What should your website cost?

A small business website is usually $2,500 to $8,000. Under about $2,000 you are buying a template someone else filled in, and over about $15,000 you are paying for either a genuinely complex build or an agency's overheads. Our own work starts at $2,500 fixed.

Because most quotes are not for the same job. One includes copywriting, photography and a CMS; the next is a template with your logo dropped in. The other reason is pricing model: an hourly quote has no ceiling, so the number you are shown is a guess rather than a commitment. Ask every studio for a fixed price against a written scope and the quotes become comparable.

It is the right ballpark, not a quote. The calculator cannot see the things that move a real number: an awkward migration from an old site, a shop with two thousand products, a booking system whose API is a mess. We send a written fixed price within two business days, and that one does not move unless you change the scope.

Hosting and your domain, which are about $300 a year paid to the provider rather than to us, GST, and ongoing content changes once you have the site. Photography is not included either, though we will tell you honestly when stock images will do and when they will cost you customers.

Sometimes. If you need a single page with your hours and a phone number, a $500 template is the correct answer and we will say so. It stops being worth it the moment the site has to earn something: take bookings, rank for anything, or be edited by someone who is not a developer.