What a website should actually cost
Website quotes are all over the place, and most of the confusion is deliberate.
The build
For a small business, a proper website is somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand.
The honest way to think about it is pages and work. One strong page costs less than ten pages. Someone writing your copy costs more than you supplying it. A shop or a booking system with payments is a different job again.
Anyone quoting a big number without asking how many pages you need has not priced your job. They have priced their week.
The monthly fee
A monthly fee can mean three completely different things.
Hosting and upkeep. Keeping the site online, backed up and secure. Genuinely necessary. Should be small.
Changes. Someone actually making the edits when you ring. Worth paying for, because otherwise you are learning a system yourself to change a phone number.
Renting the website. Some agencies never hand it over. Stop paying and the site disappears, because you were leasing it. Ask about this directly.
The questions that keep a quote honest
Is that the final price, or before VAT? Ask whether VAT goes on top. Some firms are not registered, and their number is the number.
Do I own it at the end? The site and the domain should be in your name. If you left tomorrow, would you get the files?
What is the monthly fee actually for? Get it listed. Hosting, changes, or rent.
What if I need another page in six months? There should be a price for that now, not a negotiation later.
Is the price fixed? It should be in writing before anybody starts.
What you should never pay for
A domain you already own, renewed at four times the price.
"SEO" with no explanation. Ask what they will actually do. If the answer is vague, it is a subscription, not a service.
Pages nobody reads. A ten page site with nothing to say on eight of them is worse than a good one page site.
The one that costs most
The site you paid for once, four years ago, that nobody has touched since. It is slow, it is invisible, and it is quietly sending people to your competitors every week.
That one is expensive and it does not appear on any invoice.
Let's get your website working.
Tell us about your business and we'll come back with a fixed price and what we would actually do.
Get a free quoteAria
Cozy Mind Media
Aria is an AI assistant. By sharing your details you agree to our .