Once in a while, someone will ask me something like How much does a website cost? or What would it cost to build me a site with 10 pages?
The answer to the first question is, unsurprisingly, it depends. It’s like asking how much it costs to build a house: no one can answer that question without knowing how big the house should be, what it’s made of, how it’s designed, and what sort of ground you’re trying to build it on. A cabin in the woods and a castle in the swamp are going to have wildly different prices.
With the second question, people believe they are being more specific. But the number of pages is actually meaningless when pricing a website.
Designing a website takes a certain minimum amount of time and effort regardless of whether you’ve got 2 pages or 200. The designer works with the client to understand what they’re looking for visually, and how their target audience should perceive the site. No matter how big or small your site is, the overall style and mood and layout needs careful consideration and attention.
Once you have the design, you often end up with templates that apply to many pages. For example, the blog posts on this site all use the same template, so it takes no extra effort from a designer or developer to add a new post at any time.
What matters is what’s on the pages of your website: do the pages need to do anything, or are they just text? Do those pages need to include anything like:
- products for sale
- an image or video gallery
- an event calendar
- event registration
- dynamic content from other websites
- forms for users to fill out
- a separate section for members
- quizzes and interactions
- an AI chatbot
A simple-looking website that displays a calendar where users can register and pay for event signups can take longer to build than a site with 50 pages of text documents.
When thinking about hiring someone to build your website, it’ll help to think of the site in terms of features you need. Then the person quoting on your website can give you a more accurate and thorough price.
If you have a website in mind and would like to think through this with an experienced professional, feel free to drop me a line and we can discuss your goals and explore the possibilities. There’s no obligation – I enjoy helping people understand their options and find the right solution for their needs. Sometimes just talking through your ideas with someone can help clarify what you’re looking for and what might be involved in bringing your vision to life.