What it costs, and who to hire.
What the money actually buys at each price level, and how to judge whoever is quoting you.
Website quotes for the same job routinely vary by a factor of ten. That is not because someone is lying to you. It is because "website" describes everything from a template you fill in yourself to a custom application, and because the price includes whatever overhead the provider carries.
Three numbers matter, and most businesses only ask about the first:
The build. What it costs to get the site made. This is the number in the proposal, and it is the one everybody compares.
The upkeep. What it costs every month afterward — hosting, domain, certificates, and on some platforms a genuine maintenance obligation. A cheap build on a platform that needs constant patching is not cheap. Ask for this number before you sign the first one.
The exit. What it costs to leave. If you do not own the code, the domain, and the hosting account, the honest answer is "a full rebuild." This is the cost nobody quotes and the one that hurts most.
The articles below cover all three, plus how long a project should actually take and what to ask before handing anyone a deposit. The last one is specific to Dallas–Fort Worth, where the density of agencies makes the spread between quotes unusually wide.
The articles
- 01 How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost? What changes between price levels, and how to choose a sensible scope. 6 min read
- 02 How Much Does Website Maintenance Cost? What ongoing costs actually cover, and what to ask before signing a monthly plan. 6 min read
- 03 How Long Does It Take to Build a Small Business Website? A realistic schedule, phase by phase, and the one thing that delays almost every project. 5 min read
- 04 Web Development in Dallas–Fort Worth: What It Costs and Who to Hire Why local quotes vary by a factor of ten, what each tier gives you, and the terms that decide what you own. 9 min read
Other guides
Getting Found in Local Search
How local customers find a business on Google, and what to do when they cannot.
Planning and Building a Business Website
Deciding what to build, which platform to build it on, and what to put on it.
Improving What You Already Have
Fixing a site that underperforms, keeping it secure, and automating the work behind it.