Web design pricing: what are you paying for?
"What does a website cost?" The answer is always the same: it depends. But that's not a very useful answer. Here's a concrete overview of what determines the price, and what it costs with me.
The 5 biggest price drivers
1. Custom design vs. template
This is the single biggest factor. A design built from scratch requires research, wireframes, mockups and several rounds of revisions. A template requires adjusting colours and content. That is why a site on a customised template is much cheaper than a custom design.
2. Number of pages and content
More pages mean more work. But it's not only about the number, because the complexity of each page counts too. Ten pages that share one template are faster to build than ten pages that each need their own design.
If you provide the text and images yourself, you save hours. If the copy has to be written from scratch, that work comes on top, and the price follows the number of pages.
3. Functionality
A contact form and a blog are normally included. What pushes the price up is functionality that touches real data and has to be tested thoroughly:
| Functionality | What drives the price |
|---|---|
| Contact form | Normally included |
| Blog | Normally included |
| Booking system | Whether it connects to your calendar, and whether customers pay when they book |
| Webshop (WooCommerce) | Number of products, variants, shipping rules and links to stock or accounting |
| Customer portal/login | Which data customers should see, and where it comes from |
| Payment integration | Which payment provider, and whether there are subscriptions or refunds |
| Multilingual | Number of languages, and whether you provide the translations yourself |
4. Who you hire
Providers work differently, and that shows in the price:
- DIY website builder (Wix, Squarespace): You pay the platform a monthly subscription and do all the work yourself
- Freelancer: Personal contact and one person to talk to
- Agency: A team with broader skills, but also more steps between you and the person who builds
Cheap quotes exist. So compare what is included: copy, SEO setup, speed optimisation, support after launch, and whether you own the code and the domain afterwards.
5. Ongoing costs
A website is not a one-time purchase. External prices below were taken from the vendors' own pages on 3 October 2026:
- Hosting: Simply.com Basic costs 69.95 DKK per month including VAT on renewal, which is 839.40 DKK a year, with a .dk domain and SSL. See Simply.com's prices (Danish).
- Domain: A .dk domain costs 72.50 DKK including VAT per year according to Punktum dk (Danish), and many hosts include it.
- Maintenance: With me, operations responsibility starts at 2,500 DKK per month excluding VAT. See WordPress operations.
- Plugin licences: Only if you use premium versions. Rank Math PRO, for example, costs €95.88 for the first year, excluding VAT.
What it costs with me
| Solution | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | 12,000 DKK | Up to 5 pages, responsive design, contact form, basic SEO setup and 1 month of support |
| Webshop (WooCommerce) | From 20,000 DKK | A basic webshop. Integrations and customisation push the price up |
| Complete solution | From 20,000 DKK | The whole solution in one place: server, code, AI, operations, payments and email |
All prices exclude VAT, and hosting and domain are not included. You get a fixed price before I start. See what a website costs and WooCommerce.
What should you prioritise?
If the budget is tight, prioritise in this order:
- Mobile-friendly design. A large share of your visitors come from their phones
- Speed. A slow site loses customers
- One clear action. Visitors need to know what to do
- SEO foundation. Otherwise nobody finds your site
Animations, parallax effects and video backgrounds are nice to have, but not necessary.
Sources
All sources were read on 3 October 2026. Prices change, so check the vendor's own page before you buy.
- Simply.com: Hosting packages and prices (Danish): simply.com
- Punktum dk: How much does a .dk domain name cost? (Danish): punktum.dk
- Rank Math: Pricing: rankmath.com
- Mahoje: Prices, what a website costs and WooCommerce
