Welcome to Part 1 of 4 of our mini series Divi Website Design Pricing where we’re exploring effective Divi website price ranges and providing some actionable ideas on how to price your web design services.
Let’s be honest, web design pricing is all over the place. It’s hard to know how much to charge when websites are going anywhere from a couple hundred dollars or less to several thousand, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is no quick answer to the question “How much should a website cost?” In this post, we’re going to explore some standard and average price ranges for custom Divi website builds which are catered to small to medium size businesses.
Before we dive in, here’s a look ahead at the full series as we’ll be addressing numerous pricing questions and ideas in upcoming posts:
- Effective Price Ranges for Your Divi Website Builds
- Deciding How Much to Charge for Your Divi Web Design Services
- 5 Pricing Model Options for Your Divi Website Design Business
- How and When to Talk About Pricing with your Divi Web Design Clients
By way of preface:
- This post and series is specific to pricing for Divi website designs. Custom website builds, other CMS platforms like Joomla or Drupal and Ecommerce solutions may be on a different pricing scale and on the flip side, turnkey solutions like quick Child Theme builds and other builders like Wix and Squarespace may also be on a different average scale. Please reference our General Pricing Guide for WordPress Websites for some good pricing tips on custom WordPress builds and turnkey solutions.
- I’m based in Columbus, Ohio – a midwest City where prices are often not as high as big cities like New York, Chicago or L.A., but aren’t as low as smaller cities. Average pricing for web design is often dependent on where you’re located. This post will explore some average price ranges in my area which are a good middle of the road pricing range. Just keep in mind that the average in your area might be a little higher or a little lower.
- Pricing throughout the series will be referred to in USD($) and again, is based off of my experience as a freelance website designer in a mid-west city. Pricing averages will again vary depending on your location and whether you’re a one man shop or have a team and an office location.
- Keep in mind that when you’re just starting out, you may have to start out on the lower end of the spectrum and gradually charge more as time goes on and you become more experienced.
Ok, now that we’ve covered some initial details, let’s get to it!
Effective Price Ranges for Your Divi Website Builds
I often compare web design cost to a car. If someone asks you, “How much does a car cost?” The answer will depend on the car make, model, dealer, location, etc. Likewise, in web design, the cost will depend on the many variables involved.
Variables like:
- What’s the size and scope of the project?
- What functionality and integrations are involved?
- What’s the clients budget and are they willing to invest more if they see the value?
- Are you training people on how to use the site?
- Are you charging enough to make a profit?
And the list goes on. Many of these questions and variables should be figured out BEFORE you give an estimate or quote. See our previous post on creating a website questionnaire for more details on creating an effective questionnaire. Again, there is no right or wrong amount to charge but it must be profitable for you, the web designer and it must be a rewarding investment for the client. My pricing is usually between the middle to upper middle price range in my area. I’m not the most expensive, but I’m certainly not the cheapest. My pricing has served me well over the past few years and though I don’t land every potential job, I’ve landed enough to make a good living designing sites with Divi.
Ok, let’s explore some average costs and some real world examples of small to large Divi sites I built and what I charged. My website designs typically land within 4 ranges of pricing:
1) Small Divi Site
One-pagers or smaller landing page style sites – This is one of the more practical ways to go about creating a site for a business on a budget, an app or a company that is just starting out. This can be ideal for creating multiple sections on one page instead of a multipage site. And clients can hire you to add pages and build onto what’s been created moving forward.
Average Price Range: $500 – $1,500
Depending on the amount of sections, graphics and variables stated above, this is an average price range in my area. My starting point for even just a landing page site is generally on the higher end of that but occasionally I’ll dip if it’s something I think can be done quickly or a project I’m passionate about.
Here are a couple examples of real world one page sites and what I charged:
Turner’s Barber Shop – $1,750
This is a pretty large one page site and would likely have been moved up to the next level if the client wanted anymore pages or functionality. But I kept the build in this range for the client as this was a local business that I felt strongly about helping out and their previous site had much of the content and graphics already in place. And the client signed up for my maintenance plan which is now a source of monthly revenue for me. Personally, this is about as big as I’d make a one page site as this could very easily be reworked into a 5-10 page site if the client chooses to scale moving forward.
Tammy’s Pizza – $950
This project was also a local business who happens to be a friend of the family so I kept my dev cost low for them. At this point in my career, I rarely dip below $1,500 for even a one page build but in this case, this client has a very robust network of professionals so for me, this is also viewed as a sales piece for my business and an opportunity to generate some good, new leads.
2) Medium Divi Site
Brochure style/information based site – I consider sites in the medium range to be sites that are generally between 5-15 pages that are more static and information based. This would be a site that has galleries, some basic functionality and is generally the kind of sites that most small businesses have. Sites like this don’t often have too much user engagement or functionality other than call, email or contact.
Average Price Range: $1,500 – $3,000
Cost for me will generally depend on the amount of pages, how many contact forms, galleries and special pages are being developed, etc.
Here are a couple examples of real world medium size sites and what I charged:
Tarrier Steel – $2,950
This is a prime example of a good medium size “brochure style” site. This client solely wanted a site that represented them better online and had galleries of their work, pictures of their staff and a nice contact page. Their total investment was higher as I designed the logo, brochures and photographed many of the images on the site but the price above was their investment for the actual website build.
Safe Check Home Inspections – $1,750
This site is a little more advanced than a standard brochure style site as the client is adding his own blogs but this is someone in my networking group and is a new local business and had much of the content already in place, so I provided a good deal. This was a very quick build for me and the client had next to no revisions which made the design process even smoother. Similar to the project above, I designed a brochure and business cards for this client which were separate charges but that was the total cost for the website build.
3) Large Divi Site
Larger sites with more integrations, site additions and scaling potential – This range is generally a site that has anywhere between 15-30 pages and has more advanced functionalities like a blog that the client manages, events, etc. This also requires client training and a little more backend work. You can refer back to our full Client Documentation series to see more on that.
