What does a website cost in 2026?

Why we do not publish a price list

A price list would be marketing rather than information. The same three words - build a website - describe a five-page brochure site and a multi-tenant platform with scheduling and invoicing. Publishing a single figure for that range means either quoting the low end and renegotiating later, or quoting the high end and scaring off the people the low end suits.

Instead, this page explains what is actually being priced. If you can describe your project against these variables, any competent studio can give you a real number, and you can compare the numbers you receive.

The six variables that decide the price

Almost every difference between two quotes for the same brief reduces to one of these.

• Distinct templates, not pages. Forty product pages built from one template cost roughly what one costs. Six pages that each look different are six design and build jobs. Count layouts, not URLs.
• Custom logic. A contact form is standard. Date-based availability with deposits and an approval step is not. The question to ask is whether the behaviour you need already exists as a solved problem, or has to be designed, written and tested.
• Integrations. Every external system - payments, CRM, stock, courier pricing, an existing internal API - adds work that is partly outside the builder's control. Two integrations is normal. Seven changes the shape of the project.
• Content readiness. Final copy and usable images ready before design starts is the single largest swing factor most clients control. Designing around placeholder text usually means designing twice.
• Editing needs. If your team must publish new pages independently, a CMS has to be connected and the content modelled. If you update the site twice a year, that work is spent for nothing.
• Bespoke design depth. A custom visual system applied to real screens costs more than a clean, conventional layout. Sometimes it is worth it. In a crowded market where every competitor bought the same template, it often is. On a site whose visitors arrive by direct recommendation, often not.

What is usually not in the number you were quoted

These are the items that turn an accepted quote into an unpleasant conversation three months later. Ask about each one explicitly before signing.

• Copywriting and translation
• Photography, video and licensed stock
• Hosting, domain renewal and any third-party service subscriptions
• Payment processing fees, which are ongoing and not part of the build
• Content migration from an existing site, especially product catalogues
• Maintenance and support after launch
• A second language, which is roughly a second content project rather than a switch to flip

How to compare quotes that look nothing alike

Send every studio the same written brief. If you describe the project differently to each one, you will receive incomparable numbers and conclude the cheapest is the best value.

Then ask each of them the same four questions, and compare the answers rather than the totals.

• What exactly is delivered at the end, listed as items rather than described as an outcome?
• What is explicitly out of scope?
• What happens, commercially, when I request a change mid-project?
• Who owns the code, the domain and the accounts when we are finished?

When a low quote is genuinely fine

Cheap is not automatically bad. If you need a five-page site presenting a service, with no unusual logic, no integrations and content already written, then a template on an established platform will do the job well, and paying for a custom build is spending money on capability you will never use. We say this to people who ask us, and we lose that work happily.

A low quote becomes a warning sign when it is for a project that clearly contains custom logic, several integrations or a catalogue migration. The number has to come from somewhere, and it usually comes from scope that was not discussed.

Warning signs in a quote

None of these prove anything on their own. Two or more together are worth a direct question.

• A fixed price given before anyone asked what the site has to do
• No written scope, only a total and a start date
• Guaranteed search rankings, which nobody can honestly promise
• Ownership of the code, domain or hosting account staying with the builder
• A per-page price, which prices the wrong unit and rewards padding
• No mention of what happens after launch