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The cost to build a website can vary because of a number of factors. The two most important are obvious: how big is the website, and how complex is it? What else informs website cost? Can you get it down to a more exact figure before contacting web design agencies?

Note that if you're a larger business, you probably have full-time personnel dedicated toward both designing and managing your website. These professionals are generally paid full-time salaries with benefits and may range into the $100k territory.

Website Cost Factors

Let's consider the different steps that go into website cost. Not all agencies will list their prices. This doesn't mean an agency isn't transparent. It could be that the agency is more used to customization. This can often be a strength. For those website design agencies that do list a price, the cost to build a business website usually runs between $3,000 and $6,000. It can go below or above this depending on your needs.

Page Estimate: Consider $3,000 to $6,000 a starting figure for a 10-page design and development package. For every additional page, you might add in another $100. If you're starting from a base cost of $4,000 for a 10-page website, you can estimate that a 20-page website would cost you $5,000 then.

Custom Elements: The more custom graphic design elements, visual effects, evolving layout, video, and unique scrolling elements you feature, the more price you're adding on. You may also be dealing with additional budget for a graphic designer who you bring in or to use an agency's graphic designer.

Plugins & Tools: You may have need of a custom plugin or require implementation of a unique tool. To get these elements to work as needed with a website can be challenging. It may require testing to ensure it works as expected across all devices in a swift and secure manner.

Revision: A big part of website design is revision. Expect that you'll go through some design revisions. Even the strongest concept can be made stronger, more efficient, and better able to grow. Expect that you'll go through a round or two of revisions and that these should be priced into your budget.

Content Creation: Will you be incorporating content creation? Content creation is an investment because it utilizes SEO that will draw in visitors from the minute you post it all the way through months or years later. As you build content on your site, you build a series of assets that are always working to draw in visitors. For the investment, content creation is often a very wise choice. Just be aware that it requires new pages – often quick to implement – and can be capitalized upon with social media sharing.

Should You Try it Yourself?

If you're familiar with website design, you can often bring it in at a fraction of the cost. The exchange, however, is the time you invest in it. These are supposed to be hours spent building your business, networking, refining products and services, and being the front-person for your business. Even a simple site without complex presentation and unique plugin implementation can take dozens of hours.

Designing a professional website that's large and complex from scratch can take hundreds of hours, and those hours can take away more value from your business than simply hiring an agency. These hours are often spread across months, sacrificing both your time and the more immediate period where your business could be capitalizing on operating from a professionally built website.

Designing a website yourself is generally not advised, especially if your aim is for your business to grow and your site to evolve. Professional website design is about giving you an incredibly solid infrastructure that can continue serving you well into the future. The cost to build a business website may be a few thousand dollars. It's worth the investment in giving you a more robust, capable, and better performing website. Just as importantly, it allows you to spend your time building your business based on the strengths you already have rather than trying to learn a new one.