Two quotes for the same website can be far apart. What are you actually paying for?

Ask three studios to quote the same website and you can get three very different numbers. It’s easy to assume someone is overcharging. Usually they’re quoting different projects, because the brief left the important decisions open.

I’m not going to give you a price list here. Every project I quote gets scoped on a call first, because the number depends on decisions only you can make. What I can do is show you which decisions move the price, so you can ask better questions and compare quotes fairly.

Here’s what’s inside:

• What actually drives the cost. The decisions that change the price more than page count does.
• The costs after launch. Hosting, platform fees and the updates nobody budgets for.
• What AI changed. The part of the work that got cheaper and the part that didn’t.
• How to compare quotes. Five questions to ask every studio before you sign.

Page count matters less than you think

A ten-page site with simple pages can cost less than a five-page site with an online store. What moves the price is what the site has to do.

1. How many kinds of pages you need. A homepage, a service page and a blog post are three separate designs. Ten service pages that share one layout are mostly one.
2. Whether your content is ready. If the words and photos already exist, the build moves fast. If someone has to write them, that’s a project of its own and often the biggest one.
3. What the site has to do. Taking payments, booking appointments, member logins and connections to your other software each add real work.
4. How many languages. A second language done properly means writing, not only translating. Every page and form also has to work in both.
5. Who will update it. A site your team can edit without help needs a content system and some training. A site only a developer touches is cheaper to build and more expensive to change.

The costs that come after launch

Most budgets stop at launch day. The site doesn’t. You’ll pay for hosting and a domain every year. Many platforms also charge a monthly fee for as long as you use them. Over five years those fees add up.

Then there are updates. Content goes out of date and staff change, and someone has to keep things working. Ask any studio what happens in month thirteen, and get the answer in writing.

This is one reason I’ve started building sites that clients own outright, without a monthly platform fee. You pay for the build once. After that the ongoing costs are hosting and whatever changes you decide to make.

What AI changed about the price

AI made producing pages much faster, and an honest studio passes some of that saving on. It didn’t make the decisions or the checking any cheaper. If a quote is low because the studio plans to generate the site and skip the review, you’ll pay for it later in problems. I wrote more about that in AI can build your website by dinner. Who checks whether it works?

Five questions to ask every studio

1. What exactly is included, page by page? A quote that lists pages and features is much easier to compare than one that says “website.”
2. Who writes the content and supplies the photos? If the answer is “you,” plan the time for it now.
3. What will it cost each month and each year after launch? Include hosting, platform fees and any support plan.
4. Who owns the site and the domain if we stop working together? You should be able to take both with you.
5. What happens if something breaks six months from now? Find out who fixes it and how quickly.

If two quotes are far apart, the answers to these questions usually explain why.

If you’d like a real number for your own project, book a free 30-minute call. I’ll scope it with you and give you a quote you can compare.

Get new pieces when they land

No schedule and no newsletter template. A short note when there is something worth reading, and nothing else. The list is not shared.

Leave this empty Sign up