Eight out of ten first conversations open with the same question: "How much does a website cost?"
The most honest answer I can give is: anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000 USD — and any of those numbers can be reasonable.
That's not a cop-out. The word "website" covers everything from a one-page static landing page to a full subscription commerce platform — easily 50× the work between the two ends. Before you ask about price, learn the five variables every quote is silently pricing on. Then you'll know who's overcharging you and who's quoting fairly.
1. Are you buying a template or a custom build?
The biggest price spread starts here.
Template-based ($1,000-$3,000): A WordPress theme, Wix template, or Webflow preset, recoloured and refilled with your content. Three to five days.
- Good for: simple needs, tight budget, tight timeline
- Trade-off: your site looks like 200 others using the same template; custom features will fight the theme
Semi-custom ($3,500-$10,000): Front-end designed from scratch, back-end uses an existing system (WordPress + custom theme, Shopify + plugins). Two to six weeks.
- Good for: most SMBs, brand sites, simple commerce
- Trade-off: certain custom needs will hit walls in the underlying system
Fully custom ($12,000+): Architecture and UI built from zero. Next.js with your own backend. 8-16 weeks.
- Good for: unique business logic, real differentiation, long-term roadmap
- Trade-off: longer timeline, ongoing maintenance baked in
If you take fully-custom requirements ("I want subscriptions + memberships + revenue sharing") to a $2K studio, they're not cheap — they just have no plan to actually finish.
2. The design-to-development ratio
Does the quote break out "design" and "development" separately? If not, you're probably buying a watered-down version of one of them.
For a typical mid-sized project, design work is usually 30-40% of total hours. A brand site that doesn't look like a template requires 30-50 hours of mood board, wireframes, visual comps, and design handoff.
When a quote just says "Website build — one lump sum," you're likely getting one of two things:
- Design replaced by a template (so don't expect anything custom-feeling)
- Development outsourced to cheaper hands (so don't expect quality)
A serious studio is willing to break down hours or line items. Not to nickel-and-dime you — to show you where the money goes.
3. Backend or no backend? Different by 10×
"I want a website" is ambiguous to an engineer. There are two completely different things:
Static site ($1,000-$5,000)
- Content is fixed in code or a simple CMS
- Visitors can only read; no input, no login, no transactions
- Hosting cost near zero (under $5/month)
Application with a backend (starts at $5,000, no real ceiling)
- Anything with login, orders, form submissions, or admin tools needs a backend
- Database, API, auth, security all required
- Maintenance cost is permanent ($30-$300+ per month)
The most common misjudgement: an owner wants the application (e.g. "customers should log in to see their orders") but brings a static-site budget. The cheap studio that takes the job tends to crash here — because they never priced backend work into the quote.
Ask explicitly: "Does my requirement need a backend?" Whether the quote has an extra zero in it depends on this answer.
4. Is post-launch maintenance priced in?
The most absurd quote I've ever seen said: "Website build $8,000, lifetime free maintenance included."
There's no such thing as lifetime free maintenance. After launch, all of these keep happening:
- Domain, SSL, hosting renewals
- WordPress / plugin / Node updates (skip them, get hacked)
- Browser updates breaking CSS (you thought CSS was write-once?)
- The client wanting a banner change, a copy edit, a new sub-page
So a fair quote usually splits into:
- Build fee (one-time): $X,XXX
- Monthly maintenance: $50-$300, depending on complexity
If a studio offers "free first year of maintenance" or "lifetime updates included," ask them straight: "What does year two cost me if I keep working with you?" A vague or evasive answer means they're absorbing future cost into a number they hope you'll forget about.
5. Are you buying the site, or renting it?
The last variable is contractual but it changes the whole price calculus: who owns the site you paid for?
Many SaaS platforms (Wix, Shopify, Webflow) are rentals: you pay to use their tooling to build your site, but you can't move the site off. Stop paying, the site disappears.
"Owned" sites:
- Source code is yours (full Git repo access)
- You can switch hosting (Vercel to AWS, whatever)
- Studio goes out of business? You still have the site
"Rented" sites are much cheaper up-front (often under $30/month), but three years in, when you want to do more, switch tools, or change agencies, the migration cost is often 2-3× what the original build cost.
Your call — but ask before signing: "What do I receive when the project closes?" If the answer is "source code + credentials + domain + deploy setup," you're buying ownership. If it's "an admin login," you're a tenant. The two price brackets aren't comparable.
Don't ask "how much" — ask "why this much"
Next time a quote lands on your desk, try these five questions back:
- Template, semi-custom, or fully custom?
- Are hours broken into design / dev / QA?
- Does my requirement need a backend? Is that priced in?
- How is post-launch maintenance billed?
- What do I own at the end?
Five questions like these are more useful than comparing "how cheap is the cheap one" against "why is the expensive one expensive." A studio that answers all five clearly is rarely a bad bet; a studio that ducks, hand-waves, or changes the subject is usually the one you'll regret six months later.
If you're comparing quotes and want a "willing to answer all five clearly" point of comparison, come talk to us. 15 minutes. No charge.