The honest answer is: it depends on scope, not on a single number a website "should" cost. A five-page site with a contact form is a very different project from a booking system, a multi-location business, or a catalogue with dozens of products — and pricing should reflect that difference clearly, not hide it behind a vague quote.
What actually drives the price
Page count and content complexity — a landing page is not the same job as ten structured service pages.
Custom functionality — booking forms, multi-step intake, calculators or dashboards all add real development time.
Integrations — payment gateways, CRMs, WhatsApp, third-party APIs each carry setup and testing cost.
Content readiness — if you don't have final copy, photos or product data ready, that adds time regardless of who writes it.
Design depth — a templated layout versus a fully custom design system are different scopes of work.
What a fair starting-price website should include
At minimum: responsive design that works properly on mobile, a working contact path (form and/or WhatsApp), basic on-page SEO foundations, analytics setup, SSL, and a clear handover of the source. If a quote doesn't mention what's excluded — CMS, blog, e-commerce, multi-language, ongoing hosting — ask before you sign, not after.
Questions to ask any agency before hiring
What exactly is included at this price, in writing?
What happens if I need one more page, or a feature I didn't think of upfront?
Who owns the source code and hosting once the project is delivered?
What does post-launch support cost, and what's covered by default?
We publish exactly what's included and excluded on our website development page, and every quote comes as a written proposal — no hidden line items, no guessing what you're actually paying for.