Average Price Range: $3,000 – $5,000
Here are a couple examples of real world large size sites I built and what I charged:
Production Plus Corp – $3,000
This site was a redesign of a site that was already WordPress and had the Woocommerce store up and running. Though it was a big redesign and we added new functionality and integrations, much of the content and products were already in place, so that helped cut down on my development time. This site would typically land in the extra large range, but again, the prebuilt work and content saved me on nearly half of my usual development time which I factored into the cost.
Kent Smith Photography – $5,000
At first glance, this site may look like a medium size, brochure style site but I looped this in with my large range being that they wanted a very unique design geared toward their high end customers. Their staff also runs their blog and there are some advanced order forms and client pages in the backend of the site that are unseen from the front end.
4) Extra Large Divi Site
E-commerce & large scale sites – This generally includes sites that are online stores that are built with WooCommerce or are large sites with events, advanced integrations or are built for scale. Client training, SEO and other variables also contribute to sites in this range.
Average Price Range: $5,000 – $10,000+
Here are a couple examples of real world extra large size sites and what I charged:
Logo Images, LLC – $3,950
This project was done for a local family business so I tried to be as reasonable as possible on my end of development. The client was also very savvy and picked up WooCommerce and WordPress quickly which made development process even smoother for me. I often take that into consideration when estimating the cost of the site. This is certainly on the lower end of this scale project but again, for me, once I got the store and site set up, I empowered the client to take off with it and it was a very pleasant, profitable experience! They also signed up for my maintenance plan from the start which led me to cut down on their initial investment.
Safex – $6,500
This project included some creative custom Divi design along with some advanced work with WooCommerce, Events Calendar and some payment integration with their merchant account. I was able to pull much of the content from their old site but none the less had my work cut out for me with a large build of this size. With their pages, events and blog posts, this started out at close to 100 pages/posts/events. This was originally quoted at $5,500 and immediately upon launch had some custom php work that was done with their events/calendar registration so the project ended up at the total above.
Again, one thing to consider with these price ranges are the variables mentioned above, what the average price range is in your area and as I just mentioned, how the experience will be working with the client. If I think I’ll love working with a client and they’ll be organized and competent, I’ll often consider that in the proposal and take the cost down accordingly. This average pricing scale is also suited for me and my flexible freelance web and graphic design business. I work from home and don’t have the overhead and payroll that an agency or big team may have.
So where’s the best place to be price point wise?
For me, it’s somewhere in the middle to upper middle. I’m there currently because, at the time of writing this article, I’ve been running my web design business for nearly 7 years. My prices were much lower at the start but I’m continuing to raise them as bigger projects and better clients come along.
For you, it may be higher or lower. If you’re just starting out, perhaps you can start out at the lower end of these average price ranges. If you’re an experienced, competent designer with overhead and a team, perhaps your range is at the higher end or farther above.
In Closing
Well I hope this article has given you a good frame of reference for small to large custom Divi website pricing. Again, my projects usually fall within these 4 price ranges and I can adjust my quote from there. Be sure to keep an eye on the rest of the series as we’ll dive into some actionable, practical ways for you to figure out the best pricing for YOUR Divi Web Design Business!
If this post helped you out or gave you a good frame of reference for your pricing, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
Tomorrow – Deciding How Much to Charge for Your Divi Web Design Services
Now that we’ve discussed some standard prices and costs for different Divi web design builds, it’s time to figure out how much you want to charge for YOUR web design business to see what works best for you and your clients! Join us tomorrow as we dive into this in more detail!
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Links to the other articles in this series would be really helpful!
Thanks Josh, this was great!
Q: does all your pricing include all graphics for a site?
I’m not a designer, so including graphics on a basic site can be $600+
Thanks, Richard! Yep my pricing always includes the graphics and other design/photography elements depending on the project. I can from a graphic design/print background so I often to print work for my clients then try to seamlessly integrate those styles into the website.
And yeah if you’re not a designer, I imagine it’s best to hire that out as a separate service or an add on like you mentioned.
Thanks again for the feedback!
Hi Josh, thanks for all your helpfull series! There is something I don’t understand, why is the price related with the location while it’s an online service?
Thanks, Laura! I think in most part, pricing is locationally based because most freelancers and web agencies deal with companies in their area. It’s just more practical and affordable from a business to business and marketing standpoint. Not many web designers are going to have the budget to promote their services nationally or globally.
Virtually all of my clients are either in my area or are contacts of someone I know in my personal and professional networks. I’m sure most freelancers can attest to the same. With that being said, if I were to get a strong lead to someone in say, New York City, I could potentially raise my rate if they’re accustomed to a higher price point. But overall, I think most web designers have clients in their area. Particularly if they’re getting clients via there personal and professional local networks. That’s my 2 cents anyway!
Very useful article, thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks for the awesome feedback, Patric!
Hey Josh, great post! Really inspiring and has a great value! I mean it 🙂
I like the menu and logo design you use on the Turner’s barbershop. Would you mind to share the CSS code? 🙂
Cheers.
Thanks, Yama! There’s quite a bit of customization and code to put in a single post, but I’m collecting requests for tutorials if you’d like to let me know here and I’ll certainly do what I can! intransitstudios.com/want-some-divi-web-design-tutorials/
Thanks Josh. I have filled in the form to let you know 🙂
Looking forward to the tutorials.
Excellent post, Josh! It’s very rare that developers/designers are willing to share concrete prices. I’m looking forward to finishing the four-part series!
Thanks for the encouragement, John! Yeah it’s a little nerve wracking but it’s such a common topic in the community that I felt it needed to be addressed and to show what works for me and my business! Thanks so much for your awesome feedback!
Pricing seems to be my achilles heel. Prospects run away screaming when I pitch the ballpark figure. The last prospect I had here in the UK wanted me to redesign his ageing four page site with a 30-page site for his driveway and landscaping business. I quoted $1,500. He went away to think about it. I chased him up a week later. After several missed calls I finally got through to him and asked what the problem was and he replied that he wasn’t prepared to pay any more than $400.
I replied there was a lot of work and couldn’t do it for much less than I’d quoted. He hasn’t returned any of my calls. I sat down and properly worked out the full structure of the site layout he specified. It actually came in at 35 pages. If anything, I think I actually under quoted.
