Useful planning ranges
| Project | Typical scope | Planning range |
|---|---|---|
| Focused landing page | One offer, conversion copy, form, basic SEO | $500–$1,500 |
| Small business website | 4–7 pages, copy support, responsive build, analytics | $1,500–$6,000 |
| Growth website | Strategy, deeper content, integrations, SEO, conversion work | $5,000–$15,000+ |
| Ecommerce or custom system | Products, payments, accounts, complex integrations | Often $8,000+ |
What changes the price?
- Strategy: customer research, positioning, sitemap, and conversion planning.
- Content: interviews, copywriting, photography, video, and original illustrations.
- Functionality: bookings, payments, CRM, memberships, calculators, portals, or multilingual content.
- Migration: preserving existing URLs, redirects, content, and analytics.
- Risk: accessibility, privacy, security, regulated data, and payment requirements.
- Support: training, updates, backups, monitoring, and ongoing improvement.
Recurring costs
Budget separately for the domain, hosting, email, form or CRM software, payment fees, maintenance, backups, security monitoring, analytics tools, and ongoing content. Ask which fees are optional, which are required, and who owns every account.
Warning signs
- The provider guarantees a number-one Google ranking.
- The domain or analytics account remains under the provider’s control.
- The proposal does not define pages, revisions, ownership, support, or acceptance.
- The price excludes necessary hosting or software but never explains the future cost.
- Testimonials, portfolio projects, or performance claims cannot be verified.
How to compare proposals
Compare outcomes and responsibilities, not only price. A useful proposal explains discovery, content, design, development, SEO, testing, accessibility, security, launch, ownership, and support. If one quote is dramatically cheaper, identify which work has been removed.