When a client sees $5,000 on a web design proposal, the number often lands without context. They don't know if they're paying for one week of someone's time or six. They don't know what phase the money goes to, or where it gets absorbed when the scope creeps. So here's what it looks like from our end.
A well-scoped six- to eight-page custom site typically runs 48–52 hours. Our effective rate works out to around $95–$100 per hour. The breakdown below is drawn from real projects. The hours are representative, not verbatim — no two projects are identical — but the proportions hold.
Discovery and kickoff: 4–6 hours
This is the intake call, the brand questionnaire we send beforehand, and the written scope document that comes out of it. Four to six hours sounds steep for "a meeting," but a clean brief at the start saves more time than it costs. We've tried skipping it. The hours don't disappear — they reappear in revision rounds instead, usually at a worse point in the schedule.
Design: 12–15 hours
Wireframes first, then visual comps. The order matters. Typography and color decisions don't make sense until the structure is settled — jumping straight to the visual layer is how you end up redoing the homepage layout after the client's already approved the hero section. Two rounds of feedback is normal. The first is usually structural ("move services above the fold"); the second is cosmetic ("make the button a little darker"). A third round typically means something got missed upstream.
The most expensive revision is the one that happens after development starts.
Development: 24–28 hours
The biggest block, and the most variable one. Responsive layout, component structure, CMS integration if the client needs to edit content, form wiring and testing, performance tuning, image optimization. This is also where "can we add one more thing?" reveals whether the original scope was tight. Every addition has downstream effects on other components that aren't visible until you're actually building. We'd rather handle scope changes cleanly — documented, priced separately — than absorb them silently. Silent absorption is how projects get delivered late.
Content and QA: 4–6 hours
Most clients write their own copy. We edit it. Clean drafts get polished; rough ones get rewritten, which takes longer. QA covers device testing across current iPhone and Android, cross-browser checks (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge), an accessibility pass, form submission testing, and a structured walkthrough against the brief. This phase is where small problems surface — a nav link that 404s on mobile, a form field that doesn't validate correctly. Better here than after launch.
Launch and handoff: 2–3 hours
DNS migration, hosting setup, redirects from the old site, and a live walkthrough with the client once the site is live. We don't push to production and close the ticket. We do a call, go through every page together, and send a handoff document covering CMS basics, what's being monitored, and how to reach us if something needs attention.
What usually gets underpriced
Two things come up in almost every $5K engagement. First is content. We're editing client-written copy, not producing it from scratch. Writing it — page by page, with actual messaging strategy — adds another 15–20 hours. Most clients don't budget for it, and most sites reflect that: serviceable but not sharp.
The second is post-launch. The month after a site goes live is when the requests arrive. "Can we change the wording here?" "The mobile hero feels tall." "My son-in-law says it loads slow on his phone." These are normal and fixable. They're also not free, which is why we offer a monthly care plan for clients who want ongoing access without a separate invoice every time something minor comes up.
What "free" costs
The most common mid-project addition is a blog. A real blog — listing page, individual post template, category filtering, CMS integration — is 8–12 hours of development work. "Can you make it so I can edit things myself?" is 6–10 more, if that wasn't in the original scope. We don't say no to these. We price them. The alternative is absorbing them quietly, which is how agencies end up building $8K of work for $5K and wondering why margins are bad.
A $5K site and a $5K site with two "free" additions aren't the same project.
Why $5K and not $3K or $8K
Cheaper projects cut somewhere — usually discovery, design rounds, or QA. You get the site. One revision round, no scope buffer. That works for some clients. The right answer depends on what you actually need, which is what we figure out in the first call.
More expensive projects have more pages, custom functionality, complex integrations, or a longer content operation. A $12K build isn't a $5K build with extras tacked on — it starts as a different scope. We cover more of this in our post on what actually happens inside a proposal.
If you want to know where your project lands before getting three quotes that don't agree with each other, a 30-minute call is the fastest path. We'll give you a range before the conversation ends.
— Cole