The honest answer nobody gives you upfront
"How much does a website cost?" is the question I get more than any other, and it's usually met with a frustrating non-answer: "it depends." That's technically true, but it's also a cop-out. So here is the version I wish more designers would actually give you.
A website can cost anywhere from almost nothing to tens of thousands. The number depends on three things: how custom the design is, how much you build versus buy, and who does the work. Once you understand those three levers, the price stops feeling random and starts making sense. Here's how it breaks down.
The DIY route: a subscription and your time
If you build it yourself on Squarespace, Framer, or Wix, your hard cost is just the platform subscription. Expect roughly $16 to $50 per month (£13 to £40), plus your domain at around $15 a year.
The real cost here is your time and the ceiling on quality. Templates get you online, but they rarely position a business the way it needs to be positioned, and they tend to look like what they are. For a side project or a business testing an idea, DIY is a perfectly sensible starting point. For a business that needs to win trust and generate leads, it usually becomes the thing you replace within a year.
The template-plus-designer route: $500 to $2,500
This is the sweet spot for a lot of small businesses. A designer takes a strong template or a proven layout, then customises it properly around your brand, your content, and your goals. In the US this typically runs $500 to $2,500, and in the UK roughly £400 to £2,000.
You get something that looks intentional rather than generic, without paying for a fully bespoke build. It works best when your needs are fairly standard: a clean marketing site, a service business, a portfolio, a simple online presence that does its job well.
The custom marketing site: $2,500 to $8,000
When you want a site designed from scratch around your brand, with custom layouts, motion, and a structure built to convert, you move into custom territory. For a freelancer or a small studio, a custom marketing site on Framer or Webflow usually lands between $2,500 and $8,000 (roughly £2,000 to £6,500).
That range covers strategy, a bespoke design, responsive build, basic SEO setup, and a CMS so you can update content yourself. This is where most ambitious small and mid-sized businesses should be looking, because the site becomes a genuine sales asset rather than a digital business card.
E-commerce and complex builds: $5,000 and up
Selling online adds real complexity: product pages, checkout, inventory, payments, shipping, and tax. A custom Shopify store generally starts around $5,000 and climbs with the number of products and the level of customisation. A content-heavy WordPress build with memberships, integrations, or advanced functionality sits in a similar or higher range.
If your website is the business, not a brochure for it, this is the tier where the investment pays for itself fastest.
The agency route: $15,000 to $50,000+
Full-service agencies bring larger teams, account managers, and more process. That overhead shows up in the price. For many small businesses this is more than they need, which is exactly why working directly with an experienced freelancer or a lean studio often delivers agency-level quality without the agency markup.
So what should you actually budget?
Skip the sticker shock and start with the job the website needs to do. A few honest questions point you to the right number:
Is this a simple presence, a lead-generating machine, or a store?
How custom does it need to look to compete in your market?
Will you maintain it yourself, or do you want that handled?
Where do you expect the business to be in two years?
A local service business testing the waters might spend a few hundred. A growing company that lives or dies by inbound leads should think in the low thousands, and treat it as an investment with a measurable return, not a cost to minimise.
Cheap websites are usually the most expensive
Here's the part worth remembering. The lowest quote almost always becomes the most expensive option, because you pay for it twice: once to build it, and again to replace it when it fails to bring in business. A well-built site that generates even one extra client a month pays for itself many times over.
That's how I approach every project: start with your goals, recommend the tier that actually fits, and build something that earns its keep. If you're trying to figure out where your project should land, I'm always happy to give you a straight answer.
