How Much Does a Website Designer Cost?

How Much Does a Website Designer Cost?

The typical cost of a professional web design in 2023 runs $500-$10,000, with most designers charging $50-$150/hour. Total cost depends on site complexity, features, and the designer's skill level. Careful planning ensures an affordable design.

Here's a quick rundown of the options for web design contractor jobs, and what prices to anticipate.

Website design for under $1,000

For small or mid-size businesses that don't require much, a small website of between one and five pages should be all you need. In addition to the main landing page, the site might include an About Us page and a page listing contact or location information.

Prices for this type of “brochure” style site might dip as low as $250, or shoot as high as $700, but should stay solidly under $1,000.

It's a trim price for a sleek but limited professional website. This option suits most companies that conduct their main business offline and need a simple site that points internet goers in the right direction.

Website design for up to $2,000

A slightly more expensive website design might include a few additional features, listed here:

• A content management system  — If business owners plan to make regular updates to their website, this system will allow them to do so. A good feature for a site with a blog.
• Social media integration — This embeds social media pages directly into the website, allowing it to be updated effortlessly via Facebook or Twitter.
• Google Business and Maps integration — By adding additional code to the backend of a website, a designer can ensure that Google highlights your site if a Google user in the area searches for your industry.
• Analytics integration — This allows website owners to track their visitors and see a record of how those visitors interacted with the site.

Website design for up to $5,000

This pricing range covers ecommerce websites — sites that function as online stores. Rather than point to an offline business, an ecommerce website functions as an extension of the business, or as an entire business by itself. Here are the features these sites need:

• Order management system — This lets an online store collect customer orders and track the products sold.
• Delivery tracking — This allows the customer to see where their package is in transit and when it has arrived, giving them a peace of mind and avoiding any potential miscommunication about when a lost package might have last been seen.
• Live chat features — Customers feel better knowing there's a human behind the website, and a chat feature allows for real-time two-way communication that does just that.

Website design for over $10,000

Large businesses might need a database-focused website: This type of site allows a local or regional business to gain data from their customers, which can then be fed into a service custom-built to turn the data into insights that can improve analytics, tracking, or orders.

The more customized services that the website data is used for, the more expensive the price tag for designing a site. National or international businesses will be in need of an even more advanced database site, and can expect to pay over $13,000 for a professional website that accommodates their needs.

Ongoing maintenance should also be budgeted for, as well as a coding crisis such as a sudden database shutdown that might take a professional 20 hours at $75 per hour to fix, resulting in a $1,500 cost.

With a higher price comes a higher return on investment: The data that a large company gathers can help it better hone its services, potentially saving millions in the long run.

One thing's for sure: Whether you're after a simple resume-style site or one with a big database, design agencies tend to be very opaque when it comes to pricing. We can offer the solution: Our researchers created a tool that gives you accurate pricing based on your needs.  It's 100% free for Tech.co readers to use; take a minute to try it out.

Website Design Agencies

What's the difference between a website design firm and a website design agency? It comes down to size and function. Firms tend to be larger and cover a range of services, while agencies might subcontract out certain services or simply stick to providing a single service. In both cases, the pricing should be in line with our estimates above — between $2,000 and $5,000 for a medium-large ecommerce site — although there's plenty of variance in costs across firms and agencies alike.

An argument in favor of firms is that their in-house talent ensures quality. However, a point in favor of agencies is that the wider range of potential third-party designers offers a better variety.

In the end, it comes down to the individual firms and agencies themselves. They both thrive on industry connections and healthy reputations.

If they're professional, know what they're doing, and can deliver on their promises, they're worth their weight in gold.

Freelance Web Designers

Finding individual freelancers that know what makes a good website can be difficult to track down if you're new to all this. Asking for referrals from trusted business owners in your network is often the best way to find a great freelancer.

When working with an individual for the first time, you'll need to prioritize expectations of the project and a clear contract. Make sure both parties agree on the features that are needed, the timeline for the work to be done, and where and how the payment will be delivered.

Neither you nor the designer should rely on a handshake. Any reputable designer will set out a contract with agreed stages for review and delivery of the project. Specifics about payments will vary, but most freelancers will set a minimum cost along with a per-hour rate, with an average cost of $75 per hour.

DIY Web Design With a Website Builder

Professional, modern templates and fast-track creation processes mean you can build a website for yourself in a few simple steps.

If you don't need a customized website, creating one yourself could be an inexpensive path towards the online presence you or your business needs. Even the complexities of an ecommerce website can be handled with the right tools. The costs for this could be as little as $60 per year, and you'll be in complete control.

Below, we list the best website builders based on our independent tests and user feedback:

How Much Will It Cost to Design Your Website?

When it comes to website design pricing, nothing's set in stone. Prices differ depending on the type of website, the number of pages to be designed, and the quality of the service.

For small, mid-size or large businesses in need of a website (or looking to redesign an old website), getting a few bespoke quotes from the best web design firms is the way to learn how much the job will cost. If a design firm is the right fit for you, they will be willing and able to provide a personally tailored quote that breaks down the services they'll be providing.

Read our guide to how much a website should cost for a granular breakdown of prices. Or, for a painless way to compare quotes from multiple website design firms, fill out our fast one-minute form.

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