# What does a website cost, and what does the money pay for? > A website from me is one fixed price for up to about six pages, designed and built by one person, with a CMS, redirects, tracking and a handover. Most of the money pays for decisions, not typing. More pages, more copy and integrations raise it, and you see the new number before I start. By Dion Zeneli · 4 November 2026 · updated 12 November 2026 · 5 min read Source: https://www.theweb0.com/blog/what-a-website-costs Filed under: Pricing, Websites, Checklist --- A website from me starts at $16,000, excluding VAT, and usually takes 3–⁠5 weeks. This note takes that number apart line by line: what each part pays for, what the price leaves out, and what makes it move. The same lists are on the [websites page](https://www.theweb0.com/services/websites), in shorter form. ## What does the price include? Every line below is inside the price. None of them turns up later as an extra. | Line | What you get, and why it is in the price | | --- | --- | | Week one | The scope in writing, the first real screens, a live link. The expensive decisions get made here, before any build time is spent. | | The words | Structure for every page, and an edit of your copy, shaped to the design. A clear page in the wrong order still loses the buyer. | | Design | Every page designed in the browser, with your real words and pictures. Real content breaks layouts that look fine with placeholder text. | | Build | Webflow, Framer or Next.js, whichever fits the job. Fast pages are built that way, not fixed afterwards. | | CMS | Pages and posts your team can edit without me. A site that needs a developer for every change goes stale. | | Redirects | Every old URL sent to its new page, so search traffic follows you instead of hitting a dead end. | | Tracking | Analytics and conversion tracking, set up before launch. Without a before, there is no after. | | Accessibility | Built to WCAG 2.2 AA, tested with a keyboard and a screen reader. A buyer who can't use a mouse is still a buyer. | | Handover | Domain, hosting, CMS and code in your accounts from week two. Nothing depends on me staying around. | The line that needs explaining is week one. It is sold as its own fixed-fee sprint of $3,000, and it counts toward the price above. It is the first part of the first payment, never an extra on top. ## Where do the weeks go? The order is fixed even when the number of weeks is not. 1. **Week one.** The scope in writing, then the first real screens on a live link. At the end of it you decide whether to carry on. 2. **Design and words.** The pages, in the browser, with your real content. You review on the live link and send notes. 3. **Build.** The CMS, your content moved in, redirects, tracking, and testing on real phones. 4. **Launch.** The site goes live on your domain, and everything is handed over in your accounts. *Drawing: An example shape at the long end of the Website scope. Not a quote, and not the record of a real project. See it at https://www.theweb0.com/blog/what-a-website-costs* The part that takes longest is rarely the code. It is deciding what each page says, in what order, and where the one button goes. That is also the part a template can't do for you. ## What is not in the price? Most quotes list what they include. Fewer list what they leave out, and that second list is where the surprises live. Proof of Work Studio prints six things its brand sprint "does not cover", from product UI to trademark registration.[^pow] More studios should. Here is mine for a website. - **Logins, dashboards and workflows.** That is product work, with its own price. - **Photo shoots and film.** I can direct them, or work with what you have. - **Paid ads and ongoing SEO.** I build the site so both have something to work with. - **Translation.** If the site needs a second language, I build the switch. The words in it come from you. - **A new brand.** That is Brand + website, one project from $28k. - **Hosting and tool subscriptions.** They are billed to you, by them, in your own accounts. Any of these can be added. It changes the quote, and you see the new number before I start. ## What moves the price? Four things push a website above its starting price. Four keep it there. **Moves it up** - More than about six pages, or page types I have to invent - A shop, a second language, or both - 3D, film or interactive pieces made for the site - A new brand at the same time **Keeps it at the start** - Copy and pictures that already exist - One person who decides, and answers within a day or two - One language - A platform your team already uses The one buyers underrate is one person who decides. Every extra person who has to approve a page adds a round of notes, and rounds are where weeks go. A fixed price means the weeks are my cost, but the date is still yours. ## Is that a lot for a website? It depends what you compare it with. Here are the published numbers I could open. Marc Kuiper, who runs the Framer studio Holygrid, puts a freelance designer at 2,500 to 15,000 euros for a custom site, and says a studio "starts around" 10,000 euros.[^holy] Proof of Work Studio charges $20,000 for up to five pages in four weeks.[^pow] Clutch, which collects reviews of agencies, publishes an average. **$38,105** The average web design project reviewed on Clutch. Most of them cost less than $10,000. (Source: [Clutch, 2026](https://clutch.co/web-designers/pricing)) **7 months** How long most of those projects last, from the reviews. (Source: [Clutch, 2026](https://clutch.co/web-designers/pricing)) So $16k sits at the top of the freelance range, among the studios that publish a price, and well under the Clutch average. What the gap buys is one person who writes, designs and builds, a price that can't grow, and a launch in weeks. > **Averages hide the spread.** > > Clutch's average is pulled up by large projects, and its months are how long engagements ran according to reviews, not build time.[^clutch] Use it to see the size of the market, not to price your site. ## What do the four promises change? The price comes with four promises, written into the agreement before you pay anything. - **Fixed price.** The price on the quote is the price. If I underestimated, that is my cost. - **Staged payments.** You pay per stage and can stop after any stage. - **Week one.** A fixed fee of $3,000, counted toward the project. Stop at the end of it and I refund it in full. - **Revisions.** Changes inside the agreed scope of a stage are included until you sign it off. Together they move the risk of my estimate onto me. The worst case for you is stopping after week one, with the fee back. What I made that week stays with me. ## Do I need a whole website? Maybe not. If you have one offer and one thing for people to do, such as join a waitlist or book a demo, a landing page starts at $8k and takes 1–⁠2 weeks. If you need the brand as well, Brand + website is one project from $28k, which costs less than the two bought apart. To price your own site, tick what you need in the [estimate on the pricing page](https://www.theweb0.com/pricing#quote) and it adds up the rows. [^pow]: Proof of Work Studio's article on its brand sprint, published 12 February 2026 and updated 27 October 2026, lists what the sprint "does not cover", among them "product UI design" and "trademark search and registration". The same page prices a landing page at $10,000 in two weeks and the Web Sprint at $20,000 for up to five pages in four weeks. [proofofwork.studio](https://proofofwork.studio/writing/two-week-brand-sprint), checked 11 November 2026. [^holy]: Marc Kuiper of Holygrid, on what a Framer website costs, 2 November 2026: a freelance designer "typically charges" 2,500 to 15,000 euros for a custom site, and a design studio "starts around" 10,000 euros. His own rates start at 5,000 euros for a landing page and 10,000 for a complete site. [holygrid.studio](https://holygrid.studio/blog/cost-to-build-framer-website), checked 11 November 2026. [^clutch]: Clutch, web design pricing, updated 21 September 2026: "Most web design projects reviewed on Clutch usually cost less than $10,000." [clutch.co](https://clutch.co/web-designers/pricing), checked 11 November 2026.