The Website Costs Nobody Puts in the Quote

The build is a one-off. Running the site is not. Most website budgets are set against the quote and then quietly exceeded by hosting, domains, content changes, copywriting and — eventually — a rebuild that nobody planned for. None of these are scams. They are just costs that live outside the document you were shown.

What does it actually cost to keep a website running?

Depends entirely on what it was built on, and the gap is permanent rather than one-off.

Static sites — pages pre-rendered as files, served from a CDN — often cost under $20 a month and sometimes nothing, because there is no server doing any work when someone visits. Nothing to patch, nothing to fall over.

Database-backed platforms — WordPress and most builders — need a server that is awake and thinking. Expect $20 to $100 a month depending on traffic and how heavy the build is, plus the platform fee if you are on a hosted builder.

Over five years, that difference is between roughly nothing and a few thousand dollars, for a site that looks identical to a visitor. It is worth asking which one you are being quoted, and it is not a question most people know to ask.

What are the costs that show up after launch?

• The domain. $10–$30 a year. Trivial, and the single most common trap: if it is registered in the agency's name, leaving means negotiating for your own address.
• SSL certificate. Should be free and automatic. If someone is billing you for one, ask why.
• Content changes. Some studios include a number of them, some bill hourly. Both are fine; not knowing which is not.
• Plugin and theme licences. On builder-based sites these renew annually and stack up. Twenty dollars here, forty there, indefinitely.
• Stock images and fonts. One-off, but they should be billed at cost. Ask whether they are marked up.
• Backups and monitoring. Sometimes included, sometimes a line item, occasionally absent entirely — which you find out at the worst moment.

None of these are large individually. Together they are frequently more than people expect, and they are entirely predictable if anyone asks in advance.

Why does copywriting always end up costing more than expected?

Because almost nobody agrees who is writing it.

A quote covers design and build. Unless writing is explicitly named, the assumption is that you are supplying it. That assumption is invisible until week four, when the design is done, the build is waiting, and there is a page with nothing to put on it.

Two things follow. First, launch dates slip on the client's side far more often than the studio's, and content is nearly always the reason. Second, the copy that eventually arrives at 11pm under deadline pressure is not the copy that converts.

The fix costs nothing: ask, at quote stage, who is writing each page. If it is you, be honest about whether you have the time. If it is not, get it priced in rather than discovering it as a change request halfway through.

Which costs should have been in the quote?

A reasonable studio's quote covers design, build, testing, launch, and any writing it has agreed to do. Third-party costs get passed through at cost.

The things that should be in the quote and often are not:

• Content migration from an existing site. Moving two hundred blog posts is work, and it takes as long as it takes.
• Training. Someone showing you how to change the things you will want to change.
• Post-launch fixes. A reasonable window where anything broken gets fixed without a conversation about billing.
• Analytics and form tracking. These should be wired up before launch, not sold as an extra afterwards.

If those are missing, they are not necessarily being hidden. Ask, and see whether the answer is "included" or "we'd quote that separately." Either is workable. Silence is not.

What is the largest hidden cost?

The rebuild.

A site built on a platform that ages badly — heavy, plugin-dependent, hard to change — needs replacing in three to four years, not because it stopped working but because improving it costs more than replacing it. That is a full second project, and it appears in no quote anywhere.

This is the real argument for paying more up front. A site built as static files on a modern stack does not degrade. It is as fast in year four as in year one, because nothing accumulates. You redesign it when you want to, not when the platform forces you.

Whether that is worth the difference depends on how long you expect the site to run. For a business planning five years ahead, it usually is. For someone testing an idea this quarter, it is not, and a template is the honest answer.

What should you ask before signing?

Six questions. Any studio worth hiring answers all of them in one email.

1. What does hosting cost per month, and what kind of hosting is it?
2. Who is registered as the owner of the domain?
3. Is copywriting included, and if so for how many pages?
4. What does a small content change cost after launch, and how fast does it happen?
5. Are third-party costs billed at cost or marked up?
6. What happens if I want to leave — what do I take with me, and what stops working?

The answers matter less than the willingness. A studio that gives you six straight answers has thought about the relationship past the invoice.

Where to go next

The full cost breakdown covers what drives the build price itself, and our FAQ has our own answers to most of the six questions above — including hosting, ownership and what happens if you leave.

We quote a fixed price in US dollars before work starts, and third-party costs are billed at cost with no markup. If you want that number for your project, the call is free.