Someone rang me last week about a website for their business. We talked for ten minutes, it was going well, and then came the question I get nearly every week. Can you just send me a price list?
I get why people ask. A price list feels fair. Everyone sees the same numbers. Everyone pays the same amount. Nothing hidden.
Except it is not that simple. If I sent you a price list with one number on it, I would be lying to you a bit, without meaning to. Let me explain what I mean.
What people think transparent pricing means
Most people think transparent pricing means one flat number on a page. Website, £2,000. Done. No conversation needed.
It feels honest because it looks simple. But simple and honest are not the same thing. A price list treats every project like it is the same job. And no two websites are the same job, even when they sound almost identical down the phone.
Why a flat rate falls apart
Say two people both get in touch wanting a website for a small business. Same rough idea, same industry, same size company.
One wants five pages, their own photos, and a simple contact form. The other wants twenty pages, an online shop, a booking system, and every word writing from scratch because they have never had a website in their life.
Same starting point. Completely different job. If I quoted both of them off one price list, one is paying for work I never did, and the other is getting work I was never paid for. Neither of those is transparent. That is just guessing, with a number stuck on the front of it.
And it is not only pages and features. One of those two people already has a logo, brand colours, and a folder of decent photos sat ready to go. The other has none of that and needs it built from nothing before we even get to the website itself. I have built sites for clients who started with literally nothing, not even a logo. That is a real difference in the work, and pretending it is not there does not make anything fairer. It just means somebody is quietly subsidising somebody else.
What transparency actually means
Here is what I think it actually means. Not one number that applies to everyone who walks through the door. It is you knowing exactly what you are getting, and exactly what it costs, before I start a single page.
That means I tell you what is included. I tell you what is not. I tell you roughly how long it will take. And once I have quoted you, that price does not move. No surprise invoice at the end. No, oh, by the way, that will be extra now.
The number is different for every client. The process that gets you to that number is the same every time. That is the bit that is actually fixed.
How I get to a number
I ask about scope. How many pages. What features you need. Whether there is a shop involved. Whether you are bringing your own words and photos, or you need me to sort that too.
That is what moves the price. Not who you are. Not how the enquiry landed in my inbox. Just the size and shape of the job.
Once I understand the scope, I give you a fixed price before you commit to anything. You are not signing up for an hourly rate and hoping it does not run away from you. You know the number, and you know what is behind it.
For a sense of scale, a start-up website with me will be around £650, and ongoing care starts at £45 a month. My prices are published here, along with what each one covers.
So what does a website cost?
My honest answer is, it depends.
I know how that sounds. Like a dodge. Like the answer someone gives when they do not want to commit to anything.
It is not that. It depends on the pages. It depends on the features. It depends on how much of the work is already sat there ready, and how much I am building from nothing. Saying it depends is not me avoiding your question. It is me refusing to guess at your project before I understand what it actually is.
Ask me again once I know your scope, and I will give you a straight number. It just will not be the same straight number I give the next person.
What to ask a web designer instead
If you are shopping around, do not lead with can I see a price list.
Ask what is included in a quote. Ask what happens if the scope changes halfway through. Ask whether the price you are given at the start is the price you actually pay at the end.
Those three questions tell you far more about a designer than any number on a page ever will. A price list tells you what someone charges. Those questions tell you how someone works.
And watch out for the opposite trap too. Cheap is not the same as transparent. A rock bottom number with no detail behind it usually means the detail turns up later, as an extra line on the invoice. A fair price with a clear list of what it covers will always tell you more than the lowest number you can find.
The short version
A price list looks transparent from a distance. A fixed price, built around your actual project, is transparent up close. And up close is the only distance that matters once you are the one paying the invoice.
If you want a straight number for your project, get in touch and tell me what you have in mind. I will ask a few questions about scope, then quote you a fixed price. That price will not move. And when the site goes live, I will plant a tree with the Long Lands Community, same as I do for every project.
