If you’re researching website designers, you’ve probably found plenty of advice telling you that “it depends” and very little explaining what it depends on. That makes it hard to set a budget, especially when two proposals with very different prices can both claim to include “custom website design.”
Here’s a concrete starting point: at JennyB Designs, a custom five-page small business website plus a blog starts at $4,000. A website project with keyword research and on-page SEO starts at $5,000, while a website created alongside a new brand identity starts at $5,500. Additional pages, functionality, or other services can change the final quote.
Those are my studio’s prices, not an average for every web designer in Boston. I’m based in Reading, Massachusetts, and have worked with businesses in Woburn, throughout the Boston area, and beyond. In this guide, I’ll explain what’s included in those starting prices, what makes a project more involved, and how to compare proposals without guessing.
What Do You Get for the Starting Price?
My Website Design package starts at $4,000 for a custom five-page site plus a blog. Every website project includes a discovery questionnaire and kickoff call, guidance as you prepare your content, planning around your customer’s journey, mobile-responsive design, training at launch, a guaranteed launch date, and 30 days of quality assurance.
If your brand is already established, that may be the right starting point. If you also want organic search considered as we plan the pages and their content, Website Design + SEO starts at $5,000 and includes keyword research and on-page SEO. If your logo, colors, and overall identity need to change with the website, Website + Brand Identity starts at $5,500.
Each option is available in four monthly payments. You can see the current scope and prices on my website design services page.
A starting price gives you a useful benchmark, but it isn’t a promise that every business needs the same five pages or features. We decide what belongs in your project by looking at your services, your audience, and what the website needs to help visitors do.
What Makes One Website Project Cost More Than Another?
The number of pages—and the work each page has to do
A business with one clear service may need fewer pages than a practice with several specialties, a team, and multiple locations. Additional pages take time to plan, design, build, and review, but page count alone doesn’t tell the whole story.
A page that helps someone understand a complex service may need careful structure, answers to common questions, examples, and a clear next step. Another page may be much simpler. When you compare quotes, ask which pages are included and what happens if your project needs more than the starting scope.
Whether your branding still fits
If you already have a strong logo, colors, fonts, and photography, we can use them as the foundation for your new site. If those pieces no longer represent your business, putting a new website around them may leave you with the same disconnect in a different layout.
For Activate Fitness in Woburn, the project involved both the brand and the website. The visual identity, branded photography, copy, and design needed to work together to reflect the experience of the training facility. That is a different scope from designing a website for a business whose brand assets are already ready to use.
How much content help you need
Many business owners know their current website says too much in some places and too little in others, but they don’t have all their final copy ready and waiting for a designer. That’s totally fair.
I guide clients through what content is needed and when it is needed. Professional copywriting can also be part of the project if you want help developing the words themselves. Ask a potential designer whether their quote includes content guidance, writing, editing, or only placing copy that you supply. Those are very different levels of work.
Search strategy
“SEO included” can mean different things from one proposal to another. It might mean basic technical setup, or it might include research into what your customers search for and using that research to plan your pages and on-page content.
If search visibility matters to your business, ask what the designer will actually do. My Website Design + SEO option starts at $5,000 because keyword research and on-page SEO are part of the project from the beginning. That gives the site a more intentional structure at launch; it does not mean a new site will instantly rank for every search you want. Clear structure also makes it easier for search engines and AI tools to understand what each page is about.
Features, integrations, and locations
A straightforward contact form is different from a booking system, a service finder, or a site that needs to represent several locations clearly. These features can be valuable when they solve a real problem for visitors, but they add planning and testing to the project.
Skin to Soul had separate websites for its Woburn and Somerville locations. Bringing the business together in one site meant thinking through how visitors would find the right information and choose a service. The important work was understanding that journey, then designing the site around it.
What Should You Compare Besides the Price?
When you receive a proposal, look at what the designer expects from you and what they will take responsibility for. A clear scope should tell you how many pages are included, who prepares the copy and images, whether SEO is included, how feedback is handled, and what training or support you receive after launch.
Ask about timing, too. A quote for a fast build may assume that your content, photography, and decisions are ready before design begins. My process includes a preparation phase to get clear on the content, followed by a focused four-week design and build once everything is ready. You know the launch date before that build begins.
Finally, ask what you’ll own when the project is complete. Your domain, hosting, website files, and content should be clear parts of the conversation, along with any ongoing costs for maintenance or support.
The cheapest proposal may be the right fit if you have a simple scope and are happy to handle more of the planning yourself. A larger proposal may make sense if your business needs branding, content, SEO, complex functionality, or more guidance. The useful comparison is the work you’re getting and whether it matches the problem you need to solve.
If you’re comparing people as well as prices, read my guide to choosing a website designer.
How Much Should Your Business Budget?
Start by writing down what is happening with your website now. Are people confused about your services? Does the site feel out of step with the business you’ve built? Do you need visitors to find you through search? Is an outdated brand getting in the way?
Those answers will do more to shape a useful quote than choosing a page count before you’ve talked through the goals. You don’t need to arrive at a discovery call with a complete sitemap or a perfect plan. You just need to be honest about what isn’t working and what you want the new website to help your business accomplish.
If your business is in the Boston area and you’re ready to explore a custom site, take a look at my website design options and current pricing. Then we can talk through the scope, the timeline, and whether working together is a good fit.