Perhaps he was one of those clients you never want.
Hey Andy, it’s funny you mention that story. I have several just like it. I actually mention one in the later part of this series that I think you’ll find helpful. I think it’s important not to undervalue your worth if you feel your services are worth what you’re charging. The trick is to make the client understand “why” your services are worth it.
I try to emphasize the benefit in working with me instead of going with a “cheap” designer. I make sure they know that they’re getting so much more than a website, they’re investing in a tool, my expertise and strategies that will help them grow their business and take them to the next level. Some clients will never understand that and if that client is one of those, indeed, that’s not a client you want 🙂 Hope that helps! Thanks so much for your comment and transparency!
Great post.
Pricing becomes even more complicated when you offer professional copywriting as well.
Hey Simon, yeah that’s been a common theme with much of the feedback on these posts. I tend to hire that out if the client has no content what so ever but inevitably I do some content writing/optimizing for every site I do. I tell my clients I “Optimize their content for best SEO practices” or something of the sort.
Wow. I feel like I’ve been under pricing myself this ENTIRE time. When I see how much you charge and the sites that you’ve built, and then I look at similar work that I’ve done along the same look, feel and features, I currently charge about 1/4 of what you charge now. But I don’t know if that’s because of where I’m located. Where I’m located competition is SUPER STEEP because we have a lot of people who charge dirt cheap prices for web, graphic design and creative services in general. The market is SATURATED! There are people who advertise 12 page websites for $100, and people flock to them. How does one stay competitive in that type of environment, OR the better question would be, how does one find clients that are willing to pay a minimum of $1,000 for a website???
Hey Christina, I can assure you there are plenty of people charging cheap rates for web design in my area too 🙂 Though I’ve used that to my advanced in several cases. Some clients have passed on my initial proposal, then gone with a cheap developer and had a horrible experience, then come back better understanding my value. I think the biggest challenge to overcome is making sure it’s known WHY the client should choose you and invest more than go with a cheap designer or online company.
I try to let all my potential clients know that my services are personalized, catered to THEIR needs and goals and that I’m not just designing their website, I’m partnering up with them to help grow their business/online presence. I also offer basic marketing strategies to all my clients with my “Moving Forward” page that has gone over very well also.
It’s really all about value. If you feel you’re undercutting your worth, I’d recommend raising your rates and who knows, maybe you’ll weed out some bad clients and land some better ones quicker than you think! Thanks so much for your comment!
Great article! Thanks for posting. Literally in the process of making price sheets and services as I comment. #Providence
Look at that timing! 🙂 Thanks for your comment, Daniel!
Josh, what a great article! So helpful, and my pricing model is almost identical. Really looking forward to the rest of this blog series.
I checked out your “Refining and Standardizing your Divi Design and Development Process” article you referenced above. You listed #17 as “Create client custom dashboard and training video.” Can you provide a link to what a custom dashboard looks like and what tools you use to create it and the video? Thanks!
Thanks, Chez! Sure, here’s the link to my previous post about creating a custom client dashboard: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/divi-resources/creating-a-custom-wordpress-dashboard-for-your-clients.
I’d also like to point out that I’m using the Custom Welcome Dashboard plugin by DiviLife now and would highly recommend it. Let me know if that helps!
I’m also charging almost $1000 for a 5 pages website but the competition is harder than 10 years ago
I could certainly understand that, Eric. But I’ve found that even though there is more competition these days, if the client knows your trustworthy, competent, likable and can help grow their business or give them a good product, you’ll immediately separate yourself from your competition!
I recently had a client tell me that of all the web, seo and online marketing people they’ve worked with in the past 3 years, I was the only one they trusted. I don’t say that to seem vain, I just know that most web designers and online agencies work with a client then either bail or fall short on their services. I’ve found that caring and going the extra mile goes a long way and will again separate you from your competition!
thanks for information would like to hear more about how to get clients for web designing online.
I previously wrote about how to get clients for your business that I think should help you out! Here’s the link: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/divi-resources/how-to-start-getting-clients-for-your-divi-web-design-business
Great Job Josh,
This is easily one of the hardest places to grow as a freelance or small group. Years ago I read an article that gave very strange and I thought, false info….the author said if you were struggling to find consistent work and the prices you need, RAISE your prices. There was more to the statement, but that was the advice, and it works! I’ve done custom WordPress sites, from bartering a fish tank I wanted, 14-15 years ago, to as much as 19k over 5 months for one project last year…involving Divi and some outside authentication against Microsoft CRM databases….it is actually easier to me, to get high rates using ET products, Divi, because of the solid track record for stability. ALL WordPress sites will have a theme, of some sort, Divi is simple and powerful…offering stable updating, and a nice white blank to start with. Great read and as always thanks to ET as well.
Thanks for this awesome comment, Dehn! Yeah I agree that raising your rates is scary and can often be the hardest thing to do but I’ve found that, as long as you’re worth what your charging and can articulate the value to your client, you’ll start landing better clients and it’s really a win win! The trouble is weeding out bad-fit clients and maintaining a good working with good clientele who are used to working with you at a certain rate. At least, that’s been my experience over the last couple of years 🙂
Josh, this is very timely for me. For the past two years I have worked in the corporate world as a web designer and prior to that as a developer for a health system. This experience was truly eye-opening for me because I seen what companies and organizations were willing to pay to have freelancers and agencies do work for them. All too often we undercharge for our services and would not hesitate to start your pricing out higher than you may think. You may not score every job but at least you will get work that is worthy of your time and effort.
This week is the start of my own freelance journey–so a big thanks for this as I am currently putting together my pricing.
Wow that is some good timing! Thanks so much for your feedback, Dwight. And I totally agree, when I started raising my rates, I found that I may not land as many clients, but they were worth it. I was killing myself with cheap jobs for far too long in the early days 🙂
Great post and it’s always nice and difficult to be transparent about pricing. My question is where do you host the websites (if that’s ok) and how do you manage divi, core and plugin updates.
