A quick guide to why website design costs what it does

Here's a very quick overview of what goes into the value you see on your proposal or invoice.

There is no guideline rate for creative or technical services such as website design, marketing, copywriting, branding or consulting. It's a free market, and individuals and companies will charge what they need to keep their business healthy and profitable, and in the UK that can mean anything from £25 to £500+ an hour.

Go global and prices change but the principles stay the same, a web developer, graphic designer, copywriter or marketer in India will still charge to cover their costs and maintain a profit, it's just the end price will be in line with the cost of living and trading in that particular country. Digging deeper into price and a rate will also be built on the skill, knowledge and experience they bring, as well as the value they can attach in terms of their reputation and standing within the industry.

Once a rate has been established, it's usually a process of multiplying it by the number of hours, days or months a project will take to complete. Even when a proposal has a fixed price, it's still an estimation of time to complete vs rate. Value based pricing is slightly different kettle of fish, and we will talk about this process at a later date.

If a freelance website designer working from home has a business rate of £30 per hour and they think the work will take 40 hours to complete, they will quote £1,200. If it’s a small (ish) website design and development agency quoting £150 an hour and they think it will take 800 hours, it will be £120,000.

The rate is the rate they want to charge, the time is what they need to:

Properly consult with and research the company and its market.

Design and develop the website and any branding.

Write and optimise the content which is bespoke to the audience.

Create or edit any imagery.

Upload and test the website.

Do any post build marketing if requested.

Do any post build management if requested.

Nothing mentioned here is new information, those that provide these services are in the business of doing so. There are numerous elements that go into the prices they quote, but hopefully this has gone a little way to explaining the price you see on your invoice. You can find out more about UK web design costs here, it will add some price depth to what has been mentioned within this post.