Web Design Pricing Structures
2 Types of Freelance Clients
What to Charge for a Website
Designer or Entrepreneur?
WordPress vs. Squarespace
Your Expenses
How to Accept Payments
15 Tools to Start Your Web Design Business

This story is typical – you learn web design by building your first few WordPress websites. A friend, family member, or co-worker becomes intrigued by your new skills, and they ask you to make a website for them. Your first thought is – how much should I charge for a website?

If they don’t expect you to work for free (which is common), their first thought is similar – what is the average cost for web design?

Once you have the confidence to deliver a website, it’s natural to go one step further and wonder how much money can I make by selling websites to local businesses? Is web design freelancing something I should pursue more seriously to generate a side-income?

The answer is YES – but what you charge to build a website depends on many factors!

You can launch a website for free on a subdomain of a bigger platform like WordPress.com, or find a digital agency to create a major brand redesign for $10,000+ and everything in between.

Right off the bat, here are two recommendations for freelance pricing:

DO NOT Charge Per Hour

DO NOT List Your Prices

Let’s dig into the details, and I’ll explain why.

Web Design Pricing Structures

Just like you, a potential web design client is going to wonder immediately what the end price will cost them for the website they envision. It’s the first question they’ll ask 95% of the time before giving you any details on what they want.

These are the main ways that web designers charge for their services.

Hourly Rate

Average Price: $50 – $100/hour

You absolutely want to calculate what you make per hour after all is said and done with a website project.

But do everything you can to avoid pricing per hour to your client.

The reason for that is simple. Every other pricing structure provides a known final cost for your client where they understand what they’re paying in advance. It gives them a reference point that they can wrap their head around.

With an hourly rate, you may do the work upfront and then send an invoice, but if it wasn’t clear how long it would take, they might have “sticker shock.”

If it is clear how long it’ll take you, just sum it up and charge by the project.

Obviously, as your web design skills improve, you’re going to get better and more efficient, so you shouldn’t get compensated less when you get more work done in an hour.

It’s just the opposite, you want to increase the income you make per hour with every single website!

Project-Based Pricing

Average Price: Custom Quote

The website your client wants could be a one-page landing page or a 20-page business website with a WordPress blog they plan on publishing weekly.

You might need to set up an email signup form and write an automation sequence that welcomes new subscribers.

You’ll likely want to install Google Analytics to gain insights on your website visitors. That may include advanced goals like e-commerce purchases.

The bottom line, it’s best to have a conversation with your potential client to work out these specifics before giving them a price range or web design quote.

By taking notes, you can better estimate what work needs to be completed before launching the website and calculate your cost accordingly.

Productized Services

Average Price: $500 – $5,000 (one-time)

Creating set packages is a great option when you work with one business industry. The projects become similar enough that you can take out the core essentials that work for any business in your chosen niche.

Yes, you can always add-on to these packages with custom work, but 90% of the time, you’ll find a business owner will opt for one of your 3 options instead of hassling you to add things they don’t even know if they’ll need.

The benefits of this pricing style include:

You standardize your work making it easier to outsource

You make it easy to understand for your potential client

EXAMPLE: Create a business website package for $2,000 – $3,000 that includes up to 10 pages, paired with domain registration, hosting, Facebook page and cover photo, logo design, business cards, etc. This is a really unique all-in-one package that will set them up online.

Plus if they don’t want to manage the website or social media accounts, guess who can do that for a monthly charge (see section below)?

The great thing about the web is even though there’s a million services that do all these things, you’re the one that’s going to hand-select the tools that best fit your clients and manage them. As you get experience, you’ll learn which methods are working best and you can double-down on those to see better results.

Monthly Management

Average Price: $50 – $500/month

In my opinion, this is the best method that takes a little experience until you feel comfortable turning down one-time clients for those who want to pay you monthly.

Right now, it’s the only way that I charge, which includes a setup fee for the cost of launching the website. Several of my one-time clients have stuck with me for 10+ years paying me month after month. We have such a good relationship that I don’t see that changing anytime in the near future.

High-end clients realize the potential of a website and have a desire to keep it updated with fresh content regularly. They also know that monitoring the performance is crucial to getting the most out of it.

In these cases, you partner with local business owners long-term and amplify their vision with your expertise.

It doesn’t take world-class work on your end. In my experience, paying attention to the simple details and staying active over a long period are the most significant influences to drive more traffic to a small business website.

Your ability to charge monthly increases when you diversify your skills.

Websites are the entry point to learning so many useful adjacent skills like search engine optimization (SEO), code, graphic design, copywriting, marketing, advertising, and more. Once you have a bit of knowledge in a few of these areas, the value you bring becomes a no-brainer to the right types of clients.

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