Again awesome work and good luck with your future clients 🙂
Thanks, Kostas! I use and highly recommend Siteground for hosting. I’ve been very satisfied with them. I use ManageWP for all updates, backups and reports for my security plan which I offer to all my clients. More details on that here if you want to see what’s involved with that: intransitstudios.com/website-security-maintenance-plan/
Hope that helps!
Thanks for this post!
Very curious about your pricing for SEO, copywriting, photography, graphic design, monthly maintenance packages, etc. that you mention in the post as add-ons. Do these prices listed also include a secure WP install from scratch, email setup, etc?
Hey Deb,
You can find out more about all my services in more detail on my site: https://intransitstudios.com/
But in short, I’ll either bill out for those services separately depending on the timing/project or include them all together in an initial proposal. On-going SEO, maintenance and on-going updates always start up after completion. The Tarrier Steel client mentioned above actually just wanted to do a brochure, then they saw my site and asked about their site, and they didn’t like their current logo and they didn’t have too many good images. And the rest is history 🙂
Hope that helps!
I recently saw something on Facebook that I just *have to* share here as it’s related: someone asked for help getting her Divi site working properly. It looked great on desktop but had some issues when viewed on tablets.
After some back and forth, she stated she needed hands-on help rather than just tips and pointers, as she wasn’t “technical”. Now here’s the kicker: she was planning on making websites with Divi for a living.
As easy as it can be to make sites with themes/builders like Divi, it also makes people think they can make money on websites without knowing any basic HTML or CSS — I sometimes even wonder if they’re capable of logical thoughts.
People like this cause a lot of problems for folks who *do* know their trade and try to make a living making quality websites, as these hacks often charge next to nothing and people think those prices are normal. Worst are the “clients” who expect you to work for scraps fixing a site they’ve had built for them but didn’t turn out the way they were led to believe it would.
That’s inevitably an issue with page builders but honestly, I’ve had several clients come to be after taking the “cheap” way out or having a bad experience with a previous designer. They’re then much more willing to listen to me and invest in my price range. I know there’s a lot of fear in the web design community of these “do it yourself” builders taking jobs but it hasn’t affected me at all. If anything, people try to do it themselves or hire cheap freelancers and get burned, then they’re all about a professional experience 🙂
But I do know what you mean, it’s a tricky thing and I do my best to educate my potential clients on the difference between what I offer and what a cheap designer might offer. That’s my 2 cents!
Thank you for the great article but I do have few questions:
1. Do your fee inclusive of graphic design for the website?
2. Do your fee inclusive of Hosting, Domain, SSL?
-If Yes! Do you mind sharing your providers?
3. Maintenance – what is included?
– Hourly charges?
– limitation on changes or updates?
Hi Kovin,
If a client needs graphic design work, I’ll either bill for that separately or factor it in the initial proposal. I use and recommend Siteground for hosting and am starting to have clients purchase their own account so I don’t have to worry about renewals, etc. And here’s a link to my security plan that has all the details! https://intransitstudios.com/website-security-maintenance-plan
I tell my clients that covers quick changes (less than a 1/2 hr) but any more than that I do at my hourly rate per update. Hope that helps!
THESE ARE SOOOOO HELPFUL. THANK YOU
Awesome to hear, Ken. Thanks for the feedback!
Hey Josh. Thank you for such a great article. I rarely post comments but this article is amazing. I’m a freelancer website developer working with divi for more than a year. I’ve enough experience in wordpress, html, css and bootstrap. but my biggest problem is the traffic?
How do you get new clients? As a freelance website developer, How could you attract customers? This is my biggest issue.
Hi Hooman, thanks for your comment! For me, most of my referrals come from my networking group and word of mouth referrals. I really don’t do any advertising. The power of word of mouth and face to face relationships, I believe, are the best ways to go about getting new clients! I do offer some other ideas in this post if that helps you out! https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/divi-resources/how-to-start-getting-clients-for-your-divi-web-design-business
Just keep on becoming more value and be sure to ask for referrals from previous clients!
Hi Josh, great work!-
How long does it take to build the sites? And how many can you do concurrently? That would mean a good or so-so monthly cash flow depending on the time factor. Can you estimate for me/us the time for small – mid – lg sites? And who helps you with the builds or are you totally soup to nuts on your own? That would leverage your commitment to depending on how much help you get?
Thanks!
Hey JR,
I’m not super detailed in tracking my hours (need to get better at that) but my one page builds are generally 10-20 hours. Medium may be 15-30 range, large to extra large vary so drastically depending on the project. I build most everything myself but I do have a team of sub contractors that’ll I’ll occasionally collaborate with if it’s some I need help with or can pass on. I also do logo and branding work for my clients, offer SEO, security and maintenance and hosting which all contribute to my monthly income so it’s not fully dependent on my actual website builds. Though, that is where the bulk of my income comes from. Hope that helps man!
Thanks a lot for sharing the price range for Website development. It will really help in Price Estimation while discussing with client.
If anyone wants an external company to design a website, I would highly recommend W3Developers Digital Media Agency based in Vaishali India. They’ve got a great team of developers and can help you achieve exactly what you want.
I just doing a company website with several hundred pages and posts, based on DIVI. Including a complex child theme with extensive CSS, hundreds of hours for UI/UX and graphic design, 3D product renderings, shop links, marketing and product texts. 3rd party plugins for menu (Ubermenu), backup, map, SEO, DIVI overlays and more …
The payment is OK, but compared to the given payment for a site with 10-20 pages pages it´s far less.
Yeah it sounds like it’s time to go to the next level! That sounds like a lot of work and would be, at the minimum, in my “Extra Large” range. Hope this article helps you moving forward!
i love this series. i have a question or two. what do you recommend for hosting if you plan on having a few clients as well as your own sites, so at least 20 sites that will be somewhat large. Second question is speed. What do you suggest for speed. what slows down your site and what plugins to use for fastest speed.
thank you
Hey Ken, I use and recommend Siteground. You could either set up reseller accounts for all the sites you manage or get their GoGeek plan and manage everything on one account. Speed begins with hosting and Siteground is one of the best. They have a cache plugin that will help load times as well. Another way to help speed up sites are to make sure all images are web-optimized. Here’s a more in depth article to help you out! https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/tips-tricks/how-to-improve-your-google-page-speed-score
Awesome Josh. Thank you so much. Sometimes you just want to go with advice than learn the hard way yourself. Thank you!
