I often get asked, “how much does website design cost, David“. It’s one of those questions that I find really tough to answer as many clients would expect £X as a package cost and that’s really not feasible to offer this for such a vague question. Still, for any freelance website designer, it opens up many follow-up questions to try to ascertain what the website (and the business) needs to achieve.
What affects the quote?
While discussing a potential website project with a client, I will ask things like “what isn’t working with your current site?” which helps me understand what your new site needs to include feature/functionality-wise, and this is one of the biggest factors when pricing up a project as the difference between having a simple brochure site and an e-commerce store could be 100+ hours of work. Aside from functionality, the amount of pages of content is a big factor. Even if all the content is provided in a nicely formatted Word document, the page design can take many hours along with back-end optimisation for search engines that often get neglected. More content is better, providing the quality is high, but it also adds to the quote.
The design of the website can take hours, days, weeks or months! For larger projects, I will design the website in a mockup suite like Adobe XD so more attention can be paid to the user experience (UX), refining the flow that the visitors will take and ultimately optimising the design for the highest possible conversion rate. If you are looking for a more budget-friendly option, I design on the fly while building the site, still with optimisation and matching your brand guidelines throughout the development process. Either way, I always try to avoid using design templates and create a custom website design to give your brand a unique look.
If you have a specific request about how the website should work, like a fancy booking system that connects with your mobile app, I will generally look for a pre-made website plugin that can achieve this. WordPress has thousands of plugins to do 95% of what many require, and while some of these charge per use or per year, they are generally quite affordable and can be worked into care plans. If you are part of the 5%, I may hire an external developer to custom code a plugin for the website which is where costs can rise quite quickly, but these are always discussed beforehand.
While I don’t charge by the hour and try to provide an estimate based on the project requirements, of course, I don’t want to be working for less than minimum wage, so it’s important to set the project scope in advance so everyone knows what will be included from the start, and that project will be priced accordingly.
The competition
As a freelancer based in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, UK, I am going to be more budget-friendly than a multi-department design agency based in London. That said, on the other end of the scale, there is so much competition out there offering website design from countries like India for much less. It’s impossible to price match these offers, and I know from experience that (mostly) the level of service they provide won’t be able to match what can be offered locally here in the UK. More hours and higher levels of experience will be spent on your website, with a much better understanding of what works design and SEO wise here in the UK that other countries may not be accustomed to.
So how much does website design cost?
Particularly if you have a ‘basic’ website design project, I am generally happy to give you a ballpark figure, but as I mention, there are many factors which can affect your quote. Websites start from around £795 and go up from there. If you are on a budget, I can also provide an alternative solution. The best thing to do is reach out to me, let me know your current website, a bit about your business and your goals, and I will get back to you with a no-obligation quote.
