Business Website Price Range Guide for 2024
Understand the capabilities and compatibility of one another
Who Will Be Building the Website?
The type of team you select to build out your website will be largely determined by your budget. Most agencies will start projects at a minimum of $10,000 – $15,000 dollars. If your budget is less than this, you will most likely have to choose a freelancer or inexperienced agency. It certainly is possible to find a good bargain at a lower budget level, and receive a functional end product. However, in most cases, the less you have budgeted for the project the more likely you will run into issues with quality, efficiency or timelines.
Think of a new website like a home renovation. You may find cheaper contractors to do the work, but there is likely a reason they are cheaper. Sure they may get the job done, but there is a higher chance they may have inexperienced team members, regularly cut corners, use inferior/outdated products, or will incur additional future costs as a result of their low quality workmanship.
Below is a summary of what you can typically expect to receive at common web design project budget ranges. Pricing shown is for a standard business website for a small to midsize company (no ecommerce). Estimates and examples for website project budgets in 2024.
Project Budget Range: $1,000 – $5,000
Typical hourly rate: $50-$100
Typical Project Team: Individual Freelancer
What You’ll Get for the Money
Most often a one person shop. An individual freelancer, possibly from another country, who is a jack of all trades and master of none. Will often move quickly to complete a generic website, or one-size-fits-all solution.
Do your research and review the vendors work experience for reviews (if available) and past projects similar to your own. Ask if they outsource their work, and if they have any references.
- May use a basic template, or less comprehensive website platform like Wix, GoDaddy or Squarespace.
- Usually will not include a strategy for marketing, design, or content.
- Typically will involve very basic SEO, or on the flip-side – black hat methods of SEO for quick, but temporary rankings.
- Little room for customization. Integrated company data may break, or slow down the website.
- May require more communication as you “tell them” how to build the website.
Business Tip: If you have more time than money it might be best to DIY and create your own basic website. It’s not difficult to learn how to use WordPress or something like SquareSpace to get a website up quickly to serve as a placeholder until you can budget for something more professional.
Expected deliverables at this price range
- Fixed bid pricing
- One to five page website using a basic template
- Basic design customization (colors, module layout, sliders)
- Stock images from a free or low-cost stock image website
Project Budget Range: $5,000 – $10,000
Typical hourly rate: $100-$150
Typical Project Team: Freelancer or 1-2 person agency
What You’ll Get for the Money
Most often this is also a one person shop, either a freelancer or a fledgling agency. You may have a second person on the team who specializes in one area of design or development (ex: SEO, graphic design). At this price point that second person is likely to be outsourced.
Since you’re hiring a very small team of 1-2 people they aren’t going to be great at everything. However, compared to the sub $5k budget range the final product may be of higher quality with multiple experts.
- More likely to include some elements of website strategy (marketing, social media, content, branding, etc.)
- Likely to have basic SEO offering, and inclusion of researched keywords in metadata and page content.
- May offer a basic selection of options for template design
- Will likely have an established process for design and development
Business Tip: Find out the skills that an agency or freelancer of this size excels at. If those skills are related to your primary goal for a new website (better brand appearance, better data visualization, search rankings and traffic, etc.) then it may be a good fit. Generally speaking, a freelancer with great design skills is a good choice as most website visitors will quickly judge you by first impression.
Expected deliverables at this price range
- Fixed bid pricing
- Basic sitemap
- Basic website strategy
- Some level of SEO experience/ support
- 3-6 page templates
- Page builder template or build with advanced custom fields
- Blog functionality
- Projects, Case Studies, Gallery or other basic brand trust pages
Project Budget Range: $10,000 – $20,000
Typical hourly rate: $100-160
Typical Project Team: Reputable agency with 2-3 people
What You’ll Get for the Money
At this budget you should be able to find an agency with an optimized process. This means they’ll have a methodology and workflow that breaks down a website project into multiple phases to include strategy, design, development and training. The agency should also recommend a website solution that is based on client challenges and goals as opposed to “package” offerings.
Most of the time these are fixed big projects, if an agency at this level is experienced and knows they can’t estimate something accurately they should let you know. Sometimes that takes a paid discovery session, or alternatively you could hire them hourly to do the task (not recommended as they can go over your potential budget).
- Should have a comprehensive strategy for your new website
- Optimized user experience design for conversions
- Higher level of SEO offering. Could include strategy for building website authority, optimizing site for key search terms, and content strategy.
- Customized, unique and enhanced design options
- Optimized for user experience on mobile devices
Business tip: Ask for an itemized breakdown of deliverables with costs. If you’re an established company this should be the minimum price range for budgeting your new website.
Expected deliverables at this price range
Strategy
- Kickoff Meeting
- Website Strategy
- Informational Architecture
- Wireframe
- SEO Keyword Analysis (sometimes)
- SEO Copywriting (sometimes)
Design
- 1-3 Homepage Concepts
- 4-8 Page Designs (ex: Home, About, Services, Blog, Case Studies, Contact Us)
Development
- Theme Development or template (usually WordPress)
- Quality Control Testing
- Cross browser
- Cross device
- Website Training
- Launch
Project Budget Range: $20,000 – $50,000
Typical hourly rate: $140-200
Typical Project Team: Veteran agency team with 3-4 people and support staff as needed
What You’ll Get for the Money
An agency at this level will typically have a long history (usually 8+ years), and have well known companies as past clients. They should have good reviews on sources such as Clutch, Google and UpCity.
Your team will typically include a project manager, strategist, designer and a web developer. Your project manager acts as a point of reference for communication with the team and agency. They will assist with the organization of the project, answer questions, identify project risks, send updates, adjust timeline as needed, identify change orders, and oversee quality control. Expect to also be provided access to a project management tool (big red flag if an agency doesn’t use one) that manages all tasks, milestones, documentation, messages, links to documents, and uploaded assets such as logos and images.
If you’re a well established small to midsize business focused on growth, and looking to leverage a new website to that end, this is the budget range for you.
- Most agencies will offer fixed bid pricing at a given range (ex: $25,000-$32,000)
- Team members likely have 4+ years of experience
- Agency may have a niche within your industry
- Recommendations for digital marketing and growth post-launch (ex: content marketing, backlinks, media)
- Versatile design, development, and marketing offerings – advanced SEO, copywriting, advanced Google Analytics & conversion tracking, web design, web development and possibly paid advertising
- Custom websites and custom themes instead of templated offering (see: difference between a custom WordPress Theme and a Premium Theme)
- Cleaner code and plugin optimization for improved site speed and functionality
- Well researched and optimized user experience tailored for your business and customer base
Business Tip: Ask the agency to include only the “must have” features in the core project, and leave “nice to have” items budgeted as add-ons. This allows you to focus on getting a working site up quicker and at less cost while leaving a road map for secondary features to be added after the site launch.
Expected deliverables at this price range
Phase 1: Strategy
- Kickoff Meeting
- Website Strategy
- Informational Architecture
- Wireframe
- SEO Keyword Analysis
- SEO Copywriting
Phase 2: UI/ UX Design
- 1-3 Homepage Concepts
- 8-15 Internal Page Design
- Blog
- 2-4 Custom Post Types (ex: Case Studies, Resources, FAQ’s, Team)
Phase 3: Development
- Theme Development (usually WordPress)
- CRM/ Email Marketing Integrations
- Analytics Configuration/ Integration
- e-Commerce
- Quality Control Testing
- Cross browser
- Cross device
- Page speed
- Website Training
- Launch