No problem, Ken! I have that same mindset 🙂
I also offer web hosting for my clients, currently using godaddy but I want to switch to aws, I would love to hear if someone use aws.
I’ve heard good things about that. I use Siteground and would highly recommend them. Support is unmatched and their servers are fast.
Hi Josh,
Great article. My pricing is of a similar range having took the same approach and looked at the size of the city I’m in & what price range would provide value for money for each level of website build. Just a quick question, have you built a site with an appointment / booking integration and if so did you use a plugin?
Thanks, Jason! The Turner’s Barber Shop I mentioned in the post uses Boosky. It’s tailed to salons and barbers but they really like it. More on that here if that helps! booksy.net/en-us/
Other than that, I’ve used Events Calendar for RSVP’s, Events and the like and would highly recommend it!
i’d like to know this answer as well.
Hello Josh
I am not much experienced web designer. I usually use Divis default templates for designing but that way I can’t be creative. Can you guide me how can I groom my expertise to be creative in using Divi. Css, Jquery, php etc what shall I know to advance level and what could be the best resource?
Hi Faisal, I’d recommend checking out my previous series on How To Become A Successful Divi Web Designer. I lay out the path that I took and hope it’ll help you! You can find the full series here: intransitstudios.com/become-successful-divi-web-designer-full-series
I’m Loving JOSH HALL series posts! This one should be good. Love the transparency and always look forward to the feedback and the comments for your posts. Always gain insightful perspective and it’s not as overwhelming for me as hopping on FB Divi Groups.
Aww that’s awesome to hear, Brandi. Thanks for the encouragement and feedback!
Thanks so much for this. It’s one area that’s confusing when you’re starting out, and this has given me real examples to measure against Josh.
Awesome to hear, Julie. Really appreciate your comment! This article was definitely written for you!
If its your job, then the price mirrors how good bussines person you are and how you value it. It makes no difference whether this is Divi or something else. Its like a painting. What should be a price of it? I am lucky that my sites cost more.The better you are, more money will clients give you. And of course this comes with understanding bussines model of your client. We suggest how to be better then competition. And making sure it will achieve target goals. The time of just making website is already gone. Now its the time to prepare for virtual reality and new way to design websites.
Thank you !
This is the same price range as my web sevices, I am located in Quebec, Canada (in CAN dollars) and nearly the same kind of website and design.
I usually include Google analytics and Webmaste, and hosting for the 1st yrs if it’s a new client. Also, I’m trying to get them a basic SEO but no keyword search.
I think that’s a great way to go, Sylvain. I’ll often offer similar services for a year as well, or if someone wants to try my security/maintenance plan for a year, I’ll often discount that and add it in the initial proposal. Great to hear we’re around the same price point and it’s working well north of the border!
Great write up and I think you’re spot on with your ranges and pricing. One quick question. What tool or technique did you use to create the website examples scrolling/demo GIFs? Thanks in advance!
Thanks, Travis! I use Screenflow for mac to create and record the animated GIF’s.
Josh, Thanks for this great article, your transparency, and vulnerability. I’m in northeast Indiana and your prices are right in line for what I charge. Nice looking websites!
My clients are also small business and I am transitioning into a 12-month payable site contract with a 25% discount upon renewal. It helps the client with cashflow and is a nice way to build recurring income flows.
That’s awesome to hear, DeAnne. Thanks for your feedback! I’m actually covering a similar pricing model in Part 3 of this series – that is a fresh approach to the initial build investment and some passive income!
Amazing post!! Time to gear up from very cheap to reasonable to making profits!! Thanks for this wonderful writeup Josh, looking forward for the next 3 series!! 🙂 😀
That’s so awesome to hear, Vagabond! Yea if you’re on the lower end of the price points but are providing good value, then it sounds like it’s time to move up to the next level! That’ll probably weed out some of the low-end clients you don’t want anyway 🙂
From Canada. Ive done projects with max range of 3500 and few at 2500. I done alot at 1500 to 1000 range.
My biggest sellers are $350 packages but I learned cheap price clients are most difficult to deal with and they have more expectations than highend clients.
The issue is being a Single Person setup is harder to land big clients, clients are happy to pay XXXX to studios with more people for crappy sites than individuals like me, as first thing they think for giving a individual is rather to take advantage and squeez the price.
Anytips for making your quote look worthit? I dont want to do 350’s projects anymore as my work is far better then what alot of agencies are offering at 20x price but I am only afraid of losing work.
Also – what kind of timeline you gave to clients? How much time it took you to finish these websites?
Thanks in advance.
Same here! I”m in Brampton, ON and I’m having the same issue! I think it’s a Canada thing haha 🙂
Yeah it sounds like you’re definitely ready to move up to the next level price point wise. Those “cheap” jobs are usually always a nightmare in my experience. I’m not sure how you advertise your services but I do everything under my business name In Transit Studios and I have a team page that shows many of my sub contractors. Though each client works with me directly, they know there’s a team in place if I need help. I haven’t found being a freelancer that limiting but some clients do want to work with an agency I suppose. BUT some clients are very open to a freelancer who doesn’t have overhead, payroll, a team, etc!
I’d say up your prices (as long as your value is worth it) and see if that lands you some better clients!
I have never charged for my work…I’m still learning Divi. But, I have just completed a general contractor site for a friend, gratis, for the experience. Do you include the cost of domain and hosting in your price, or is it extra? How do you handle domain and hosting contract renewals? Do you sign a contract? Where could I see samples of contracts?
Hi Ed, if you’re starting to design some nice sites with Divi and are providing some good value, I’d definitely recommend charging for your services! Doing some free work is a great way to get started, but that doesn’t pay the bills 🙂
I recommend my clients get their own hosting account and manage their own domain renewals, etc. I use Siteground.com and highly recommend them as a hosting service. I have offered hosting for many clients but it does get tricky and time consuming if you’re managing renewals and things of the sort. I find it best to have them set up their own account then I can access it to set up the site! Hope that helps!
