Guide
What does a website actually cost?
A custom premium website starts at $12,000, and focused projects land at $12,000 to $25,000 depending on how much the site has to do. Add e-commerce, customer accounts, a CRM connection or a portal and you move into $25,000 to $60,000. Anything quoted without those questions is a guess.
Most articles answering this question don’t answer it. They explain that it depends, list some factors, and end with a contact form. That happens because the people writing them don’t publish prices, so the article exists to start a sales call rather than to tell you anything.
This one has real numbers in it, because ours are on the site anyway.
How much does a website cost?
A custom premium website starts at $12,000, and focused projects land at $12,000 to $25,000 depending on how much the site has to do. Add e-commerce, customer accounts, a CRM connection or a portal and you move into $25,000 to $60,000. Anything quoted without those questions is a guess.
That’s the short answer. The rest of this explains what moves the number, so you can work out roughly where you’d land before speaking to anyone.
What makes one website cost more than another?
Not design. Almost never design.
The price is set by how many systems the site has to talk to, and how much of it you need to change yourself. A beautiful five-page site with a contact form is straightforward. The same site that takes bookings, syncs a calendar, charges a card, and routes the lead into a CRM is four times the work, because each of those is a separate integration that has to keep working.
The second thing that moves it is whether you can edit it. A site only a developer can change is cheaper to build and more expensive to own.
What does a cheap website actually get you?
Under about $2,000 you’re buying a template with your logo on it, and that is sometimes exactly the right purchase. Squarespace and Wix are genuinely good. If you need a professional presence, you’re the only person who’ll ever edit it, and nothing has to connect to anything else, they will serve you better than we would.
What you don’t get is anything specific to how your business actually works. Templates are built for a generic business, and the further your operation sits from generic, the more you’ll fight it.
What’s a realistic range for a custom build?
| What it does | Typical range |
|---|---|
| A focused premium site, designed and built properly | $12,000 to $18,000 |
| A larger site with real content and booking | $18,000 to $25,000 |
| Site plus e-commerce or customer accounts | $25,000 to $40,000 |
| Site plus a CRM connection and automated follow-up | $30,000 to $45,000 |
| A digital platform with custom software behind it | $45,000 to $60,000+ |
| Complex, multi-brand or enterprise | Custom scoped |
These are our published numbers, not industry averages. Agencies charging three times this exist and are sometimes worth it; agencies charging a third of it exist and are usually selling a template.
Why won’t anyone give me a straight price?
Two reasons, and only one of them is good.
The good reason is that scope genuinely varies. “A website for my business” describes a $12,000 project and a $60,000 project equally well, and a firm number before knowing which is either padded or a fight later.
The bad reason is sales strategy. Hiding the price means every inquiry becomes a phone call, which is good for the agency’s pipeline and bad for your afternoon. If a site won’t give you any range at all, that’s usually why.
What are the ongoing costs?
The build is not the whole cost, and anyone who lets you believe it is has made a sale rather than a client.
Expect $500 to $3,000 a month depending on what you need. At the bottom, hosting, monitoring and security updates. In the middle, someone actively maintaining and improving it. At the top, ongoing work to get you found. Third-party services bill separately, payment processing takes a percentage, text messaging is priced per message, AI features bill per request.
How long does a website take?
Two to four weeks for a straightforward site, six to ten for one with systems behind it. The delay is almost never development. It’s content and decisions: photos that don’t exist yet, copy nobody’s written, a question that needs an answer from someone who’s on holiday.
Do I own it?
You should, and you should confirm this before signing anything. Ask three questions: is the domain in my name, is the hosting in my name, and can I take the code to another developer. If any answer is no, you’re renting.
Some builders keep clients on proprietary platforms precisely because leaving means starting over. That’s a business model, not a technical requirement.
Our own answer is set out in full on the ownership and licensing page, including what transfers to you, what stays licensed, and how hosting moves to your own account.
So what should I actually do?
Work out which row of that table you’re in, then get a real number from someone who’ll put one in writing.
If you’d rather see ours without a conversation, our configurator builds a genuine estimate in about two minutes: modules, timeline, running costs and all. It commits you to nothing and doesn’t ask for your email.
Want the number for your build?
The configurator gives a real estimate in about two minutes: modules, timeline, and running costs. No form first, no email required.