How much does a website cost?

For a small brochure site, roughly $1,500 to $6,000 through a freelancer, $3,500 to $15,000 through an agency, and the price of a plan plus your own time if you build it yourself. A store or a directory costs several times more on the hired routes because cart, filtering and data modelling are real engineering hours rather than pages.

How does this calculator work?

It builds an hour estimate from your answers, then prices those hours three ways. The agency column uses a blended $95 rate plus a 25% process uplift. The freelancer column uses $55 with a 10% tighter scope. The do it yourself column prices your hours at zero and adds the plan, domain and any imagery.

Why is the agency number so much higher?

Two reasons, and both are legitimate. The hourly rate covers a team rather than one person, and a further 25% is added on top of build hours for discovery, project management and QA that a solo builder simply does not perform. You are buying reliability and accountability, and those cost money.

Are these numbers accurate for my country?

The rates reflect blended US, UK and Western European pricing. Rates in Eastern Europe, South Asia and Latin America commonly run 40% to 70% lower for comparable work, so scale the two hired columns down if that is your market. Plan and hosting costs are close to global.

What is the difference between first year and recurring?

First year includes the build, which happens once. Recurring is what arrives every year after: hosting, domain, licence renewals and any retainer. Recurring is the number that decides whether the site is affordable in year three, and it is the one most budgets never write down.

Is building it myself really cheaper?

In cash, clearly yes, because the largest line on every hired quote is labour and you are supplying it. In total cost it depends on what your hours are worth and whether you finish. The calculator shows the hours so you can decide rather than guess.

What does page count actually change?

Each additional page adds design and build hours, between roughly 1.4 and 3 hours on a hired route depending on site type. It matters far less than the design approach, because pages that share a template are cheap and new templates are not.

Does it include content writing and photography?

No, and no quote you receive should be assumed to either. Copywriting typically runs $80 to $250 per page and a half day of photography starts around $500. Add them separately to whichever column you choose.

Can I build a web app on a website builder?

Partly. A builder handles the marketing site, the blog, a catalogue and a standard checkout well. Genuine application logic, custom accounts and private data models need a developer, so treat the web app option here as an indication of scale rather than a route you can take alone.

What if I want help but not a full agency?

That middle option exists. You can build the site yourself on Grigora and bring in a professional for the parts you would rather not do, such as a custom integration or a performance pass. The hire a professional page lists what that covers and what it costs.

Free Website Cost Calculator

Describe the site you need and see what it costs three ways: an agency, a freelancer, or building it yourself. Every column shows a first year total, a recurring annual cost, and the line items behind both.

Free, no signup Runs in your browser Every assumption shown

Describe the site

Totals update as you change any answer.

What kind of site is it?

How many pages will you publish?

Count distinct pages, not blog posts. Fifty posts sharing one layout cost about one layout.

How should it be designed?

What does it have to do?

Three ways to get this built

Estimated build effort on a hired route: 50 hours

Hire an agency

A team: strategist, designer, developer, project manager.

$6,792

First year, all in

Design and build, 50 h at $95/h$4,750
Discovery, project management and QA (25%)$1,188
Managed hosting and staging, first year$480
Premium plugins, themes and licences$240
Stock imagery and asset production$120
Domain registration$14

$2,534

Every year after

Managed hosting and staging$480
Licence renewals$240
Domain renewal$14
Retainer, 12% of build with a $1,800 floor$1,800

6 hours of your time

Your time: briefing, feedback rounds, sign off, content supply.

Hire a freelancer

One person doing design and build, usually part time on your job.

$2,975

First year, all in

Design and build, 45 h at $55/h$2,475
Hosting, first year$216
Plugins, themes and licences$180
Stock imagery$90
Domain registration$14

$1,400

Every year after

Hosting$216
Licence renewals$180
Domain renewal$14
Upkeep, 18 h a year at $55/h$990

9 hours of your time

Your time: more of it, because there is no project manager between you.

Build it yourself on Grigora

Hosted platform, template to start from, no server to run.

$218

First year, all in

Grigora Starter plan, $12/mo billed yearly$144
Domain registration$14
Stock imagery, if you buy any$60
Build labour, 9 h of your own time$0

$158

Every year after

Grigora Starter plan$144
Domain renewal$14
Hosting, backups, patching, SSL$0
Your upkeep, about 12 h a year$0

9 hours of your time

Your time: all of the build, spread over evenings or a fortnight.

Start free Or hire a professional

Gap between the dearest and cheapest route

$6,574 in the first year. Almost all of that difference is labour, which means the question is not really price, it is who does the work.

Three year view

Agency route: $11,860. Do it yourself on the Grigora Starter plan: $534. Recurring cost is what separates them once the build is paid for.

Rates reflect blended US, UK and Western European pricing. Content writing, photography, paid advertising and transaction fees are excluded, because they scale with your business rather than with the build.

The largest line is labour

Same site, $218 instead of $6,792.

Grigora gives you the site, the newsletter and the store on one platform, with hosting, SSL, backups and updates inside the plan. Start on the Starter plan at $12 a month billed yearly, and bring in a professional only for the parts you would rather not do yourself.

Start free Hire a professional

How to estimate a website budget

Four steps from a vague idea to a number you can defend.

Describe the site

Pick the site type and the number of pages you will actually publish, not the number you hope to.

Choose a design approach

Template, customised template, or bespoke. This single choice moves the total more than page count does.

Switch on what you need

Selling, extra languages, staff editing, integrations, maintenance. Each one adds specific hours.

Compare all three columns

Read the first year total and the recurring annual cost together. A cheap build with an expensive year is not cheap.

How to estimate what a website costs, step by step

Real screenshots of the tool, taken while pricing a 24 page online store.

