Ask three web designers what a website costs and you may get three answers that are thousands of dollars apart. That isn’t always because someone is overcharging. They’re often quoting different things.
This guide gives you real numbers, including ours, and explains what actually changes the price. All prices are in Canadian dollars, before HST.
The short answer
A custom website from a small Canadian studio generally runs about $3,000 to $10,000. Freelancers and template builds can cost less. Larger agencies usually cost more, because you’re also paying for account managers and a bigger team.
Here is what we charge at Zeas Design, so you have something concrete to compare against:
- Marketing website or catalogue: $3,500–$9,000
- Web app or e-commerce: $7,500–$25,000
- AI assistant or automation: $3,000–$10,000
- Brand identity: $1,500–$6,000
- Website, AI assistant and online booking together: from $5,900
- Care plan after launch: from $129 a month
What you’re really paying for
Most of a website’s cost isn’t the code. It’s the thinking: working out who the site is for, what they need to decide, and how to lead them there. A cheap site usually skips that step. It can look fine and still bring in nothing.
A fair quote should cover discovery, design, the build, basic search setup, testing on real phones and getting the site live. If a price looks low, find out which of these is missing.
What moves the number
Five things explain most of the difference between two quotes:
- Number of pages and how different they are from each other. Ten pages on one layout cost less than five unique ones.
- Content. Writing the text and producing the photos takes real time. If you supply them ready to use, the price drops.
- Catalogue size. Fifty products and a thousand products are different projects, especially if the data needs cleaning first.
- Integrations. Connecting your CRM, inventory, booking or payments adds work, and each connection needs testing.
- Languages. A proper second language means separate pages and search setup, not just a translate button.
The costs people forget
The build isn’t the whole bill. Plan for these as well:
- Your domain name, renewed every year.
- Hosting, security updates and backups. Maintenance in Canada typically runs about $70 to $250 a month.
- Paid tools and APIs, such as booking software, email delivery or AI usage.
- HST on top of the quoted price, if you’re in Ontario.
- Changes after launch. Ask what’s included and what’s billed separately.
Is the cheapest option a bad idea?
Not always. If you only need a simple online presence, a good template you can edit yourself is a fair choice. Don’t pay for custom work you won’t use.
It stops being a good deal when the website has a commercial job to do. If customers compare you with competitors, request quotes or browse a catalogue before buying, the real cost of a weak site is the work you never hear about.
A better question than “what does it cost?” is “what is one new customer worth to me?” If a single good client pays for the site, the difference between two quotes matters less than which one will actually bring that client in.
Five questions to ask before you sign
Whoever you hire, get clear answers to these:
- Is this a fixed price, and what would change it?
- Who owns the site, the design and the accounts when we’re done?
- What does it cost each month after launch?
- Who does the work, and can I talk to them directly?
- Can I see live sites you’ve built for businesses like mine?
At Zeas Design you get a fixed price after discovery, and our websites start at $3,500 CAD (US$2,500). If you’d like a range for your own project before talking to anyone, the estimator gives you one in under a minute.