Web Design Costs Depend on Many Things

Curious about web design pricing? The two key factors determining the cost of your website or e-commerce store are size and complexity. In other words, it all comes down to how much work is involved. Our website cost estimator works the same way.

That means a nice-looking, professional 15-page informational website with standard customization is going to cost less than a highly customized 50-page site with all the bells and whistles.

In terms of actual dollars, the cost to build a website for a small business ranges from less than $2,000 to more than $10,000. An e-commerce store can run anywhere from $5,000 to $ 25,000 or more. That all depends on the number of products you intend to sell and the functionality you need.

That’s a big price range. So let’s break things down so you can get a realistic estimate for what it will cost to design and develop your website or online store.

When using our website cost estimator you can select from a number of options or add-ons. Each of them adds to the total cost of your new website or online store. This allows you to determine how your desired or required options affect your web design budget.

Website Design vs Website Development

Website design and website development are often used synonymously, but they’re two very different things. Website design is like working with an architect to create the blueprint for your house. Website development is like working with a contractor to actually build your house.

Since we work as a cost-effective web design team we do both in-house. Our website cost estimator includes the cost for both the design and the development of your new website.

Website Layout

Nobody codes a website totally from scratch anymore. That’s way too time-consuming and expensive. We use a modular framework that allows us to create just about any type of website.

But there is still a lot of customization and coding needed to get your site looking and functioning the way you want it. The more customization and coding required, the greater the cost.

Using a framework is a major reason we can build a professional small business website in the $3,000-$6,000 range instead of $15,000-$20,000 or more.

Design Iterations

Our website projects start with an initial concept design, kind of like a rough draft. Sometimes that is pretty close to your vision, but generally, we go through 1 or 2 rounds of design revisions to get everything just right. Some website designers offer as many as 3-5 rounds of design revisions.

Technically, a website designer can offer as many rounds of design revisions as they want. But keep in mind, every design iteration adds to the overall cost of the project. In our experience, 1-2 rounds of design revisions are all that is required 99% of the time.

The Number of Pages and Products

While it sounds simple, adding pages and products takes time, and therefore adds to the cost of your project. Websites usually consist of different types of website pages. Some are very basic, and others more complex. Our website cost estimator enables you to add specific pages and functionality to your project.

A good rule of thumb is to allow between $75.00 and $100.00 for each page and around $ 45.00 for each product you want to add. More complex pages that require custom functionality (see below) usually cost a lot more than a simple text-only page.

The same goes for products. There is a difference between adding a simple product and including custom functionality such as variable products, customization options, etc.

Website Functionality

Getting your website or online store to do everything you and your target audience want requires significant trial/error and testing. In a perfect world, everything would be plug-and-play and work perfectly the first time.

But that’s rarely the case. A fair amount of tinkering and testing is usually required to get everything working as intended. And adding third-part functionality usually also includes annual or one-time licensing costs.