Let’s just say that I agree with your preface the most. 😉
“Custom website builds, other CMS platforms like Joomla or Drupal and Ecommerce solutions may be on a different pricing scale…”
The topic is so subjective and such a difficult one to discuss — I do commend you for the attempt! Things like design & development skillset and talent aren’t really factored in well in these equations though. I think for the client that just needs a basic, functioning Divi website, these prices may work well. But when the process involves custom design (Photoshop mockups, rounds of revisions, development phase, etc.), and where there’s often some sort of custom functionality involved… these price ranges wouldn’t even be in the same ballpark. For us, Divi is simply a tool we choose to give our clients so they can easily update their site content once it goes live. It’s not really factored into the equation with design and it’s certainly not where we start when working with a new client. Because if you’re capable of custom design/development, you can really make Divi look like whatever you need it to be.
There’s such a wide range of people using Divi, from individual freelancers that are just picking up web design to full-blown agency level talent. It’s like comparing apples to watermelons. Unfortunately, many prospective clients may come across an article like this and come to the conclusion that these are the correct price ranges and immediately discounting anyone who is higher, not understanding what comprises “custom design/developement”, or evaluating talent or experience and just basing everything solely on price.
Anyways, just my 2 cents for what it’s worth.
Definitely agree with all of that, Nathan. It is a topic that is difficult because a site someone is charging $500 for, someone else may charge $10,000 or higher. I hope I got the point across that this post explore’s what’s worked for “me” and are fairly average price ranges for these style sites catered to small to medium size businesses using Divi. I’ll be interested in hearing your thoughts after the full series as I think I explore some of your valid points in more detail 🙂
Great job tackling the topic though, man, I know it’s a difficult subject but I think it definitely offers a great baseline for the average Divi user. Sounds like you’ll be getting to some of the rest of us in your later posts. 🙂
I think Nathan addressed some good points and information for higher-end development in this post as well: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/resources/a-general-pricing-guide-for-wordpress-websites
Good one to reference. For those looking at more custom builds.
This is very interesting and I’m definitely not charging enough! I’m from the UK and I think pricing may be slightly different here, although there are huge differences between web design companies in their pricing structure. It also depends very much on the type of client. If they’re a startup then funds are generally limited, similarly for small businesses. And with some web companies charging really low prices it’s often hard to compete.
My starting price is 600 UK Pounds (almost $800). This is for a 5 or 6 page website. Then £800 for a larger site and £1200 for an e-commerce site. These are rough prices and I always give an exact quote depending on number of pages and how much extra functionality is needed in the way of plugins.
I haven’t used Divi before but did use a few Elegant Themes a while back. I’m curious to know how you would “design” with Divi and present it to the client before building the website? I do my design work in Photoshop and put a jpeg online for the client to see but it seems that with Divi you would have to design as you go.
Hi Tracey! Yea price range is really all about you, your business and your clientele and balancing between the 3. I go into a little more detail on that in tomorrow’s post.
As far as how I present designs to my clients, I have a full post that goes into more detail on that if you’d like to check it out: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/divi-resources/refining-and-standardizing-your-divi-design-and-development-process
In short, I tend to design the homepage and a sub-page or two, then show the client on a live dev URL. With Divi, it’s so fast for me to make changes instead of laying out the site in Photoshop or Illustrator. Nothing wrong with that method, I’ve just found it extremely time consuming. If you start using Divi, I think you’ll agree 🙂 I’ve also found that clients love seeing an actual site rather than a Jpeg mock up. I tend to get great initial response and less revisions when the site is blown away and can see the site in action.
Anywho, feel free to check that article out and let me know if that helps at all!
This is really a realistic overview about pricing for websites. I´m doing it since 2007 and use Divi about 1 1/2 years. Actually i make everything with Divi and left everything other behind. In combination with plugins – and i really got all ;-)… there is no better way of performing. It was impressing for me as well to find nearly exactly the prices i charge to my clients. That is a really good fealing in spite of living in germany.
Thank you Josh, for this inspiring articel!
Alvaro
Thanks so much for this feedback, Alvaro! That is awesome to hear that you’re in the same price range. I know it’s different in all areas of the world but it sounds like we’re on the same page as far as price/value. Cheers!
Pricing services like web site design/building is always a bucket of worms.
I have been building websites since 1995, getting paid for it since 2006, and have been using WP for 2 years and Divi for probably 20 months or so. I now build all new websites in Divi on WP unless there is a specific reason not to. That’s happened once in 2 years.
As a consumer who ALWAYS appreciates decent prices when I buy things, and vastly resent moneygrubbers who charge high prices just because they can, I try to be sensitive to all businesses on a budget, especially those independently-owned small businesses that exist on a shoestring.
The pricing model I have settled on is
(a)If it is a commercial business, i.e., in business to make money, I will offer the client the option of a straight $100 per hour or a flat rate for the entire site. Sometimes they need a flat rate for budgeting purposes, where other times they appreciate the money they will certainly save by going with the hourly rate. My most recent project, which was a long home page, plus FAQ and Contact Us, cost the client $900 and he is tickled pink with it. If I’d had to give him a flat rate estimate, it would have been $1,500.
Charging by the page used to be a good model, but not any more. With today’s “everything on one page” designs, it’s just not practical any more. Plus, with WP and Divi, adding a new page is only a matter of 5 to 15 minutes, plus the content for simple pages.
(b) If it’s a friend, church, nonprofit, etc., I generally charge them half the commercial rate. I had someone balk at even this a while ago, and I explained, “Because I believe in your organization, I’m giving you half of my work for free. All I ask is that you pay for the other half.” For these folks, I strongly urge them to use the hourly-charge model. For those who have to run the estimate by their board, I will always provide them an estimate about 80% to 100% higher than I think it would cost at half the commercial rate. This gives me some wiggle room, and if I go over even that, then there’s enough return for it not to bother me so much.
