How We Price Web Development Projects

Page Count Is the Wrong Question

"How much for a 10-page website?" is one of the most common questions we get, and it's genuinely hard to answer honestly, because page count tells you almost nothing about the actual work involved. Ten simple, mostly-static pages can be far cheaper to build than five pages that each need custom functionality, integrations, and unique layouts. We price based on what a project actually requires, not a page total.

What Actually Drives Cost

Scope and Custom Functionality

A page that displays static content — an about page, a simple service description — takes a fraction of the time of a page with custom functionality: a booking calendar, a filtered service locator, a multi-step quote form, an interactive pricing tool. The number of genuinely custom components in a build is a much better predictor of cost than the number of pages.

Integrations

Connecting a site to a CRM, a booking platform, a payment processor, or an email marketing tool adds real engineering work — authentication, data mapping, testing edge cases, handling what happens when an integration fails. A site with three integrations working correctly and reliably costs meaningfully more than a visually similar site with none, even if they look almost identical to a visitor. We talk more about what this connective layer involves in our AI automation stack, explained.

Content Complexity

Whether content already exists in usable form, needs light editing, or needs to be created from scratch (copywriting, photography, or both) has a real effect on both timeline and cost. We ask about this directly during scoping rather than assuming a client will simply hand over finished copy for every page.

Design Complexity

A site built from a well-defined design system with consistent patterns across pages is faster to build than one where every page has a genuinely unique layout. Custom illustration, animation, and highly bespoke interaction design all add time. None of this is wrong to want — it's just priced according to the actual effort involved.

Ongoing Maintenance and Hosting

The upfront build cost isn't the only number that matters. Hosting, monitoring, backups, SSL renewal, and security updates are ongoing, and we're upfront about what that looks like as a recurring cost separate from the initial build, rather than folding it into a one-time number that makes the project look cheaper than the total cost of ownership actually is.

How a Quote Actually Gets Built

After a discovery conversation (see how we structure a discovery call before starting a project), we break the project down into its actual components — page templates, custom functionality, integrations, content needs — and price each piece based on the real effort involved. The result is a quote that a client can look at and understand, rather than a single opaque number with no explanation behind it.

This also means two projects that both describe themselves as "a new business website" can land at very different price points once we've scoped them, and we walk through why rather than just presenting the gap.

Why We Don't Do Flat, Universal Packages

Some agencies sell fixed packages — "Website Package A: $X, five pages, includes X, Y, Z" — because it's simpler to sell and easier for a client to compare at a glance. We don't default to that model, because it tends to produce one of two bad outcomes: a client overpays for features they don't need, or a client underpays relative to what their project actually requires and discovers the gap partway through. Custom scoping takes a bit more time upfront, but it produces a number that actually maps to the work.

That said, for businesses with genuinely simple needs — a straightforward brochure site with no integrations and existing content — the resulting quote often does land close to what a templated package would charge. The difference is that it's arrived at through actual scoping rather than a one-size-fits-all rate card.

Budget Ranges, Honestly

We're comfortable discussing realistic budget ranges early in a conversation rather than making a client go through full discovery before learning whether the project is in a workable range for both sides. If a budget and a described scope are clearly mismatched, we say so directly — see what we look for before taking on a new web project for more on how we think about that kind of fit conversation. For a broader look at typical cost ranges across different tiers of website complexity, how much does a custom website cost goes into more detail.

The Number That Actually Matters

The upfront cost of a website is only half the picture. What it costs to maintain, how much it saves in staff time through automation, and what it generates in actual leads or bookings over its lifespan matter more than the initial invoice. We try to have that fuller conversation with clients rather than optimizing purely for the lowest possible quote, since the cheapest initial number isn't always the cheapest project once maintenance and missed opportunity are factored in.