The short version
A focused small-business site done properly lands between $3,000 and $12,000. A serious ecommerce store: $6,000 to $30,000. A custom web application: $15,000 to $80,000+. Anything dramatically under those bands is either not done properly, not finished, or not what you think it is.
What follows is where those numbers come from — so you can sanity-check any quote you receive, from anyone, including from here.
What drives the price of a website
Three variables explain most of the variance between quotes:
- Page count × uniqueness. Ten pages built from four templates costs a fraction of ten genuinely unique pages. Most sites overestimate how many unique templates they need.
- Content responsibility. Who writes the copy, sources the images and produces the product data. This is the most commonly unpriced line item in web projects — and often the reason launches slip.
- Integration depth. A contact form is an afternoon. A CRM sync with field mapping, error handling and reconciliation is a project of its own.
Five project sizes, honestly
| Project | Honest range | What you should get | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-pager | $1.5k–5k | Custom design, real copywriting support, analytics, CWV-green | Template resale at custom prices |
| Small business site | $3k–12k | 5–10 pages on 3–4 templates, CMS, forms, SEO foundations | Content left entirely to you |
| Ecommerce store | $6k–30k | Catalog architecture, checkout flow, payments, tax/shipping, redirects | "We'll add ecommerce later" pricing that doubles later |
| Web application | $15k–80k | Auth, data model, core workflow, tests on money paths, docs | Fixed quotes without a written spec |
| Platform migration | $1k–20k | Full URL map, content parity, rehearsed cutover, rank monitoring | "Migrations" without redirect planning |
The line items nobody quotes upfront
These are the costs that surface after signing, on projects of every size:
- Content production — copywriting, image licensing, product photography, data entry. Budget it or own it; pretending it away delays launches.
- Third-party services — email delivery, form handling, CRM seats, stock photo licenses, plugin renewals. $20–200/month that outlives the project invoice.
- The second year. Domains, hosting, maintenance, updates. A website is not a purchase; it is a small subscription with occasional capital expenses. Any developer who hides this from you is doing you a disservice.
- Scope you did not spec. "Can it also…" is the most expensive phrase in web development. A good contract prices changes openly instead of absorbing them into resentment.
Why quotes vary 5× for "the same" project
Because the same words in a brief describe different projects. One developer hears "5-page site" and prices five templates; another hears it and prices one template plus derivatives — a 4× difference in honest work. The fix is not comparing quotes; it is comparing specs. Demand a written scope with every quote, and the variance collapses to what it should be: calibre and margin.
How to use this page
Take the band for your project size. If a quote sits inside it, interrogate the spec — that is a normal quote and the decision is calibre and trust. If a quote sits dramatically below it, assume something in the list above is not priced, and find out what before signing. If it sits dramatically above it, either the scope is bigger than you described or you are paying a brand premium — which is sometimes worth it, and never a secret.
The rate benchmarks on this site — hourly by stack and region — use the same editorial method as these bands. When you are ready for real numbers on your actual project, send the brief and get a scoped quote within two business days.