GUIDE · COST
What a website costs, priced by the page rather than the pitch
A startup marketing site costs $2,000 to $4,000 from a senior-led studio, delivered in about a week. Freelancers sit lower with more variance, and agencies start around $25,000. The number is driven by unique page templates, whether copy is written from scratch, and whether a CMS your team edits is needed.
WHAT YOU GET QUOTED
Most of that spread is not quality. It is scope nobody stated out loud.
WHAT YOU ARE ACTUALLY BUYING
The unit is a template, not a page.
A twenty-page site built from three templates — home, a content page, a case study — is a three-template job. A five-page site where every page is laid out differently is a five-template job, and it costs more despite being a quarter of the size. Any quote that prices by page count without asking how many are unique has not been thought through.
THE PART FOUNDERS UNDERESTIMATE
Copy. Almost everyone believes they have it, and what they have is a feature list and an internal description of the product. Turning that into a page someone finishes reading is real work, it takes real time, and it is the difference between a site that looks good and a site that converts. If a quote does not mention copy, it assumes you are supplying it.
WHAT MOVES OUR NUMBER
Bundled with a brand sprint the pair sits between $5,000 and $8,000, because the discovery is shared rather than run twice.
THE MIGRATION LINE ITEM
Moving a site with traffic is a different job from building one without.
If the current site ranks for anything, the rebuild has to carry the URL structure across, 301 everything that changes, keep titles and descriptions, and land the sitemap on launch day rather than a fortnight later. That is a real chunk of work and it should appear as a line item rather than a surprise.
If nobody is arriving at the current site, skip all of it and pay for none of it.
QUESTIONS
How much should a startup pay for a website?
Between $2,000 and $4,000 buys a designed and built marketing site from a senior-led studio at startup scale. Under $1,000 you are buying a template filled in. Above $25,000 you are buying an agency's process, which is worth it when you have a marketing team to coordinate with and rarely before that.
Why are website quotes so different from each other?
Because the word website covers a template swap and a twelve-page site with a CMS, custom motion and migrated URLs. Ask any quote to state the number of unique templates and who writes the copy, and most of the spread disappears.
What is the single biggest cost driver?
Unique page templates. Twenty pages built from three templates is a three-template job; five pages that each look different is a five-template job and costs more, despite being a smaller site.
Is a cheap template site ever the right call?
Yes, before you know what you sell. Ship a template, learn which sentence makes people reply, then pay for design once the argument has stopped moving. Designing around copy that has not met a prospect is the most common way to pay twice.