“How much does a website cost?” is the first question we are asked, and the honest answer is: it depends on what the website has to do for you. Two quotes with the same heading can differ tenfold without either being dishonest. They simply do not describe the same work. Here is how to read a price.
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The two families of cost
A website has a build cost, paid once, and a running cost, paid every year. Many unpleasant surprises come from the second, which people forget to ask about.
| Item | When | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Scoping and structure | Build | Goals, site map, visitor journey |
| Design | Build | Art direction, mockups, mobile version |
| Development | Build | Integration, features, forms, speed |
| Content | Build | Copy, photos, translations |
| Domain name | Every year | Your address in .com, .bj, .fr |
| Hosting | Every year | The server that keeps the website online |
| Maintenance | Every year | Updates, backups, security |
| Licences | Every year | Plugins or subscriptions, if any |
What pushes the price of a website up or down
The number of unique pages
Ten pages built on the same template cost less than five pages that are all different. What counts is not the number of pages but the number of layouts to design.
Custom design or adapted theme
An off-the-shelf theme adjusted to your colours ships quickly. An identity drawn for you needs mockups, rounds of feedback and more integration time. The difference shows, and it has a price.
Features
A contact form has nothing in common with appointment booking, online payment, a client area or a connection to your management software. Each feature has to be studied, built and tested.
Content
If you supply finished copy and good photos, the project moves fast. If everything has to be written and photographed, that is a job in itself, and often underestimated.
Languages
A website in French and English is not “the same site twice”, but every page has to be translated, proofread and linked to its version in the other language.
The software is often free, the work is not
WordPress, which runs more than 40% of the world’s websites, is free and open source. So is WooCommerce. What you pay for is the time of someone who knows what to build, in what order, and how to avoid the mistakes that cost a lot later: a slow website, a poorly ranked one, or one you cannot edit.
Key point. A cheap website that brings no clients costs more than a well-designed one that brings one a week. Compare quotes on what they let you achieve, not only on their total.
Six questions to ask before signing
- Who owns the website, the domain name and the content at the end of the project?
- What will I pay each year, and to whom?
- Will I be able to edit text and images myself?
- Is the website designed for mobile first?
- Is basic SEO (titles, descriptions, speed, sitemap) included?
- What happens if something breaks after delivery?
How we set a price
At Aureva Digital there is no public price list, because we do not sell pages by the kilo. We start from your goal, define the scope together, and you then receive a clear, itemised proposal. Our six-step method explains what you receive at each phase. To get a figure that fits your case, describe your project: four questions, a few minutes.
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Written by Amadeus AvlekaFounder of Aureva Digital, designer and web developer based in Cotonou. Learn more