1
Describe the site
Site type, page count, how much design it needs and what it has to do. The totals update as you change any answer.
2
Answer for your own project
This one is an online store of 24 pages on a heavily customised template, taking payments and talking to an outside system.
3
Compare the three routes
An agency, a freelancer and building it yourself, each split into first year and recurring cost, with the hours of your own time each route still needs.

When this calculator earns its keep

Six moments a defensible number changes the conversation.

Checking an agency quote

You have a proposal and no way to tell whether the number is fair. Rebuild it from hours and see where the gap is.

Setting a budget before briefing

Walk into the first call with a range you can defend, so the scope conversation is about value rather than surprise.

Deciding whether to do it yourself

Put your own hours next to the invoice you would otherwise pay and make the trade honestly.

Getting internal sign off

Finance asks for the recurring line, not the build. This gives you both in one place.

Redesign or rebuild

Model the same site twice, once as a customised template and once as bespoke, and see what the ambition costs.

Planning year two

Most site budgets stop at launch. The recurring column is the number that repeats forever.

What each route assumes

The rates and hard costs behind every column, stated plainly.

Agency, custom build

Rate here is a blended $95 an hour across design, front end and back end.
A quarter is added for discovery, project management and QA, because it is billed.
Managed hosting with a staging environment is assumed at $40 a month.

Freelancer, WordPress or similar

Rate here is $55 an hour for an experienced generalist.
Scope is 10% lighter than the agency because there are fewer handoffs.
Plugin and theme licences renew every year, so they sit in both columns.

Shopify or another store platform

Closest to the online store type with selling switched on.
Add app subscriptions to the recurring line, they are the usual surprise.
Transaction fees are not modelled here because they scale with revenue.

Grigora, do it yourself

Plan is chosen from your answers: Starter, Pro or Business, billed yearly.
Hosting, SSL, backups and platform updates are inside the plan, not extra lines.
Your build hours are shown as hours, priced at zero, because you pay them in time.

Grigora vs. the other ways to get a site

Side by side, on the costs that keep repeating.

What you pay for	Grigora	Agency	Freelancer	WordPress DIY
Build labour cost	None, you do it	Highest line on the invoice	Middle	None, you do it
Hosting and SSL	In the plan	Separate, about $480 a year	Separate, about $216 a year	Separate, you pick a host
Security patching	Platform handles it	Retainer or nobody	Ad hoc, when you ask	Yours to remember
Time to first launch	Days	Six to twelve weeks	Three to eight weeks	Depends on your evenings
Cost of a small change	Free, you edit it	Billed, often with a minimum	Billed hourly	Free, if you can find the file

Common errors and how to fix them

Eight mistakes that make a website budget wrong before work starts.

Budgeting only for the build

Cause: The quote is a one time number, so the plan becomes a one time number.

Fix: Read the recurring column first. Hosting, licences and upkeep repeat every year for as long as the site lives.

Counting pages instead of templates

Cause: Two hundred blog posts get counted as two hundred pages.

Fix: Count distinct layouts. Posts sharing one template cost roughly one template, plus the writing.

Leaving content out of scope

Cause: Copy and photography are assumed to appear from somewhere.

Fix: Decide who writes and who shoots before signing. Content is the most common cause of a stalled launch.

Treating bespoke design as a style choice

Cause: Bespoke sounds like a preference, not a line item.

Fix: It adds roughly 60% to build hours on a hired route. Switch the design option here and read the difference.

No licence line in the budget

Cause: Plugins and themes were bought once during the build.

Fix: Most renew annually and stop receiving security updates when they lapse. Put them in the recurring column.

Forgetting migration and redirects

Cause: Only the new site was scoped.

Fix: Add hours for moving content and mapping old URLs to new ones, or accept losing the rankings you already have.

Assuming the lowest quote is the cheapest project

Cause: Two proposals get compared on the headline number.

Fix: Compare what is in scope. A quote that excludes content, migration and testing is not a lower price, it is a smaller job.

No budget for changes after launch

Cause: The project ends at go live in the plan, but not in reality.

Fix: Reserve either a retainer or your own hours. Sites need edits in month two, whoever built them.

Numbers worth remembering

The assumptions that move a website quote the most.

25%

Added on top of agency build hours for discovery, project management and QA

$95

Blended agency hourly rate used in the agency column here

Recurring lines most quotes omit: hosting, domain, licences, backups, updates

Build labour cost on the do it yourself route, paid in hours instead

Frequently asked questions

Ten answers about what a website actually costs.

Related free tools

Other utilities that pair with the Website Cost Calculator.

Spend the budget on the business, not the build

Website, newsletter and store on one platform, with hosting and updates included, starting free.

Start building free

Free Website Cost Calculator

Describe the site

Three ways to get this built

Hire an agency

Hire a freelancer

Build it yourself on Grigora

Gap between the dearest and cheapest route

Three year view

Same site, $218 instead of $6,792.

How to estimate a website budget

Describe the site

Choose a design approach

Switch on what you need

Compare all three columns

How to estimate what a website costs, step by step

Describe the site

Answer for your own project

Compare the three routes

When this calculator earns its keep

Checking an agency quote

Setting a budget before briefing

Deciding whether to do it yourself

Getting internal sign off

Redesign or rebuild

Planning year two

What each route assumes

Agency, custom build

Freelancer, WordPress or similar

Shopify or another store platform

Grigora, do it yourself

Grigora vs. the other ways to get a site

Common errors and how to fix them

Budgeting only for the build

Counting pages instead of templates

Leaving content out of scope

Treating bespoke design as a style choice

No licence line in the budget

Forgetting migration and redirects

Assuming the lowest quote is the cheapest project

No budget for changes after launch

Numbers worth remembering

Frequently asked questions

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Spend the budget on the business, not the build