Ring five web designers and ask what a website costs, and you will get five versions of "it depends, let's book a discovery call". The answer is not that complicated. So here is ours, written down, before you spend anything.
The short answer
Our builds start from $2,000, and most land between $2,000 and $3,000. Fixed, and agreed in writing before we start.
That is a real business site. Your services, your prices, your photos, working properly on a phone, findable on Google, with enquiries landing in your inbox.
The number only moves if you ask for something outside what we agreed, and we agree that with you in writing first. It does not move because the job turned out harder than we thought. That is our problem, not yours.
What actually moves the price
Four things, and only one of them is about design.
1. How many pages, and how much is already written. A five page site where your services are already written down is a very different job from a twenty page site where nothing is. Words are usually the slowest part of any website.
2. Whether anything has to keep working. Bookings, an online shop, member logins, a form that feeds your accounting. If your business runs through the site, we rebuild around it carefully. That takes longer and it is worth it.
3. Whether you have a logo you can actually use. Not a small picture saved off your old site. The original file. If that is gone, it has to be rebuilt before anything can be designed properly.
4. What state the old site is in. Sometimes the fastest path is a refresh of what you have. Sometimes the existing setup is the problem. We tell you which before you commit.
The optional extras
Only for people we are already building a site for, and added to the same invoice.
| Extra | Price |
|---|---|
| Logo refresh | $700 |
| Brand guide | $350 |
| Print ready files | $250 |
| All three together | $950 |
How the money works
Half up front, half the day it goes live. The deposit books your build slot. The balance is due when the site is live, not before.
Two rounds of changes are included. Further rounds are $250 each. Most jobs never get there.
There is no monthly fee to us. No retainer and no care plan. We build it, hand you the keys and get out of your way.
What you should never pay for
A monthly fee just to keep your own website online. If someone charges you a monthly plan and cannot tell you what they did last month, you are paying rent on something you should own. We wrote more about that in what a website care plan really buys you.
Being locked out of your own web address. Your domain should be registered in your name, in an account you can log into. Here is how to check who owns yours.
Changes you could make yourself. Updating your opening hours should not need an invoice.
Is it worth it?
Honest answer: not always. If you are booked solid on word of mouth and do not want more work, a new website will not change your life, and we will tell you that rather than take the job.
It is worth it when people are looking for you and not finding you, when they find you and the site makes you look smaller than you are, or when it is so old you cannot change a word without ringing someone.