What a website actually costs in 2026

Website pricing is opaque because most of it is quoted without saying what is included. Here is the structure underneath the numbers, so you can read any quote you receive.

What you are actually paying for

• Strategy. Deciding what the site says and to whom.
• Content. Words and images. Almost always the bottleneck.
• Design. Layout, type, colour, states, responsive behaviour.
• Build. Turning the design into a working, accessible site.
• Setup. Hosting, domains, analytics, SEO basics, handover.

Rough bands

A landing page done properly sits at the low end. A multi-page business site with custom design sits in the middle. A store, a booking flow, or anything with accounts and payments sits well above that, because the testing surface grows faster than the page count.

Any quote that does not separate these lines is hiding which one is being skipped. Usually it is strategy or content.

Why quotes differ so much

Two quotes for "a website" can differ fivefold and both be honest. One includes copywriting, custom design and a month of revisions; the other is a template populated with text you supply. Ask which of the five lines above are included and the gap explains itself.

Where to spend and where to save

Spend on content and on the two or three pages that actually convert. Save on page count, stock imagery, and features you are not certain anyone will use. A five-page site that says the right thing beats a twenty-page site that says nothing.