There’s no single right price for a website, but there is a right way to reach one. The figure depends on four things: the size, who produces the content, what the website has to do beyond presenting, and whether it’s designed for the business or assembled from a template. After launch, small costs remain and recur every year.
The four factors behind the price
The first is size. A one-page website that presents the business and takes enquiries, and a website with a page per service, notes and two languages, are jobs of a different scale, even if they look alike at first glance.
The second is content. Copy and photographs are often what delays a project most, and who produces them changes the price: the business itself, a photographer, or me, when the copy is part of the proposal.
The third is what the website does. Presenting and taking requests is one thing; bookings, a client area, payments or a link to invoicing are another, and each feature adds work, testing and maintenance.
The fourth is how it’s made. A bought template, adapted, costs less at the start and ends up looking like others; a website designed and coded for the business costs more to begin and does exactly what it needs.
Three project scales
- Presentation page: what the business does, for whom, where it is and how to get in touch, to exist in search and reassure people who arrive by recommendation
- Company website: a page per service, the projects and a request page, the scale of most companies, associations and independent professionals
- Website with its own features: several languages, bookings, a members’ area or links to other programs, where the price depends more on what the website does than on the number of pages
From the first scale to the third, the price can multiply several times over. That’s why a figure without a scope says very little.
The costs after launch
A website has ongoing costs: the domain, renewed every year, and the hosting that keeps it online. In the cost guide it publishes, Zaask, a Portuguese services marketplace, puts the domain at between 9 and 80 euros a year and hosting at between 60 and 300 euros a year1.
Professional email, paid tools and maintenance are added when they exist. Maintenance varies most: a lean website with no third-party plugins asks for little; a website full of plugins asks for constant updates.
My projects carry no compulsory monthly fee. After the 30-day warranty, adjustments are made by the hour or by request, with no lock-in.
Why there’s no price list here
A price list forces every business into a package, and the package rarely matches what the business needs. What I publish is the typical timeline for a website: around 7 weeks.
The figure is fixed in a written proposal, with the scope, timeline and price, valid for 30 days. As a rule, half is paid on acceptance and the other half on delivery.
How to compare two proposals
Two proposals with the same number of pages may not be selling the same thing. Before comparing figures, it’s worth setting side by side what each one includes:
- Who writes the copy and who handles the photographs
- How many languages, and whether each has its own address
- Whether the website is designed for the business or adapted from a template
- What is prepared for Google: speed on phones and Search Console, Google’s tool for keeping track of search
- Accessibility, already mandatory for some services, such as e-commerce2
- Whose name the domain, hosting and accounts are in, and when the code is handed over
- What happens after launch: the warranty, changes, and what they cost
The second-to-last point matters more than it seems. A cheap website with the domain in someone else’s name can turn expensive the day a change is needed.
When a low price turns expensive
A website built in a hurry, on a heavy template with dozens of plugins, costs little on day one and a lot afterwards: it’s slow on phones, hard to update and fragile with every update. The right sum includes the years of use, not just the first invoice.
The opposite happens too. A business that only needs one clear page gains nothing from a large project, and saying so is part of a good proposal.
When a website already exists, rebuilding isn’t always the way. A renewal starts with a written audit, at no cost, that ends in a plan: improve or rebuild, and why.
Asking for a useful proposal
A proposal is only as good as the information behind the request. It helps to have the current website’s address, if there is one, what the new one must do better, two or three reference websites and the deadline that matters.
In real projects, the Casa de Eletrodomésticos 3003 website shows its gas cylinders with prices and puts ordering within reach, and the ProjSuBe Group website pairs three languages with a recruitment platform. A request starts with the type of project, a name and an email.
Sources
- 1
- 2Decreto-Lei n.º 82/2022, de 6 de dezembroDiário da República