Also, besides building websites, I manage clients’ domain names, host their sites (through a reseller account but not AS a reseller), and provide maintenance services, mostly now through Jetpack premium.
All in all, I’m happy with this business model. It works for me.
Thanks for your feedback, David. We’re actually diving into similar pricing models and the pros and cons of hourly rates in part 3 of this series so I’ll be interested to hear your take on that post! Glad to hear that business model is working well for you. It really is all dependent on what works for you, your client and your business.
Excellent article .. with regards to pricing website scope and design features .. even down to the comments you made where you charged more because of logo design, content creation, and photos you personally took. I live in the NYC area, and charge about the same rates, but feel I’m a bit cheap. But as you mention, early on in the article .. prices fluctuate based on locality. Look forward to the next article.
Thanks for your feedback and backing on the price points, Michael! Yea I’ve found that these price ranges are working well in my area, though I do have clients all over. If you’re feeling like you’re on the low end, it sounds like it might be time to move up to the next level! 🙂
Hey Josh I have 2 quick questions:
What are your steps in setting up an eccomerce site?
Is it good to use themes for my clients ecommerce sites?
Hey Princeton, I answered the first question above but I do every ecommerce site with Divi + WooCommerce! There are Divi child themes out there for WooCommerce sites as well that may help you.
Amazing, I’ve come up with similar prices (slightly lower) but is nice to see that I was close 🙂
Awesome to hear! Always good seeing some other price ranges and finding out where you are 🙂
Great article! I work for an Non-profit who in the past had paid up to 250K (Yes, $250,000) for custom Drupal and Django sites. Since I was hired and took over development – I moved all our sites over to WordPress and have built all our new sites using a variety of multi-purpose themes with child theme. I’m currently using Divi to build a new project site. All said, I’ve managed to cut our spending down to 1/10 of what the prior development/communication team had spent. I got a few shocked & sad emails from the firms who were charging us so much wondering “why” we would no longer be using them! We still use an outside design firm for site layout/logos/color schemes…etc., as I’m first to admit I’m not a designer. I’ll be sharing this article with our current communications team when taking bids for site design or site development when I’m unavailable. Thanks again for the article!
Chris I would love to bid on those projects. I’m currently building a supporting non-profit sites for what seems to be grossly under priced based on this article.
Hi Chris! Yeah it’s amazing how much time I’ve saved and continue to save using Divi which allows me to stay competitive with price point. I think that’s more and more common now, to see organizations paying that price range and being able to cut their spending down by 80, 90% with Divi and the online tools available now!
Thanks for your comment and feedback!
Thank you for writing this article, it’s very helpful, and I appreciate your candidness!
Thank you, Heidi! It’s always a little nerve-racking being transparent but I certainly hope it helps the community 🙂 Thanks for your encouragement!
Hey Josh! I have 3 quick questions:
1. Do you use themes for your websites?
2. Is it good to use themes for clients websites?
2. What merchant company do you use?
Hi Princeton, I use Divi for everything but not child themes per say. I tend to save a lot of my CSS and layouts and use those for different sites. I definitely recommend saving layouts, using child themes or saving your code to speed up the design process! And I use and would highly recommend stripe.com for merchant services! Been very pleased with them.
Very nice article, and helped me realize I may be undercharging for some of the work I do. Web design is not my #1 service, but it is something I do offer alongside my graphic design and printed products. I’ve always tried to keep my prices reasonable, but also worth my time. I offer 3 packages,
Basic – $500 (1 page with 5 sections, simple contact form, Monarch, and a few custom graphics).
Advanced – $800 (up to 12 pages, contact form with conditional logic, monarch, custom graphics, & blog).
Advanced+ – $1200 (everything in Advanced package, plus woocommerce & pay gateway integration).
Maybe I should consider upping at least the last two package a bit.
How do you setup an ecimmerse website with divi? What are the steps?
Great question but WAY off topic. That could fill another 4 blog page series, I’d suggest searching the blog for some topics on this already and also google.
Hi Princeton, this article should help you out with that! https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/divi-resources/getting-started-with-divi-and-woocommerce
Yeah I’d almost recommend creating a bigger gap in between those options. $500 isn’t a huge difference from $800 and by the looks of those services and the value you offer, it may be a good time to go to the next level! I’d almost recommend doing $499, $999 and $1,499 🙂 You could always try that out and see how it goes!
Thanks, this post comes in very handy as I occasionally do webpages as side projects and I hardly know what to charge.
How do you go about charging installing/setting up plugins for security, backups and staging site? Especially the first two should be part of every project, as clients don’t know about it or don’t know which plugin are good/easy to use
Hi Natascha, I have a maintenance/security plan that I offer every client. intransitstudios.com/website-security-maintenance-plan/
I try to make it known to them how important it is to have a security plan in place and in cases of E-commerce sites, I tell them they HAVE to have the plan. I keep all my staging sites on my ManageWP account and keep the site backed up and updated during the dev process. You’re right, clients usually have no idea about security, plugins and the like so I try to educate my clients as much as possible.
Great write-up!
I realised I’m way to cheap with my services.
It’s time for adjustments.
Love hearing that, Kris! Glad to hear this post inspired you and look forward to hearing how the adjustments go!
Thanks for sharing. I always like to see what others are charging to make sure we’re competitive, but also not leaving money on the table. I think personally, a site with DIVI should be at a premium over other themes.
Hi David and Josh,
Thanks for your input – please could you explain why do you think using DIVI should be at a premium over other themes?
Does the client even know or need to know what theme you’ve used? What extra value do you think it provides to the client that you don’t get from other themes?
I love DIVI – it’s fast to work with and you can build pretty much anything with it – but these are things that benefit me as a developer, not the client.
Whatever theme you use, the result should be beautiful and functional – how would you justify an extra premium to the client for using DIVI?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Hi Keith, Divi is a win win for me and clients who do update their site. I find that most clients can pick it up pretty quick when it comes to making basic updates and they don’t have to mess with any code. With the Divi training plugin and the Divi documentation, it makes it much easier for me to point clients there for basic training instead of walking each and every client through the builder. Before Divi, if clients wanted to update their site they’d have to get into the HTML and shortcodes and that was a nightmare 🙂
Totally agree, David. Thanks for your feedback!
