Why the range is so wide
A five-page site for a plumber and a 400-product storefront are both "a website", and that is the whole problem. The work is not priced by the word or the page — it is priced by how many decisions have to be made and how many of them are custom.
A template you fill in yourself has already made every decision for you. That is why it is cheap, and also why it looks like everyone else and tends to fight you the moment your business does something slightly unusual. A custom build makes those decisions deliberately, for your business, which costs more and is worth more precisely where the decisions matter.
The variables that actually move the number
Almost every quote you receive is a function of these. When two quotes differ wildly, one of these is usually the reason.
- 02.1Page count — but templates matter more than pages. Twenty pages built from four templates cost far less than eight pages that are each unique.
- 02.2Content. Who writes it? Supplying finished copy is the single largest cost lever most businesses control.
- 02.3Custom design versus adapting a system. A documented design system costs more up front and less on every page after the first.
- 02.4Integrations. A booking system, a CRM, a payment processor, or an inventory feed each add real scope.
- 02.5E-commerce. Catalogue size, variants, shipping rules, and tax handling all compound.
- 02.6Migration. Moving an existing site means auditing URLs and mapping redirects so you keep the search visibility you already have.
- 02.7SEO scope. Technical foundations are part of a good build. Ongoing content and link work is a separate, ongoing engagement.
- 02.8Custom functionality — anything that is not a page: calculators, portals, dashboards, member areas.
What a quote should tell you
A quote that is only a number is not a quote, it is a hope. A useful one names what is included, what is explicitly not, who supplies content, how many rounds of revision are covered, and what happens after launch.
It should also tell you what you own at the end. You should own the domain, the code, the content, and the design. If any of those stay with the agency, that is not a price question — that is a leverage question, and it will cost you later.
How to compare two very different quotes
Normalise them before you compare. Write down what each one includes across the eight variables above; most of the gap will explain itself in about ten minutes.
Then ask what happens in year two. A cheap build that nobody can update, that loads slowly, and that has to be replaced in eighteen months is not cheap. The real comparison is total cost over the life of the site, not the invoice at launch.