If it’s your first time managing a project, it can be difficult to know exactly how much your web design should cost.

This isn’t helped by the fact that when you start researching web design agencies, you’ll quickly realise that prices can vary wildly from agency to agency.

Why do prices vary? 

Well, think about this question: How much is a car?

The answer is that it depends on lots of factors:

  • The model and size ( e.g. a three-door hatchback vs a seven-seater SUV) 
  • The features (no frills vs shiny alloys) 
  • Manufacturer (Kia vs Ferrari)

It’s the same with websites. It all depends on:

  • The scope (what you need)
  • The amount of work (influenced by the size of the site, the amount of research or amount of user testing)
  • Who is implementing it (freelancer, small agency, large agency). 

With such a broad range of costs, it can be a challenge to decide which agency offers the best value for money. Generally, the more you pay, the more likely you are to receive a web design that is tailored to your users’ requirements.

To get you started, here’s a rough outline of what you can expect to receive from your web design agency from the bottom to the top of the cost spectrum.

How much does a web design cost?

The cost of web design depends on the project's scope. Basic designs range from £500 to £5,000. Custom designs cost between £5,000 and £15,000. For both design and development, prices are typically £25,000 to £100,000. Large-scale website design and development can cost from £60,000 to £250,000+.

Let's take a look at what you get for your budget.

Basic website design costs: £500–£5000.

Think website builders like Wix and or Squarespace implemented by a freelancer.

This would typically include a simple layout with a few pages, limited functionality, and a basic design. While these might be ok for very small businesses, they lack the bespoke design and functionality that you need if you want a web design based on your users’ needs.

Custom website design costs: £5000–£15,000.

Going beyond using a website builder and into customised designs using a real content management system. This would still be freelancer territory or perhaps a small web design agency. For this budget, you would expect a customised WordPress or Shopify theme and some basic functionality. There wouldn’t be much user research, and how much ongoing support you get would depend on the freelancer or agency.

Website design and development costs: £25,000–£100,000.

This budget would be suitable for a small to medium-sized marketing-led website from a web design & development agency. The broad range in pricing reflects the vast differences that there can be in scope.

Stay away from an agency that offers all of the below for £20k—they will be cutting serious corners or simply lack experience.

Within this price range, it would typically include a more complex layout, a bespoke website design with more advanced features and the development of the website. It should also include testing and compliance with standards, privacy and security.

Variables include the amount of user research, how complex the design challenge, how many page components, the complexity of the website features, integrations with other systems, content production and migration and whether upfront SEO research is included.

Keep in mind that the cost of a web design project is not only a one-time expense but an ongoing one.
Website maintenance and updates, SEO, security, and hosting also cost money.

It's important to have a clear understanding of the costs and benefits involved in maintaining a website and budget accordingly.

You can typically expect most of the following:

Discovery

  • A discovery session to understand your needs and goals, your audience, and the wider context of your business
  • Pop-up surveys on the current site to gain user feedback
  • The implementation of user behaviour analytics tools
  • Google Analytics analysis to understand your audience
  • Website user/buyer personas
  • Internal stakeholder interviews to understand the needs of the internal team and how they’ll be using and updating the site
  • External stakeholder interviews and market research to understand the needs of your target clients/customers
  • Branding analysis
  • Competitor website analysis 
  • Examples of current web trends
  • Tech discovery session (technical aspects of a web project, such as hosting and system integration)
  • CMS recommendations based on what’s right for your team
  • Information Architecture
  • User testing of the proposed site structure
  • A report detailing all of the above

Content

  • Content production (however, this is usually scoped separately as it can range significantly based on the number of site pages)
  • SEO optimisation (on-page keyword optimisation, back-end meta titles and meta descriptions)

Design

  • Wireframes that detail the structure and layout of the site
  • Bespoke designs based on research that incorporates your branding in innovative ways (rather than ‘insert logo’ here) 
  • A design system that details all the design elements (e.g. fonts, use of colours, use of buttons etc.) 
  • A website component document detailing all the components and their functionality

Build

  • A custom-website build
  • Quality assurance

Maintenance and support

  • Monthly required security updates 
  • The site and server are patched and backed up regularly
  • Regular health checks to ensure the site is functioning properly
  • Monitoring of the website for downtime and the web design & development agency taking action if it goes down
  • A monthly budget for website improvements 
  • Management of any issues/requests 
  • Monitor and analysis of website analytics and monthly reports offering recommendations. 
  • Search engine ranking tracking, SEO recommendations and ways to optimise digital advertising campaigns

Hosting

  • Ongoing hosting and support

Large-scale website design and development costs: £60,000–£250,000+.

A larger website, like that of a college, university, or research institute, or a large business like an international law firm, requires a lot more work.

A large number of pages will scale up the time required for research, design, development, content production, migration and technical SEO.

This budget is larger due to the more time spent on:

  • user research
  • UX design and testing
  • a larger number of page types and components 
  • integrations with other business systems
  • increased security requirements and other compliance issues
  • testing around performance 

Some large web agencies may only work on projects of this scale and so be an expensive choice for smaller projects.

 A well-established small to mid-sized agency, like Contra, will have predefined processes and know how to approach a larger-scale project effectively.

Need a web design agency?

Contra is highly experienced in full-service web design across various industries, including law & professional services, B2B, higher education, science & research, and charity sectors. We've crafted websites for prestigious clients like The Royal Society, The National Film and Television School, and Hudgell Solicitors.

With 24 years of expertise, we consistently deliver high-quality, award-winning websites. We may not be the cheapest, but we’re proud of that—our experience ensures a smoother process and better results. Connect with us today.

Connect with Contra

 

Callum Hornigold, Head of Marketing I help law firms 3X organic leads and boost conversions with data-driven marketing strategies for better ROI and business growth. View my profile