Ask three people to quote the same website and you will get three numbers that can differ tenfold. It does not mean two of them are lying. It means each one is pricing something different, and the quote does not show you which.
This article will not guess what your website costs. It gives you the breakdown you need to compare three quotes as if they described the same thing.
You are not paying per page
The most common misunderstanding on both sides of the table: "I need a ten page website." Ten pages tells you nothing.
What costs money is the number of unique layouts. Ten pages where eight are articles in the same format is three templates: home, article index, article. Five pages that all look different is five templates, and it costs more than the ten.
Next time you write a brief, do not count pages. Write down how many different kinds of content the site will hold.
What the price is made of
A custom website is almost always these five things:
- Structure and content. What goes on the site, how it is ordered, what the visitor should do. The cheapest line item, and the only one that ruins everything else if it is rushed.
- Design. Every unique layout, drawn for phones as well as desktops.
- Development. Turning the design into a site that works and can be maintained.
- Integrations. Bookings, payments, stock, invoicing, CRM, newsletter. Anything that talks to somebody else's system.
- Launch and testing. Browsers, phones, speed, accessibility, redirects from the old site.
If one of those is missing from a quote, it is not free. It means somebody else will do it, or nobody will.
What pushes the price up
A second language is a multiplier, not a surcharge. It touches the design, the code, and every text you ever write afterwards.
Integrations always cost more than they look. Not because of the code, but because of what has to happen when the other system answers differently than expected, or does not answer at all.
An online shop is a different category from a website. Shipping, payments, order states, returns, stock and accounting are a whole project inside the project.
And the one nobody mentions: who supplies the words and photos. If you do, the site is cheaper and usually better, because you know your customers. If the agency does, it is a separate line item and it should be visible in the quote.
Where cutting costs works
Reduce the number of unique layouts. Three good ones beat seven rushed ones.
Build in stages. The first version does not need to do everything. It needs to do the thing that earns you money.
Do not photograph everything up front. A few good pictures now and the rest later beats a full shoot where half the frames never get used.
Where cutting costs backfires
On the words. The most expensive website is the one where visitors cannot tell what you sell. No design saves that.
On speed and foundations. Speed, working properly on a phone, and accessibility cannot be reliably bolted on later. They are consequences of how the site was built.
On ownership. The domain, the hosting and the code should be yours. This is the one place in this article where a bad decision can cost you a lot, and it will not show up for three years, when you want to move somewhere else.
On maintenance. A site nobody updates for a year is not a saving. It is a deferred bill.
Questions to ask every quote
Ask these before you compare numbers. The answers will line the numbers up for you.
- How many unique layouts are included?
- Who supplies the words and the photos?
- Who will own the domain, the hosting and the source code?
- What exactly happens when I want to change something myself in a year?
- Does the price include migrating content from the old site and redirecting the old addresses?
- What is included after launch, and what is billed separately?
Question five reveals the most. Redirecting old addresses is dull, invisible work that cheap quotes forget, and skipping it can sink your search traffic for months.
What it costs with me
A breakdown is one thing, an actual number another. These are the prices I work with: a base by project type, plus add-ons for whatever else the project needs.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| What we are building | |
| Presentation websitePortfolio, company site, landing page | CZK 15,000–25,000 |
| E‑shopCart, payments, product management | CZK 20,000–40,000 |
| Web applicationClient portal, bookings, internal system | CZK 35,000–60,000 |
| Design | |
| Design it for meA design made for your business | + CZK 8,000–14,000 |
| Extra features | |
| Blog and newsArticles you write yourself | + CZK 4,000–7,000 |
| Sign-inUser accounts | + CZK 6,000–10,000 |
| Payment gatewayStripe, GoPay | + CZK 8,000–12,000 |
| Admin panelManaging content and data | + CZK 8,000–14,000 |
| Animation | |
| AdvancedScroll animation, transitions | + CZK 4,000–7,000 |
| Premium3D and custom effects | + CZK 10,000–18,000 |
A few things always apply. The consultation is free, the price is fixed once we agree on it, and up to 2 rounds of revisions are included. There is a 50% deposit up front. Extra work is billed at CZK 800 an hour and always agreed in advance. I am not a VAT payer, so the price is final and nothing gets added on top.
You can click through your own combination in the pricing calculator.
How I do it
When I build a website, I do the design and the code myself, so you are never paying for handovers between people. I always quote line by line rather than as a single number, so you can see what can be cut and what cannot. The domain, hosting and code are yours from day one.
Tell me what you need and I will send a scope estimate and a price range before we even talk about a meeting. I have no reason to keep it secret. A few sentences about what the site has to do, sent through the enquiry form, are enough.