Hi Josh!
Thank you for this in-depth overview. Many of my clients are startups and I initially create their logo/branding and some basic messaging and then they want a website. I’m not an experienced web builder but I’m learning. What I struggle with in pricing is most clients have no idea what content will be effective, how to write it or how to organize it, or find or shoot appropriate onbrand imagery. Do your site prices here include that? I find if I give the client homework to produce their own content it takes forever and I usually have to redo it – and that wasn’t included in the original bid. When I include both pricing for content development Vs the site build, they only want to go for the build – and then the content is crap (and again – it takes forever to get). My only solution so far has been to give one price for the whole thing that is Under $3k – I am eating it on the build really to learn.
Hi Gail! I mentioned some of my process in the comments above but in short, yeah I will assist with content if necessary and I always factor that into the proposal for the client. That’s one of the main ways I adjust my pricing lower or higher depending on the situation and what content the client has ready. Getting content and good copy is the main struggle that I think we all face as web designers so you’re not alone!
I may look at writing a little bit more about that in a future series so we can dive into that in more detail!
Excellent explainer. Thanks for tackling this always challenging subject. As you continue through the series, would you consider writing more about how content creation affects your pricing?
I have clients for whom I create from scratch everything from headlines and blurb text to full-blown product descriptions and blog posts. Heck, most can’t even supply visual elements.
Content creation is an expensive proposition, especially when it involved primary source research. I could “build” most of my sites quickly, but content piles on the costs.
Would appreciate your insights.
Hi Linda, I’ll definitely keep that in mind and perhaps dive into that more in a future series! Content and copywriting is certainly have the battle in web design, if not more 🙂 The majority of sites I work on are redesigns of current sites so that usually provides a framework of content that I can add on to, expand and explore in more detail. I do factor all of that work as best as possible in my proposal and will adjust the cost accordingly within those price ranges typically.
Hope that helps! Thanks again for your comment!
Thanks, Josh, for the entire series. It has been exceptionally helpful. Hope you can “get back to billable hours” now that the series is completed. Well done.
haha thanks so much, Linda! Appreciate the feedback and you looking out for me 🙂
very good.
Thanks, Ken!
I’m wondering whether your pricing includes:
1.) Writing the copy
2.) Involvement in the client’s web marketing strategy
3.) SEO
4.) Arranging hosting and WP security
Maybe these will turn up in parts 2-4?
Thanks for an excellent post. See ya for part 2.
Hey Tone,
Those are all things that factor in to whether the project will be on the lower or higher end of the price ranges mentioned. I inevitably end up doing a little copy/content work because I try to provide good SEO practices for all my clients. If a client simply doesn’t have any content, I try to higher that out or charge separately for it. Same with marketing, advanced SEO and hosting. I offer my security plan to all my clients so that’s always after the site is complete. In short, I look at all those elements you mentioned and either put them in the proposal in the dev cost or charge separately depending on the situation.
Thanks for your comment!
I am curious Josh, what do you charge for ongoing maintenance and security? I am struggling with pricing those services.
Hi Maria, here’s a link to my plan details for your reference! https://intransitstudios.com/website-security-maintenance-plan/
you mean “I try to hire that out …”
Awesome article, its definitely something that has to grow and change as you change.
I’m always constantly evolving my pricing, right now I’ve settled on 3 different packages and than have pricing for add-ons (WooCommerce, Third party addons, custom code, etc)
This is really cool to see real-world pricing and the websites associated with them.
Thanks for your feedback, Jesse! 3 options is definitely a good way to go depending on your clientele. I think you’ll like Part 3 in this series as I get into some different pricing models 🙂 You’ll have to let me know if that helps or inspires you at all!
Thanks much for this very informative article. It was very helpful to me. It has been a chore to try and land on a charging scale that is fair to me and to my clients.
Thanks for your comment, Nancy! Yep it’s difficult to find that balance between a profitable experience the designer and a realistic investment for the client. Hope this post has helped you with finding your balance for your price range!
Good write-up!
I’ve slowly increased my prices as my skills have developed. I charge $1000 for a 5 page website and $1300 for a ten page. I try to be pretty inclusive in my pricing for simplicity’s sake – so that includes blogging integration, bloom, monarch, hosting & 2 emails for a year ($90/year after that), etc…
It makes quoting very easy, and puts people at ease. 50% of the quotes I send out are one of those two price points. The other 50% need more pages, advanced integrations, or eCommerce, and I jack the price up for those.
It’s a model that’s worked pretty well for me.
Sounds like you have a good system going there, Justin! Yeah if that’s working well for you and for your clients, then you’re right on track! Sounds like we quote similarly as I’ll often figure out which range the project will fit into, the adjust the price according to integrations, pages, client, etc. Thanks for your feedback!
Just out of curiosity Josh, what’s the biggest project you’ve done?
I’ve collaborated on a couple big E-commerce sites but the biggest Divi site I’ve done personally is the Safex one above. I’ve found that often the bigger they get, obviously the more complex. I’d almost rather build a few 3K sites that go smoothly than a 10K site that is complex, time consuming, etc 🙂
I’m with you. I’m getting ready to do a pretty complex eCommerce site for about $10K, by far my biggest project.
As I was quoting it, I actually inflated the price by several thousand (partly because I figured this particular company would pay it, but also because I know on the big projects I’ve done in the past, there were tons and tons of headaches).
The best projects, I’ve found, are in the $3K range with clients who have low expectations or aren’t particularly tech-savvy. You can make something that will really blow them away, without many requirements from them other than “…I don’t know, just make it look nice”. 🙂
haha yep I understand that completely. Cheers man and best of luck with the big build!
Thank you for taking the time to explore the pricing topic in this amount of detail. Very useful information!
No problem, Shelley. It’s been highly requested and I’m interested in what others are charging as well! Thanks for your feedback. It’s much appreciated!