How much should a small business website really cost?

One of the first questions every client asks me is some version of "how much will this cost?" It's a fair question, and the honest answer is: it depends on what the website needs to do. Here's how I actually think about pricing a website.

Start with the job, not the page count

A five-page site with a booking form and a payment gateway takes more work than a fifteen-page brochure site with only text and images. Price should follow function — what the site needs to do for your business — rather than a flat per-page rate.

What usually drives the cost up or down

• Custom design versus a pre-built template
• Number of unique page layouts, not just page count
• Interactive features — forms, bookings, payments, logins
• Content you already have ready, versus content that still needs writing
• Whether basic SEO setup is included from day one

A rough starting point

For a small Kannur-based business, a clean, custom-built brochure website with 4–6 pages, a contact form and basic on-page SEO is usually the entry point. E-commerce stores, booking systems and larger sites cost more, in line with the extra development and testing involved.

The real question to ask

Instead of asking "what's your rate," ask "what will this website need to do in its first year?" That's the question that actually determines the price — and it's the one I always start with on a discovery call.

Have a project you'd like priced properly? Get in touch or message me directly on WhatsApp.