How Much Does a Website Cost? Real Ranges by Project Type
Any single figure for "a website" is misleading, because the same phrase covers a five-page brochure site and a store with 4,000 products and three system integrations. What is useful is the shape of the ranges and what moves you between them.
This guide covers typical costs by project type, the factors that actually drive the number, the running costs that rarely appear in a quote, and how to compare two quotes that differ by a factor of five.
Typical ranges by project type#
These are broad market ranges for professional work, not quotes. Regional rates vary widely, and the same brief costs less from a solo freelancer than from an agency with a project manager and a QA process — you are buying different amounts of risk cover, not just different amounts of code.
| Project type | Typical range | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Template / builder site | $500 – $3,000 | Existing theme, your content, light customisation |
| Small business site | $3,000 – $12,000 | Custom design, CMS, 5–15 pages, basic SEO setup |
| Mid-size custom site | $12,000 – $50,000 | Bespoke design system, custom templates, integrations |
| Online store | $5,000 – $80,000+ | Platform, catalogue, payment, shipping, tax, migration |
| Web application | $40,000 – $250,000+ | Custom logic, accounts, permissions, ongoing releases |
| Redesign of an existing site | 60–90% of a new build | Rarely cheaper than starting fresh once migration is counted |
A redesign is usually not a discount. Migrating content, preserving URLs and matching existing behaviour is work that a new build does not have.
What actually drives the number#
Page count is a weak predictor of cost. Twenty pages built from three templates is cheaper than five pages that are all different. What moves the price is custom logic, integrations and content volume.
- Number of distinct templates, not number of pages. Each unique layout is design plus build plus QA.
- Integrations. Every system the site must talk to — CRM, ERP, payment, booking, email — adds work and adds a thing that can break.
- Content migration. Moving 40 pages by hand is an afternoon; moving 4,000 products with images and variants is a project of its own.
- Languages. A second language is rarely double, but it is never free: structure, URLs, hreflang and a translation workflow.
- Custom logic. Pricing rules, configurators, permissions and workflows are where budgets actually go.
- Accessibility and performance targets. Meeting a standard is cheaper designed in than retrofitted, but it is not zero either way.
The costs that are not in the quote#
A build quote is the start of the spending, not the end. The running costs are individually small and collectively significant, and they arrive whether or not anyone mentioned them.
| Item | Typical annual cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | $10 – $50 | Make sure it is registered in your name, not the agency’s |
| Hosting | $60 – $3,000+ | Shared to managed cloud; a store needs more than a brochure site |
| SSL certificate | $0 – $200 | Free is fine for most sites |
| CMS / platform fees | $0 – $30,000+ | eCommerce platforms often also take a percentage of revenue |
| Plugins and licences | $100 – $2,000 | Renewals are easy to forget until something stops working |
| Maintenance and updates | 10–20% of build cost | Security patches, backups, small fixes |
| Content and photography | Highly variable | Frequently the largest unbudgeted line |
How to read a quote that looks too cheap#
A quote well below the others is not automatically bad, but it is always answering a different question. Find out which one before you compare on price.
- Ask what is excluded, in writing. Content entry, SEO setup, training and post-launch fixes are the usual omissions.
- Ask who owns the code, the domain and the hosting account after launch. If the answer is not "you", the price is not the price.
- Ask how many revision rounds are included and what round four costs.
- Ask what happens if something breaks in week two: covered, hourly, or a new project?
- Ask to see a live site they built at your scale — not their best-looking work, their most similar work.
- Compare the total for year one, not the build number. That is where cheap quotes stop being cheap.
The two quotes worth worrying about are the one that is a third of the others and the one that arrives within an hour of the brief. Both usually mean the brief was not read.
Frequently asked questions
Why do quotes for the same brief differ so much?
Because they are pricing different amounts of risk and different amounts of process. A solo developer prices their own hours. An agency prices a designer, a developer, a project manager, QA, and the cost of fixing it if the person who built it leaves. Neither is wrong; they suit different projects and different tolerances for things going wrong.
Is a monthly subscription website a good deal?
It depends what happens when you stop paying. Some subscriptions bundle build, hosting and maintenance and you keep nothing if you leave — over three or four years that usually costs more than owning a site outright. Others are genuine managed services with an exit path. Ask what you own and what happens on cancellation before comparing the monthly number to anything.
Should I pay a deposit?
A deposit is normal — typically 30–50% up front with the balance on milestones or launch. What is not normal is paying the full amount before anything exists. Tie payments to deliverables you can see, and make the final payment due on launch rather than on an internal sign-off you cannot verify.
How much should I budget for maintenance?
Plan for 10–20% of the build cost per year for a CMS-based site: security updates, plugin renewals, backups, small content changes and occasional breakage. A store or an application needs more, because more of it is moving. Sites that skip maintenance do not save the money; they spend it later on an emergency.
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