Ask five agencies what a website costs and you’ll get five different numbers, and they can all be fair. A website is priced by what it has to do. Two quotes for “a five-page site” can describe completely different projects. So the useful skill is knowing what you’re comparing, more than knowing a going rate.
What moves the build price
- What the site has to do. Explaining a service and collecting enquiries is one job. Taking payments, managing stock, handling bookings or member logins is another. Functionality moves the price more than page count does.
- Design approach. Adapting an existing theme is quicker than designing around your business from scratch. Neither is wrong. They’re different products.
- Integrations. Payment providers, booking tools, a CRM, an email platform, an accounting system. Each connection needs building and testing, and some need ongoing care when the other system changes.
- Content. Whether you provide finished text and photos, or someone has to write, photograph and organise them. This is often the largest hidden variable in a quote.
- Languages. A second language means another set of pages to build, check and keep up to date, on top of the translation.
- Migration. Moving an existing site means mapping old pages to new ones and setting up redirects so you don’t lose the search visibility you already have.
- Legal and accessibility requirements. Privacy policy, cookie consent, and for some online shops selling to consumers in the EU, accessibility obligations under the European Accessibility Act.
Running costs people forget
The build is a one-off. These keep going:
- Domain renewal, every year.
- Hosting, or a platform subscription if you’re on Shopify, Webflow or a site builder. Shopify plans also charge extra transaction fees if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments (Shopify pricing).
- Paid themes, plugins, apps and fonts, many of which are annual licences.
- Maintenance: software and plugin updates, security fixes, backups, someone to call when something breaks.
- Content updates, if you won’t be making them yourself.
Ask for these in writing alongside the build quote. A cheap build on an expensive stack of monthly apps can cost more over three years than a pricier build with low running costs.
How to compare two quotes
Put them side by side and check each one says:
- Which pages and features are included, listed, not summarised as “a website.”
- Who writes and supplies the content.
- How many rounds of design changes are included, and what happens after that.
- Who owns the domain, the hosting account, the design files and the code at the end.
- What’s included after launch, for how long, and the price after that.
- What happens to the running costs listed above, and who pays them.
A quote that can’t answer these isn’t necessarily dishonest. It’s just not finished. More on vetting the people behind the quote in how to choose a web agency.
DIY, freelancer or agency
A site builder you set up yourself has the lowest cash cost: a monthly subscription and your time. It suits testing an idea or a very simple presence. Count the hours honestly.
A freelancer fits a well-defined project when you already know what you need and can manage the process yourself.
An agency costs more because it covers more: strategy, design, development, content and support from one team. It’s worth it when the site has to work hard for the business and connect to other systems.
Will it pay for itself?
A simple test: how many extra customers would the site need to bring in to cover its cost?
A fictional example, with numbers invented to show the sum rather than to suggest typical prices. A kitchen fitter makes an average profit of €600 per job. A site costing €3,000 to build and €400 a year to run needs to bring in about six extra jobs in its first year to break even, and less than one a year after that. If the fitter currently loses work because people can’t find them or don’t trust a Facebook page, that’s a realistic target. If they’re already fully booked from referrals, it isn’t the priority.
Run the same sum with your own numbers before you compare quotes.
Our starting point
Our own website builds start at €700; the final price depends on scope. We give a real number after a short conversation about what the site needs to do, rather than a guess from a price list. If you’d like that number, tell us what you’re working on, or read about how we approach web projects.