Journal
How much does a website cost?
13 Nov 2026
What a $1,000 site, a $3,000–$10,000 site, and a $10,000+ custom website actually are, and why they are not the same product with nicer colours.
By Amr Mo, Founder
| Range | What you are buying | Typical time |
|---|---|---|
| Starter · $1,000–$3,000 | A proper first site: home, work, services, contact, mobile, enough SEO that Google can find the company. You own domain, hosting, and code. | 2–4 weeks |
| Growth · $3,000–$10,000 | Custom system: sector pages, written case studies, a CMS your team can use. The range most established companies should be in. | 4–8 weeks |
| Enterprise · $10,000+ | Positioning, architecture, motion, integrations, and a search structure that has to hold as the company grows. | 8–16 weeks |
People search this because they have been burned
How much does a website cost is not curiosity. It is a founder who paid for a site that still looks cheap, or who is staring at three quotes that do not mean the same thing.
A $500 site, a $5,000 custom website, and a $50,000 site are three different products. They are built by different people, take different time, and solve different problems. If someone tells you they are the same job with a nicer font, they are selling you a template.
What you actually buy at each range
Around $1,000–$3,000 you are buying a proper first site: home, work, services, contact, mobile, and enough SEO that Google can find the company. It is not a film. It is not a CMS for a twenty-page archive. It is the site a serious client can trust while the company is still establishing itself online.
Around $3,000–$10,000 you are buying a custom system: sector pages, written case studies, a CMS your team can use, and a site that can sell the work you already do. This is the range most established companies should be in.
From $10,000 you are buying positioning, architecture, motion, integrations, and a search structure that has to hold as the company grows. That is a different engagement, not a fancier Starter package.
The number that matters is not the lowest quote
The cheap quote is cheap because someone else will own the hosting, the code is a theme, and you will pay again in eighteen months. Ask who owns the domain, the repo, and the CMS. Ask who is on the project after the sales call. Ask what happens the week after launch.
If you already have a business, the expensive mistake is the site that makes that business look smaller than it is. See Pricing for the three packages we actually sell. If the current site is the problem, start at Contact.