· Prices checked · 6 min · Web design · Humza Sheikh
Web Design Cost: Our Fixed Price and What It Covers
What web design costs at a fixed price, what a website quote should cover, and what a site costs to run in its first year: hosting, domain and upkeep.
The short answer: web design costs from $1,499 with us. That's a fixed project, paid in milestones, and it covers strategy, copy, design, build and analytics. The guarantee: your website goes live by the agreed date and scores 90+ on Google PageSpeed Insights, or we keep working free until it does.
For scale: the median US web developer earned $92,650 in May 2025, which is $7,721 a month in salary alone, before employer taxes. Our starting price for a whole website is less than a quarter of that one month.
Website design cost is easy to compare badly, though. Two quotes for "a website" can differ on who writes the words, whether the site is fast, and whether you can see what visitors do. Below is what our price covers, what to check in any quote, and what a website costs to run in its first year.
How much does web design cost?
This is our price, from our web design page:
| What you get | Price | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Strategy, copy, design, build and analytics | From $1,499 | Fixed project, paid in milestones |
| Live on the agreed date | Included | Or we keep working free |
| 90+ on Google PageSpeed Insights | Included | Or we keep working free |
| Maintenance after launch (optional) | $149 a month | No contract, cancel anytime |
$1,499 is the starting price. After a 15-minute call you get a quote with your fixed price and a launch date we commit to, and the guarantee covers both.
What should a web design quote include?
A website that sells has to do three jobs: say clearly what you sell, load fast on a phone, and show you which pages bring in leads. A quote can promise "a website" and leave any of those to you.
Before you compare two prices, check each quote for these six things:
- Strategy: who the site is for and what they need to hear, agreed before design starts.
- Copy: every page written for you, not left as placeholder text for you to fill.
- Design: a look built on your brand, not a stock template with your logo on it.
- Build: responsive on every screen size.
- Analytics: tracking for visits, leads and sources, set up at launch.
- Speed: a stated target, in writing, for how fast the pages load.
Copy is the line that most often moves. If a quote leaves the words to you, the price is lower because you're doing part of the work, and the site waits for you to finish it.
Why does page speed belong in the price?
Because a slow page hides your offer from the people who came to read it. Google's guidance is that a page's main content should appear within 2.5 seconds of it starting to load. PageSpeed Insights tests that on a simulated mid-range phone and scores it out of 100.
We guarantee 90 or more, and we hold our own site to it. On 27 October 2026 our homepage scored 62 on mobile. After five fixes, the homepage scored 90 and four other pages 88 to 94, without removing a feature; the full account is in how we took our site from 62 to 90+ on PageSpeed. Every site we design is held to the same 90+ guarantee.
A speed target belongs in the quote because it's hard to add later. If speed isn't designed in, fixing it afterwards is a second project.
What does a website cost to run in its first year?
The build is a one-off. Three running costs start when the site goes live, and none of them is in a design quote:
- Hosting. On Railway, which hosts this site, plans start at $5 a month on Hobby, including $5 of usage, and $20 a month per workspace on Pro. Usage above what's included is charged on top.
- A domain name. A yearly fee to a registrar, which depends on the name and its ending.
- Maintenance. Updates, security fixes, backups and small edits. Ours is $149 a month with no contract. On the US plans we checked for our website maintenance cost comparison, 8 of 9 cost $50 to $239 a month.
Here's year one added up, using our prices and Railway's Hobby plan:
| Line | Price | Year one |
|---|---|---|
| The build | From $1,499, one-off | $1,499 |
| Hosting (Railway Hobby) | $5 a month | $60 |
| Maintenance | $149 a month | $1,788 |
| Total | $3,347, plus your domain |
Maintenance is optional. If your team can keep the site updated, backed up and monitored, you don't need a plan; the maintenance comparison covers when it's worth paying for.
Is it cheaper to hire a web developer?
Not for one website. A hire is paid every month whether there's a site to build or not, and before the first page you also pay to find them.
The salary is the BLS median for web developers, May 2025 ($92,650 ÷ 12), before employer taxes, benefits or recruitment. Ours are fixed prices.
A hire makes sense when the website is your product and the work never stops. For that, we've compared the options in dedicated developers vs in-house hiring.
What makes web design cost more?
Scope, almost always. These push the price up:
| Driver | Why it costs more |
|---|---|
| More pages | Each one needs its own copy, design and testing |
| Online shop or bookings | Products, payments and stock are their own build |
| Connections to other systems | Every outside tool (a CRM, a booking system, a stock feed) is another thing to build and test against |
| Copy you haven't decided on | A message that keeps changing can't be priced once |
That's why we agree the strategy and copy before any design starts. The scope is settled, so the price and the date hold.
Common questions
How much does a website cost?
With us, web design starts at $1,499 as a fixed project, covering strategy, copy, design, build and analytics. Running it adds hosting, a domain name and, if you want it, maintenance at $149 a month.
How much does a website cost for a small business?
Our starting price, $1,499, is for exactly that: a site that explains what you sell and turns visitors into leads. In our worked example, the first year comes to $3,347 with hosting and maintenance, plus the domain.
How long does web design take?
You get a committed launch date with the quote. If we miss it, we keep working free until the site is live.
Do you write the copy?
Yes. Strategy and copy come first and you approve them before any design starts.
What does 90+ on PageSpeed mean?
Google PageSpeed Insights scores how fast a page loads on a phone, out of 100. We guarantee 90 or more, or we keep working free until it does.
Ready to price your website?
Tell us what you sell and who buys it. Our web design service gives you a fixed price, a launch date we commit to and 90+ on PageSpeed, or we keep working free. Book a 15-minute call to get yours.
Sources
Our price, scope and guarantee are from our web design page, and maintenance from our website maintenance page, 5 November 2026. Our PageSpeed results are from our case study; the maintenance plan range is from our comparison, checked 30 October 2026. Developer pay: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Web Developers and Digital Designers (median for May 2025; page modified 27 August 2026). Page speed: Google, Web Vitals. Hosting: Railway pricing. Checked 5 November 2026.