You may be wondering how much does it cost to make a pro website design? In words, the price can range from $1,000 to $100,000 and beyond. That’s because a lot of variables can impact the final website design cost. For example:

• Number of web pages
• Features
• Complexity
• Redesigning or building from scratch

As a result, even designers can’t tell the exact price for the web design until they don’t know precise requirements.

Besides, did you know that website design is not the right thing to save your money on? Google calculated that users need only 0.05 seconds to build an opinion on your website design. If it doesn’t impress them, they’ll leave.

We’ll dive into the precise analysis of website design cost and count all aspects that can impact the final cost.

Main Design Cost Influencers

Even though there are variables that impact design cost, the main equation stays unchanged. The final web development cost is the total working hours spent on design multiplied by hourly rates.

For example, if designers spend 200 hours on the website design process and charge $50, the final cost will be equal to $1000. Now, let’s get to details.

Design cost often depends on:

• Complexity (features list, animations, graphics complexity, and so on)
• If there’s a need for responsive design
• A choice between out-of-the-box template, freelancer, or agency
• Region where your designers are located

Let’s consider each one of them to give you a better perspective.

Complexity

It’s fairly obvious that making a simple landing page is much faster than building a complex e-commerce website design like Amazon or eBay. Moreover, the more pages on the website, the more time designers must spend on design, studying the target audience and competitors.

But this aspect is a little bit tricky. Even a single landing page can be a tough challenge for designers. For example, look at Apple’s Mac Pro landing page. Pretty sweet, right? Fancy animations, 3D elements. A beauty like this can take around 700 hours, which significantly influences the cost. It can start from $35,000 and exceed $110,000 depending on the vendor’s hourly rates.

Meanwhile, a straightforward Shopify landing page can take around 2-4 hours to complete and can cost around $100-$200.

Responsive Design

Google loves responsive websites and grants them high rank. This design adapts to the user’s screen size and platform from which the website is browsed. This makes the website design very flexible, and it looks good on any device.

But keep in mind that responsive design takes time. For example, a Netflix-like design can take around 168 hours ($8,400), and 42 hours ($2,400) hours from this will take the creation of a responsive design.

Vendor of Choice

The great impact on the design cost has a way of choice on who’ll working on your design:

• Out-of-the-box template
• Freelancer
• Vendor

Let’s quickly review each of them.

Template 

Templates are an excellent choice for small websites that are not into business. Moreover, it’s a really cheap decision. Usually, such templates allow you to edit the website’s appearance using minimal functionality and are often free. The most famous examples of such templates are WordPress, Wix, or Tilda.

However, cheapness and ease of use come at the price of weak security and a lack of responsive design. If there is a need for a more complex WordPress-based design, you will have to fork out for a custom theme that can cost around $1,500-$5,000.

Freelancer

Another option to create a website design is to hire freelancers. This option also stands out for its low cost in comparison with the agencies. However, before hiring a freelancer, there are several criteria you need to define:

• Features you want to implement in the design
• Target audience of your website
• The number of pages your website need

As you can see, you’re entirely in charge of planning while freelancers only bring your ideas to life. Freelancers are great for the quick design of small projects, but for more complex and large projects, it’s better to choose what we describe in the next paragraph.

Agency

The only thing that can confuse this option is its cost. The more designers there are in the team, and the more experienced they are, the higher the price for their services will be. However, the price is fully paid off by the quality of services.

• Full responsibility for the work thanks to the signed contract
• A team of professionals is working on the project
• Development speed and constant control

Region Cost Differences

The price for the services of designers very often depends on the region in which they are located. For example, using the services of designers from Eastern Europe is a fairly cost-effective solution, since the cost of design in this region will vary around $35-50, while the same services in the United States will cost around $80-160.

What Is Included in Design Cost

The process of creating a website design consists of several stages following each other. To have a clearer picture of the development, we will describe each of them.

Stage #1. Discovery Phase

Who’s involved: UX/UI designer, Business Analyst, Project Manager

How long: 2+ weeks

Results: Specifications with wireframes, rough and detailed estimate

How much: Depends on the complexity of the project

After the first contact with the client, the team compiles a complete list of features and lists all the requirements for the future design. Based on this list, a rough estimate is created with a listing of all pages and the time that needs to be spent on the design of each page. The client must approve the estimate and after that, the team proceeds to the Discovery phase.

Discovery Phase is entirely dedicated to compiling information about a future project. As a product owner, you need to define things like:

• Your business goals
• Your main competitors
• Future ways to get revenue
• Your Target audience
• Features list
• The value that your product will bring to users

This is the pre-development phase and after it, you’ll receive a specification (which is a detailed documentation of your future project) and designed wireframes (a schematic design representation).

Stage #2. Design Concept

Who’s involved: UX/UI designer, Project Manager

How long: 15-20 hours

Results: Final UI concept

How much: $800 – $1,000 (Note: based on East European hourly rates $50)

After the client approved wireframes, designers create 3-5 pages with 2-3 variants of each. These variants differ with color schemes, content placements, and so on.

Concepts can be made according to one of the following scenarios:

• Client has a strict brand design. All concepts made in compliance with a strict brand style guide (color schemes, pictures, style, and so on).
• Client hasn’t a strict brand design. Concepts are made based on the info received in the discovery phase.

Keep in mind that a brand style guide greatly reduces the time spent on the design process. Designers don’t need to search for elements like:

• Color scheme that usually takes around 3 hours ($150)
• Fonts usually take around 4 hours ($200)
• Pictures (if required)

Stage #3. Actual Website Design Process 

Who’s involved: UX/UI designer, Project Manager, Web Developers

How long: Depends on the number of pages

Results: Final design ready to be developed by web devs

Now it’s time to create mockups based on the wireframes made in the early stages. This stage is pretty complex since each page must be designed in various conditions. For instance, designers create an authorization screen, and they are not stopping on this. They create a variation of this screen when the user entered the wrong credentials and so on.

Besides, if the project is intended for several platforms, designers make each design for each platform separately.

All screens must be reviewed by the client to give feedback on what must be fixed (if there’s a need). When all is set and done, the client approves all screens and the project is transferred to web developers. From now on, designers switch to support role.

Additional Services

These services are not mandatory and usually a customer’s request that must be negotiated in advance in the planning stage. For example, there can be various localization services, implementation of adaptive design, and so on. Usually, all client’s additional requirements are gathered on the planning stage and estimated and added to the project specification.

Wrapping Up

We’ve covered all that comes to web design cost and things that can impact the final numbers of web design development cost. Now, you’re armed with knowledge and can easily get into web design development for your business needs.

Author’s bio

Vitaly Kuprenko is a writer for Cleveroad. It’s a mobile and web development company with headquarters in Ukraine. He enjoys writing about technology and digital marketing.