Why are your prices on the website, and what does “from” mean?

Contents 5 sections

Every scope I sell has its price on the pricing page. This note reads the same file that page does, so the two can’t disagree, and when a price changes both change with it. Here is the table, in US dollars and before VAT.

Why publish prices at all?

Because price is the first thing a buyer wants to know, and the research on that is old and consistent. When Jakob Nielsen asked users to rank 28 kinds of information on business-to-business sites, “prices scored the highest by far”.¹1Jakob Nielsen, “B2B Usability”, Nielsen Norman Group, 31 May 2006. The same article calls a complete lack of prices “the most user-hostile element of most B2B sites”. nngroup.com, checked 11 November 2026. Five years later he called a missing price “the worst example of not answering users’ questions”, and said the habit is “rife in B2B”.²2Jakob Nielsen, “Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design”, Nielsen Norman Group, 2011. nngroup.com, checked 11 November 2026.

The second reason is the call. A call where you already know the number is about your project. A call where you don’t is about the number, and it tends to end with a promise to send a proposal. I would rather spend the twenty minutes on the work.

The third is that buyers do their homework before they talk to anyone.

Those are software buyers, not buyers of design, so read it as a direction rather than a number. The direction is that the site meets you before I do. If the price isn’t on it, that first meeting has a hole in the middle.

Who else publishes theirs?

Few studios do. Here are two that do, and two companies outside design that do it well.

• Stripe prints its card rate with the line “No setup fees, monthly fees, or hidden fees.” Businesses with large volumes or unusual models get a route to a custom package.³3Stripe’s pricing page, Belgian English edition: 1.5% plus 0.25 euros for standard cards issued in the European Economic Area, and a custom package “available for businesses with large payments volume or unique business models”. stripe.com, checked 11 November 2026.
• Designjoy, “a one-man agency” by its own description, prints $4,995 a month, “Pause or cancel anytime”, and 75% back if you stop after the first week.⁴4Designjoy’s home page, where the price sits under “Lifetime Discount - Limited Time” next to $5,995, and the refund reads “Not loving it after a week? Get 75% back, no questions asked.” designjoy.co, checked 11 November 2026.
• Proof of Work Studio writes “the sprint is $25,000 fixed” for a brand, and prices web work by pages: $20,000 for up to five.⁵5Proof of Work Studio’s brand sprint article, published 12 February 2026 and updated 27 October 2026. proofofwork.studio, checked 11 November 2026.
• River Pools builds swimming pools. Marcus Sheridan’s cost article puts an installed fibreglass pool at “$85,000 to $200,000” and links a tool to design and price your own.⁶6Marcus Sheridan, River Pools, published 14 March 2022 and updated 8 December 2025. The figure is the average cost of a turn-key installation “as of 2026”. riverpoolsandspas.com, checked 11 November 2026.

What they share is a number, what the number buys, and a door for the customer who doesn’t fit the table. Stripe’s custom package is that door. Mine is the call.

What does “from” mean here?

“From” is where a scope starts. A website starts at $16k, and that is a real price for a real project: about six pages, with copy and pictures that already exist, one person who decides, one language, and a platform your team already uses.

Most projects land above their starting price. The pricing page shows, for every scope, where most of that kind land once the scope is written down, so “from” never stands on its own.

After the call I write down the scope and one fixed price, before any work starts. Once it is in writing, the number doesn’t move.

Fig.

Why does a fixed price need a fixed scope?

Basecamp’s Shape Up puts the difference in two sentences: “Estimates start with a design and end with a number. Appetites start with a number and end with a design.”⁷7Shape Up, chapter 3, “Set Boundaries”, Basecamp. basecamp.com, checked 11 November 2026. A fixed price works the second way. The number is set, and the scope is written to fit it: what is in, what is out, and what would move it. Without that page, a fixed price is a guess with a signature on it.

The written scope is also what the promises around the price stand on. The price on the quote is the price. You pay per stage and can stop after any stage. Week one is a fixed fee of $3,000, refunded in full if you stop at the end of it. And changes inside a stage’s scope are included until you sign it off. Each of those needs a scope on paper to mean anything.

What does publishing cost me?

Something. These are the costs I can see.

• The smallest number sticks. The cheapest row can be read as the price of everything, and a landing page price carried over to a site with a shop. That is why every scope has its own row, and why the headline number on the pricing page says which scope it is.
• I can’t price the buyer. A published price is the same for a seed-stage company and a listed one. Some projects I could charge more for. I would rather have one price I can explain.
• Competitors can see it. They could anyway, after one call.
• Some people leave without talking to me. That one is the point. If the number doesn’t fit, a call wouldn’t have changed it.

If you want every scope with what is in it, what is out and what moves it, the pricing page has the lot.

Notes and sources

1. Jakob Nielsen, “B2B Usability”, Nielsen Norman Group, 31 May 2006. The same article calls a complete lack of prices “the most user-hostile element of most B2B sites”. nngroup.com, checked 11 November 2026. ↩︎

2. Jakob Nielsen, “Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design”, Nielsen Norman Group, 2011. nngroup.com, checked 11 November 2026. ↩︎

3. Stripe’s pricing page, Belgian English edition: 1.5% plus 0.25 euros for standard cards issued in the European Economic Area, and a custom package “available for businesses with large payments volume or unique business models”. stripe.com, checked 11 November 2026. ↩︎

4. Designjoy’s home page, where the price sits under “Lifetime Discount - Limited Time” next to $5,995, and the refund reads “Not loving it after a week? Get 75% back, no questions asked.” designjoy.co, checked 11 November 2026. ↩︎

5. Proof of Work Studio’s brand sprint article, published 12 February 2026 and updated 27 October 2026. proofofwork.studio, checked 11 November 2026. ↩︎

6. Marcus Sheridan, River Pools, published 14 March 2022 and updated 8 December 2025. The figure is the average cost of a turn-key installation “as of 2026”. riverpoolsandspas.com, checked 11 November 2026. ↩︎

7. Shape Up, chapter 3, “Set Boundaries”, Basecamp. basecamp.com, checked 11 November 2026. ↩︎

Written by Dion Zeneli. AI helped with research and editing. Sources are linked where they are used. Read this note as markdown.