In short: website cost depends on what the site has to do, not on the number of pages alone. Design approach, features, content, integrations and who looks after the site after launch decide most of the price. Agree your goals and scope first, compare quotes on the same brief, and expect a fixed price only after a proper discovery call.
"How much does a website cost?" is usually the first question business owners ask, and the most honest answer is: it depends on what the website must achieve. A five-page site that explains your services is a very different project from an online store with 2,000 products, a booking system or a customer portal. This guide breaks the cost down so you can plan a realistic budget, spot what is missing from a quote and compare agencies fairly.
What really drives website cost
Almost every quote comes down to five questions. If two agencies give you very different numbers, the gap is nearly always in one of these.
1. Design: template or custom
A ready-made theme is the cheapest starting point. It is quick, and for a new business it can be enough. A custom design is built around your brand, your customers and the action you want them to take. It costs more because someone has to research, sketch, design and test it, but it usually works harder for you because it is not built for everyone.
2. Number of unique page layouts
Ten pages that share one layout cost far less than ten pages that each need their own design. When you count pages, count layouts: home, service, about, contact, blog post and so on.
3. Features beyond information
Every feature that does something adds development and testing time. Common examples:
- Online booking or appointment scheduling
- Payments, carts and checkout
- Customer accounts and logins
- Multiple languages or currencies
- Search and filtering across many products or listings
- Calculators, configurators or quote builders
4. Integrations with your other tools
Sending form leads into your CRM, syncing stock with your inventory system or connecting to an accounting tool all take careful work. The more systems that must talk to each other, the more the build costs, and the more important it is that it is done properly. Our API and integrations work is often a bigger part of a budget than clients expect.
5. Content: who writes and prepares it
Copywriting, photography, video and product data are often the difference between a site that looks good and a site that sells. If you supply finished content, the build is cheaper and faster. If the agency writes it, budget for that. Our guide on planning your website content before design shows how to get this ready early.
Typical website tiers and what they include
We do not publish fixed prices here because two projects that sound the same can be very different underneath. Instead, here is how projects usually group together, from simplest to most involved.
| Tier | Typical scope | Best for | Main cost drivers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter website | 5 to 8 pages, a contact form, basic SEO setup, mobile-friendly layout | Local businesses and new brands that need to look credible quickly | Template versus light customisation, content supply |
| Growth website | Custom design, 10 to 30 pages, blog, analytics, SEO foundations, lead capture | Service businesses that want the site to bring in enquiries | Number of layouts, copywriting, integrations with CRM or email |
| Online store | Product catalogue, cart, checkout, payments, shipping and tax rules | Retail and D2C brands selling online | Product count, payment and shipping setup, stock sync |
| Web application or portal | Logins, dashboards, custom workflows, data handling | Platforms, SaaS products and internal tools | Features, user roles, security, integrations |
If you are in the first two tiers, our business websites page explains what we build. Stores sit under e-commerce development, and if you want to edit pages yourself, look for a proper CMS website rather than a site that needs a developer for every change.
The cheapest website is the one you only have to build once.
Costs people forget to budget for
The build is only part of the total cost of owning a website. These items are small on their own but add up over a year:
- Hosting: from basic shared hosting to managed cloud hosting with a CDN. Faster, more reliable hosting costs more but protects speed and uptime.
- Domain and SSL renewal: usually yearly.
- Business email: often billed per user, per month.
- Licences: premium themes, plugins, fonts, stock photos and third-party apps often renew every year.
- Maintenance: updates, backups, security monitoring and small content changes. See our guide to website maintenance after launch for what this covers.
- Marketing: a website does not bring visitors on its own. SEO, ads and content are separate budgets.
Ask every agency exactly what is included after launch, for how long, and what happens to costs in year two.
Why the cheapest quote can cost more
A very low quote is not always a bad deal, but it is worth asking what has been left out. The usual gaps are:
- Speed: heavy themes and unoptimised images make pages slow. Google's Core Web Vitals guidance treats a Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds as good, and slow pages lose visitors. Read why a slow website costs you sales.
- Mobile: a site that works on a laptop but is awkward on a phone. Most of your visitors will judge you on their phone first.
- SEO foundations: page titles, headings, clean URLs and a sitemap. Google's own SEO Starter Guide explains why these basics matter.
- Accessibility: readable contrast, keyboard use and labelled forms. The WCAG guidelines are the widely used standard.
- Ownership: who owns the domain, hosting account, design files and code? You should.
Fixing these after launch almost always costs more than building them in from the start.
How to compare website quotes fairly
Quotes are only comparable when they answer the same brief. Before you speak to anyone, write down:
- What the website must achieve: more calls, bookings, sales or applications.
- Who your main customers are and what they need to know before they contact you.
- The pages you think you need, and which are must-haves.
- Features that are essential and ones that are nice to have.
- Three websites you like, and what you like about each.
- Your deadline, and whether you or the agency will provide content.
- Your budget range, so the agency can suggest what fits.
Then ask each agency the same questions: what is included, how many design revisions, who writes the content, what happens after launch, how long the warranty period lasts and who owns everything at the end.
Website cost checklist
- Goals for the website are written down
- Page list and unique layouts counted
- Must-have features separated from nice-to-haves
- Integrations listed (CRM, email, payments, booking, stock)
- Content owner agreed: you or the agency
- Hosting, domain, email and licences budgeted for the year
- Maintenance plan and response times agreed
- Speed, mobile, SEO basics and accessibility included in scope
- You own the domain, accounts, design files and code
- Fixed quote received after a discovery call, not a guess
Getting a fixed quote
A reliable price comes after a short conversation about your goals, not from a form that spits out a number. On that call, a good team will ask what success looks like, what you already have and what must happen after launch. Our how we work page explains the steps from first call to launch.
If you are planning a new site or a rebuild, tell Rachyet about your project and we will reply with a clear plan and a fixed quote once we understand the scope.
