A website costs between roughly $1,500 and $150,000, and that range is so wide it is almost useless without context. What follows is the honest version: what each band actually buys, what pushes a project from one band to the next, and the questions to ask before you accept any quote.
Key Takeaways
- Scope, not page count, drives price — one page with a booking engine costs more than twenty static pages.
- The cheapest quote is usually the one with the least discovery behind it, which is why it changes later.
- Ongoing cost is typically 15-20% of build cost per year, and it is rarely quoted upfront.
The four price bands, and what each one buys
Most work falls into four bands. A template-based brochure site runs roughly $1,500-$6,000 and buys you a professional presence with limited customisation. A custom marketing site sits around $8,000-$30,000 and buys original design, a content model your team can edit, and performance work.
A custom web application starts near $30,000 and climbs from there, because you are paying for logic, data and state rather than pages. Ecommerce sits across both, depending on whether you are configuring a platform or building on top of one.
- Template brochure site: $1,500-$6,000
- Custom marketing site: $8,000-$30,000
- Custom web application: $30,000-$150,000+
- Ecommerce: $10,000-$100,000+ depending on platform and integrations
What actually moves the number
Page count is the weakest predictor of cost, and it is the one most quotes are built around. What genuinely drives price is the amount of custom logic, the number of third-party systems you have to integrate with, and how much content has to be migrated from an existing site.
Design originality matters too. Adapting a proven layout is a fraction of the cost of a bespoke design system, and for many businesses the proven layout converts better anyway.
- Custom logic and workflows, not page count
- Integrations: payments, CRM, ERP, booking, auth
- Content migration volume and quality
- Design originality and how many unique templates you need
- Performance, accessibility and SEO requirements
The costs that appear after launch
Budget 15-20% of the build cost per year for hosting, maintenance, dependency updates and small changes. A site is software, and software that is never updated becomes a security liability within about eighteen months.
Ask any agency for this number before you sign. If they cannot give you one, they have not thought about what happens after the invoice clears.
How to compare quotes fairly
Two quotes are only comparable if they cover the same scope, and they rarely do. Put every quote against the same written list of deliverables, and treat any large gap as a scope difference until proven otherwise.
Then ask who does the work, whether the price is fixed, and who owns the code at the end. Those three answers explain most of the variance between a cheap quote and an expensive one.
- Who writes the code — the people you met, or someone else?
- Is the price fixed, and what triggers a change order?
- Do you receive the repository and deployment pipeline?
- What is the response time for problems after launch?
Frequently asked questions
How much does a small business website cost?
A small business website typically costs between $1,500 and $6,000 for a template-based build, or $8,000 to $30,000 for a custom design with original layouts, an editable content model and performance work. The difference is customisation and content, not the number of pages.
Why do website quotes vary so much for the same project?
Because the quotes are rarely for the same project. Differences usually come from scope assumptions, who performs the work, whether the price is fixed or hourly, and whether performance, SEO and post-launch support are included. Comparing quotes against one written deliverables list removes most of the variance.
What is the ongoing cost of a website?
Expect 15 to 20 percent of the build cost per year, covering hosting, dependency and security updates, backups, monitoring and small content changes. Sites left unmaintained typically become a security risk within about eighteen months.
Is a cheaper website worth it?
Sometimes. A template site is the right answer for a business that needs credibility and contact details rather than a custom workflow. It becomes expensive only when it is bought for a job it cannot do, and has to be rebuilt within a year.