Ask three agencies to quote the same website and you'll get three numbers that don't look like they're for the same job. That's not because someone is ripping you off — it's because "a website" covers everything from a one‑page template fill‑in to a bespoke platform. Here's how to read the range.
What you're actually paying for
The price of a website is mostly the price of decisions and iterations, not code. A rough breakdown of where the money goes:
- Discovery — working out what the site needs to do, who it's for, and what "done" looks like. Skipped on cheap jobs, which is why they so often miss.
- Design — layout, typography, how it feels on a phone. Template vs. custom is the single biggest lever on cost here.
- Build — turning the design into pages, wiring up forms, connecting a CMS so you can edit it later.
- Content — someone has to write the words and prepare the images. If that's not you, it's billable hours.
- Testing and launch — cross‑browser, mobile, performance, redirects from the old site so you don't lose your search rankings.
The rough tiers
$400–$1,500 — template or DIY‑assisted. A themed template on a platform like Squarespace or WordPress, lightly customised, your content dropped in. Fine for a brochure site if your brand isn't a differentiator and you can live with looking similar to other businesses using the same theme.
$1,500–$6,000 — custom design on a standard stack. A designer lays out something that's actually yours, built on WordPress or a modern framework, with a CMS you can update. This is where most small businesses land and get good value.
$6,000–$20,000 — custom design plus custom functionality. Booking systems, member areas, multi‑location logic, integrations with your CRM or accounting tool, a proper content strategy. You're paying for things a template can't do.
$20,000+ — platform work. Ecommerce at scale, complex catalogues, anything with a login and a database doing real work. Different category, different conversation.
Where people waste money
- Paying custom‑build prices for a template job. If your requirements fit a good template, use one and spend the difference on content and photography.
- Paying template prices and expecting custom results. Then paying again six months later to do it properly.
- Buying pages you'll never fill. A tight five‑page site that's finished beats a fifteen‑page site that's half empty.
- Forgetting the running costs. Hosting, domain, SSL, backups, plugin updates, and the occasional fix are real. Budget a few hundred a year at minimum, more if you want someone else handling it.
A reasonable expectation
For most small businesses, a site that looks genuinely yours, loads fast, works on a phone, and you can edit without calling anyone lands somewhere between $2,000 and $6,000, plus modest annual upkeep. Below that you're compromising on something; well above that you're buying capability you should be able to name specifically.
If you'd like a straight answer for your particular situation, tell us what you need and we'll come back with a scoped number, not a range.