minimum scope. We give an exact price and timeline after a review: we look at your business, your competitors and what needs to be done. We show you a homepage concept for free, before any payment — you can open it on your phone and decide whether the approach fits. If it does, we get to work: 50% upfront and 50% after launch. More on the pricing page and in how we work.

What you’ll pay for besides the build

This is the part people often discover only after launch. Better to know in advance.

• Domain. Your site’s address is renewed every year with a registrar. Make sure the domain is registered to you, not to the developer.
• Hosting. Where the site lives. For small sites it’s inexpensive, but it’s a recurring cost.
• Subscriptions. If the site runs on a builder or uses paid add-ons, those are billed monthly or yearly too.
• Payment processing. An online store needs an agreement with a bank or payment provider, and they have their own fees.
• Marketing. A website on its own won’t bring clients. You need ads, search or a listing on the map. With us, managing your Google Business Profile costs $90 a month, and SEO + GEO costs $390 a month. Your Google Ads budget is paid separately, directly to Google.

How to save without doing harm

There’s smart saving, and there’s saving that means redoing everything later.

Smart:

• start with a landing page if you have one service, and grow it into a multi-page site in six months;
• gather photos of your work, reviews, prices and answers to common client questions in advance;
• skip features your business is doing just fine without today;
• name one person who makes decisions — approvals going around in circles drag a project out.

Not smart:

• launching without a mobile version — many clients will only ever open your site on a phone;
• skipping search setup on the assumption that “we’ll finish it later”;
• registering the domain and accounts in the developer’s name;
• taking the cheapest offer without checking what’s included.

How to compare quotes

Ask every provider the same questions. That shows you where a price is lower because the work is simpler, and where it’s lower because something is missing.

1. How many pages will there be, and which ones?
2. Who writes the copy and sources the photos?
3. A template, or a design made for us? Can we see it before paying?
4. Where do requests go: email, Telegram, a CRM?
5. What gets done for search at launch?
6. Whose name are the domain, hosting and accounts in?
7. How many rounds of revisions are included, and what will support cost after launch?

If the answer to a question is evasive, that’s an answer too.

The short version

• The price of a website depends on the amount of work: pages, copy, design, features and search readiness.
• The difference between quotes is the difference in how much of the work each provider takes on.
• With us, a landing page starts at $290, a corporate website at $490, an online store at $690 and a redesign at $390; the homepage concept is free, before any payment.
• Beyond the build, budget for the domain, hosting, payment processing and marketing.
• Compare quotes against the same list of questions, not by the bottom line.