How to cost website development?

How to cost website development?Website development costs are calculated by estimating hours for design, development, content, and testing, then multiplying by hourly rates ($75–$200/hour in Canada). Fixed-price quotes bundle these into phases, typically ranging from $3,000 for basic sites to $50,000+ for custom platforms.AnswerYou cost website development by breaking the project into measurable components, estimating hours for each, and applying your blended rate or individual specialist rates. Most agencies quote either fixed-price (bundled estimate) or time-and-materials (hourly billing with a cap).Start with discovery: list every page type, feature, integration, and content requirement. A 10-page brochure site might need 8 hours design, 20 hours front-end build, 6 hours CMS setup, 4 hours testing. Multiply by your rate. If your blended rate is $125/hour, that's roughly $4,750 before content or revisions. Add 15–20% contingency for client changes.Canadian agency rates run $75–$150/hour for smaller teams, $150–$250 for specialists or Toronto/Vancouver studios. Offshore teams charge $25–$75 but often require more project management overhead. At Ottawa SEO, we price most projects fixed because clients want budget certainty, but we scope carefully upfront to avoid underestimating custom functionality.Key cost drivers: custom design vs. template customization (2–3x difference), e-commerce product count, third-party integrations (CRM, payment gateways, APIs), multilingual requirements, and content creation. A 500-product WooCommerce build will cost $15,000–$35,000 depending on custom filters, checkout flows, and design complexity. Strategic work like user research or conversion optimization adds another layer.Avoid these costing mistakes: underpricing revisions (cap rounds in the contract), forgetting hosting and maintenance, and not accounting for client delays. We build a 10-hour revision allowance into quotes and bill overages at our hourly rate. Also factor in post-launch support—most clients need 2–4 hours monthly for updates and troubleshooting.For portfolio sites managing 500+ domains like ours, templatized processes and reusable components bring per-site costs down to $800–$1,500, but that only works at scale with standardized infrastructure. One-off projects for external clients always carry higher risk and coordination overhead, so price accordingly.