Pricing a website is harder than it looks. Every site has different needs, those needs change as the project goes on, and there is no universal rate card. But you can get a sensible estimate once you know what actually drives the cost. I have been building websites since 2009, and in my experience it comes down to five things: content, unique views, features, optimization, and management.
Content
Content is the heart of your website. Without it, the site is nothing, and your content needs are the biggest single factor in what it will cost.
When you take stock of a project, start with these questions:
- How much content do you need? How much do you already have?
- Does the content need to be researched, developed, or edited?
- Do you have several kinds of content (video, testimonials, photos, data)?
Research and writing take longer than most people expect, which is why I start every project with interviews and a content plan before anyone draws a wireframe.
Unique views
Once you know what the content is, think about how it will be presented. A blog with search? Categories and tags? A directory, a map, an events calendar? Each of these needs its own layout, designed to work on every screen size and with search engines in mind. Every unique view adds design and development time.
Features
A site with some text and photos is not hard to build. The more it has to do, the longer it takes: ecommerce, mapping, importers, member logins, and integrations with other systems all need to be built, tested, and presented well. Custom features also tend to need their own unique views, so the two factors compound.
Optimization
A website does no one any good if it is slow or fragile. Testing and tuning for speed, accessibility, and reliability is as much a part of the work as the design and the code. It belongs in the estimate, not as an afterthought.
Management
The factor most estimates leave out. Agreeing on design and features is simple with one point of contact; it is slower with a committee, long approval cycles, many meetings, and no clear plan. More development time means a higher cost.
A rushed deadline raises the cost too, and can cost more again later if problems come from a hurried build. Creativity is iterative, and nobody writes perfect content on the first pass. Give the process room to breathe.
How to get a good estimate
Those five factors set most of the price. The way the project is run sets the rest. A process that follows established best practices will finish faster than one that researches and debates every decision; the first suits a small organization, the second is often what a large one needs.
For what it is worth, my own projects are fixed fee, from $3,000, quoted after a discovery call: a deposit to start, the rest at launch, or monthly on longer builds. The services page explains what each kind of project covers.
Whoever you ask, keep these factors in mind, pay for discovery, and write down what you need so that any estimate you get is for the same project.