How website pricing actually works
Nobody in this industry likes talking about money, so most agencies hide behind “it depends” and most buyers walk into their first quote blind. This guide is our attempt to fix that without pretending a price list would help you. It would not, because a number without a scope is a guess, and guesses are how projects go wrong. What we can do is show you exactly what moves the number, so when quotes arrive you can read them like someone who has bought websites before.
Why we quote fixed, and why we scope first
Every Clickingmad quote is a fixed figure, agreed in writing before any work starts, and it does not move unless the scope does. The price of that promise is that we scope properly first, which is why we will always ask questions before we name a number. Be suspicious of anyone who quotes without asking. They are either guessing, or planning to make the difference up later.
To set expectations honestly: our website projects generally start from around £4,000. Below that level we will happily tell you that a carefully built template solution is the better answer, and point you towards one. Beyond that starting point, the number depends on the four things below, which is exactly what the scoping conversation works out.
What actually drives the cost
Four things move the number more than anything else. The first is content: who writes it, how much exists already, and how much has to be created from scratch. Content is the most commonly underestimated line in any web budget and the most common reason launches slip. The second is design, specifically whether you need a custom design or a well-executed adaptation of an existing pattern. The third is integrations, because every system your site has to talk to, from a CRM to a stock system to a payment provider, adds build and testing time. The fourth is the number of decision-makers on your side, which sounds flippant and is not. Every additional approver adds rounds of amends, and rounds of amends are time.
What cheap buys you
A bargain website is not a smaller version of a properly built one. It is a different product. It usually means a template nobody adapted, stock content that ranks for nothing, hosting you share with a thousand strangers, and nobody answering the phone in month six. We regularly quote to rebuild sites that were cheap eighteen months earlier. Paying twice is the most expensive way to buy a website.
How to hold any agency to a number
Ask for a fixed quote in writing before work starts, with the scope described in words you understand. Ask what happens to the price if the scope changes, and expect the answer to be a conversation rather than an invoice. Ask what is excluded. Our own answer to all three is simple: a fixed number agreed up front, and if the scope changes, we tell you, you decide, and we agree the new number. That is not generosity. It is how the industry should work.
Want a number for your actual project rather than a range on a page?
Fifteen minutes on the phone is usually enough for us to give you an honest bracket.