TL;DR: Custom websites in 2026 follow five real price paths. DIY builders (Squarespace, Wix, Framer free): $0–600/year, you build it. Templates: $300–2,000, a developer swaps content for days. Freelancer: $1,500–8,000, one person doing design and dev. Boutique studio (us): $1,000–10,000, small team with a process and case work. Full-service agency: $25,000–250,000+, ten people, decks, enterprise timelines. Three things drive price inside the studio range: page count and component count, custom motion and 3D (30–50% premium), and content you do not have yet (add 2–3 weeks and a few thousand). Stack choice (Next.js vs Framer vs Astro) is a 10% delta, not 2x.
Search this query and you get Forbes affiliate pages, Elementor reselling itself, and blog posts that end at "it depends." None of them are written by a studio that actually ships websites. So the numbers are either hallucinated ranges ($500 to $100,000) or soft pitches for a DIY builder.
We charge between $1,000 and $10,000 per site. Here is what each dollar actually buys, what drives the price up, and how to know which tier you need.
The five real price paths
There are only five ways to get a website built in 2026, and the price gap between them is large and predictable.
- DIY builder (Squarespace, Wix, Framer free tier). $0 to $600 a year. You build it yourself, on a template, on their hosting.
- Template customization (Framer / Webflow template). $300 to $2,000. You pay for a template, a developer spends a few days swapping content and colors.
- Freelancer build. $1,500 to $8,000. One person doing design, development, and content. Quality varies by the decade of their career.
- Boutique studio (this is us). $1,000 to $10,000. A small team with a repeatable process, a specific stack, and case work you can look at.
- Full-service agency. $25,000 to $250,000+. Ten people on a project, strategy decks, a Slack channel you pay for in hours, enterprise timelines.
Everything below is about tier 4, because that is the tier nobody writes honestly about.
What actually drives the price
Three things decide where a studio project lands in the $1–10k range. Nothing else moves the number as much.
1. Page count and component count. A home page plus three content pages plus a contact form is a different project from a home page with ten sections, a case studies index, individual case pages, a services page, a writing index, and individual post pages. The second is roughly 3x the first, not 2x, because every new page type needs a layout.
2. Custom motion and 3D. A static site with tasteful hover states is fast. A site with WebGL, scroll-locked animation, custom cursors, or a hero scene that has to work on mobile is slow, because mobile kills your WebGL budget and you end up building two versions of the same effect. Expect a 30–50% premium.
3. Content you do not have yet. If you are sending final copy and final photography on day one, the timeline is tight. If we are writing copy with you, sourcing imagery, and making a brand look coherent, add two to three weeks and a few thousand dollars.
Stack choice does not move price much. Next.js vs Framer vs Astro is a 10% delta, not a 2x delta. Anyone quoting you a huge premium for a framework choice is padding.
What $1,000 to $3,000 buys
A one-page site, our design, your content, live in 7 to 10 days.
- One long page with 5–7 sections (hero, value props, proof, pricing or services, FAQ, CTA).
- A contact form that emails you.
- Copy polish but not copy-from-scratch.
- Mobile + desktop.
- Decent SEO basics (meta, OG image, sitemap, robots).
- Vercel hosting, analytics wired up.
What it does not buy: a CMS, a blog, a case studies section, multiple page types, or custom motion beyond standard fade-ins.
This tier is right for consultants, solo operators launching an offer, and teams who need to replace a bad site fast before a launch.
What $3,000 to $6,000 buys
A three-to-five page site, proper design, real interaction design, live in 2 to 3 weeks.
- Home, services, work or case studies, about, contact. Optional: writing index.
- Either a lightweight CMS (Sanity or content files in the repo) or static content.
- Custom components for your specific sections, not a template.
- Considered typography, real color system, motion with intent.
- Strong SEO foundations and a content plan for the first three posts.
- Analytics, Speed Insights, and a launch checklist.
This is the tier most small businesses and early-stage startups actually need. It is also the tier where a freelancer and a studio start to diverge: a freelancer is racing through the scope, a studio has a process.
What $6,000 to $10,000 buys
A full site with motion, 3D, case studies, writing, and an actual design system, live in 4 to 6 weeks.
- Six to ten pages plus dynamic case pages and post pages.
- A case studies section with per-case visuals (3D, video, or bespoke scenes).
- A writing section with posts that read like this one.
- Custom motion: scroll-driven animation, magnetic hover, reveal sequences.
- A real design system: tokens, spacing scale, typographic scale, reusable components.
- SEO and AEO setup: structured data, entity markup, schema that LLMs can read.
- A two-week post-launch window for tuning and copy fixes.
This is what we ship for studios, founders with a visible brand, and small companies whose site is doing sales work instead of existing as a placeholder.
What is included in every tier
Studios like ours include this at every tier. If a quote excludes any of it, ask why.
- Responsive design down to 320px.
- Accessible color contrast and keyboard navigation.
- Core Web Vitals in the green on launch.
- Basic SEO (meta tags, OG image, sitemap, robots, favicon set).
- SSL, a working contact form, and analytics.
- Hosting setup on Vercel or equivalent.
- Source code handoff.
The costs nobody itemizes
These land after launch and eat the budget of teams who did not plan for them.
- Hosting: $0 to $240 a year on Vercel Hobby or Pro. Cloudflare free tier for DNS.
- Domain: $12 to $40 a year.
- Email forwarding or inbox: $6 to $12 a month per mailbox on Google Workspace or Fastmail.
- CMS: $0 on Sanity free tier, $15 a month once you outgrow it, $99/mo on Contentful or Storyblok starters.
- Analytics: Vercel Analytics free, Plausible $9 a month if you want event tracking.
- Form backend: Free on FormSubmit, $12 a month on Basin or Formspark at volume.
- Error monitoring: $0 on Sentry free tier, $26 a month when you need it.
A typical small-business stack runs $200 to $600 a year in tools. Budget that separately. A studio that bakes these into the project price is hiding them, not absorbing them.
How to know which tier you need
Ask three questions.
- Is the site selling for you, or just existing? A site that exists can be $1–3k and a template. A site that sells needs $3k+ and design decisions.
- Do you have a brand yet? If the logo and type and colors are in flux, budget more. Design decisions in a vacuum cost twice.
- Will anyone maintain content after launch? If yes, you need a CMS and that is a $1,500 line item by itself. If no, static files are fine and you save the money.
If you are under $1,500 and want a five-page bespoke site, the honest answer is: the math does not work. Hire a good freelancer for $2–3k, or buy a template and ship.
Why our range is $1k to $10k specifically
Because below $1,000 a studio cannot cover its process. Above $10,000, you are paying for agency overhead we do not have. The $1–10k band is where a small studio with sharp process beats both a freelancer and an agency on total value.
We ship websites and AI automations in this range. If you want a scoped estimate for a site, tell us what you are selling, how many pages you think you need, and what your deadline is, and we will send a tiered quote back within a day.