How Much Do Web Designers Charge? A Pricing Guide
Check out this great article on pricing for web designers by FreeBooks.
“Hourly Rate
Reasonably skilled and experienced freelance web designers make about $75 per hour on average. This figure can vary, though, according to CSS-Tricks.
Website Builder Expert estimates that the cost to design a website is $30 to $80 per hour, while the cost to actually develop the website is $100 to $180 per hour.
Freelancers typically make a higher rate than in-house web designers because they don’t receive health insurance and other perks that employees receive.
A few factors determine whether a freelancer will charge more or less than $75 per hour:
- First and foremost your experience and skill level!
- Pet projects – A freelancer might offer a nonprofit, a friend, or a family member a lower rate.
- Project length – Long-term web design projects might deserve a slightly lower hourly rate in exchange for a greater amount of hours worked.
- Project difficulty – As a website builder, will you need help from a programmer, developer, or graphic designer? If so, charge more to cover the rate that these professionals will charge you.
- Page count – More pages to design means more work for the website builder. Extras like a blog or an e-commerce component can also drive the total up.
Flat Rate
Clients love paying web designers flat rates because they know exactly how much they’ll pay upfront. Web design freelancers often dislike flat rates because you can almost never be 100% sure how long a project will take, especially if the client asks for endless changes, according to CSS-Tricks.
It’s a good idea to question the client extensively before providing prices to make sure you understand their budget and project requirements.
Here’s a basic web design price list:
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- Setup: $160
- Design and building: $5,000
- Content creation: $500
- Client training: $600
- Maintenance: $500
- Total: $6,760
The average cost of basic website created by a freelance website designer is $6,760, according to Website Builder Expert. This cost only covers the first year.
That said, each cost can vary depending on many things, from the experience of the web developer to the current market for freelance web designers. Setup can cost as little as $50 and go as high as $200, depending on the website domain cost and other factors. A custom website design will usually cost a minimum of $5,000 but can go upwards of $10,000 for more complex projects.
Content creation varies from $500 to $5,000 depending on how much content the client wants and how often they want it. Plus, the annual cost of website maintenance costs about $500 to $1,000.
Skill Level
How much skill and experience do you (and/or your team) have in the world of web design services? If you’re only in your first year, you likely won’t get much business by charging at the upper end of the pricing spectrum. However, if you have several years of experience under your belt with the skills to match (and have a portfolio of your work that reflects that), you can easily charge more than the per-site average of $6,760
FAQs on How Much Do Web Designers Charge
How Much Should a Web Designer Charge?
Web designers determine their hourly rate based on their expenses and skill level. However, it’s also common for this rate to change depending on other factors, such as a given project’s complexity. Web designers with the necessary skills and experience should aim for a rate of at least $36 per hour.
How much do freelance web designers charge?
Freelance web designers tend to earn more in gross profit than employees since they have to pay all of their own taxes and expenses. Depending on the specifics of their web development services and the web design project, a designer will charge anywhere from $30 to $80 per hour. ”
Jason Ding, CPA
