Ask three agencies for a quote on the same website and you'll get three wildly different numbers. Here's what's actually driving that gap, and what to ask before you sign anything.
Why the range is so wide
A basic five page site and a fully custom fifteen page site with bookings, an online shop and ongoing content are not the same job, even if the person asking sees them as roughly equivalent. Price differences also come from how a business is structured: a one person freelancer working from home has far lower overheads than an agency with an office and account managers, and that shows up directly in the quote.
What genuinely changes the price
- Custom design work versus building from an existing template
- The number of pages and how much original content needs writing
- Extra functionality: online payments, bookings, memberships, integrations with other software
- Ongoing hosting, maintenance and support, which some quotes include and others charge separately, often not obviously
The upfront-versus-monthly question
Traditional agencies typically ask for a large payment before any work starts, sometimes the full amount. That model works well for an established business with cash to spare, but it's a genuine barrier for a business that's newer or watching cash flow closely. A monthly-paid model spreads that same cost over the year instead, usually with hosting and basic support rolled in rather than billed as extras later.
Questions worth asking any quote
- Is hosting included, and for how long?
- What happens if I want to leave? Do I keep the site, the domain, both, or neither?
- What counts as a small change, and what gets billed separately?
- How long does the project typically take from signing to going live?
The answers to these matter more than the headline price, because they're where the real cost of a cheap-looking quote often turns up later.