How much does a website cost?

“I need a website – how much does it cost?” is one of the first things most people say when I tell them I make websites.

Some general rules of thumb for pricing web sites and other considerations for budgets are included in our article, Don’t Keep Your Budget a Secret.

I wish that there was an easy answer – that I could just say $5,000 or between $200 and $500, but unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this question. Asking a web designer how much a web site costs is a bit like calling up a real estate agent and asking “How much does a house cost?”

The trouble pricing real estate is that while each individual house has a price based on its market value at any given time, houses in general don’t really have a set asking price, or even a reasonable range – houses can be had anywhere from below $10,000 to well above $100 million, depending on a lot of different factors.

Tell a real estate agent you’re thinking of buying a house and want to get an idea of how much it will cost, and he or she will barrage you with a series of questions before he or she will even venture to ballpark a price. Location, square footage, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, whether or not there’s a garage, the size of the lot, the age of the home, the state of repair, the style, the history, the tax rate in the area, the quality of the local schools, the desirability of the neighborhood, the anxiousness of the current owner to sell, etc. etc. etc. all influence the price of a home.

And a web site is a lot like that. There are so many different types of web sites, so many different types of features, that it’s hard to just name a price without asking a barrage of questions to rival a real estate agent. What kind of web site? Do you have photography, written content or other design work to use? Do you already have a logo? Do you already have a business identity and established color scheme or design guidelines? What kind of technology are you comfortable using? Are you looking to maintain and update the site’s content yourself? Do you need hosting and a domain name? And on and on and on.

Even after I get answers to these questions, I can only give you my price – because each person or company has their own methodology, their own way of working, and that’s going to influence the price a bit. Sure, this company might be charging 50% more, but maybe you’ll get a service you didn’t even know existed or you’ll have just one person to work with dedicated to your account, and your account only to help you every step of the way.

If you need a web site, shop around and ask a lot of questions. Be really clear on what’s included in the price and what’s not. Do some research and learn about what goes into the type of site you need, and learn what parts you’re comfortable doing yourself and what parts you need to hire someone else for. The best thing you can do for yourself when you’re in the market for a web site is to be an educated consumer.