The short answer
Charge at least your hours times a rate that covers tax, tools and unpaid time, then move up toward what one extra job is worth to the client. In the US, many freelancers charge about $1,500 to $6,000 for a five-page small business site, often with a monthly plan of $50 to $300.
Work out your floor
Your floor is the price below which you lose money once you count everything. Start with a yearly figure, then divide it by the hours someone will actually pay for.
Here's the math for someone who wants $70,000 a year before income tax. It's an example, so swap in your own numbers.
| Line | Example |
|---|---|
| Pay you want, before income tax | $70,000 |
| Self-employment tax | $9,900 |
| Tools, insurance, accountant | $6,000 |
| Health insurance and other benefits you now fund | $8,000 |
| Total to cover | $93,900 |
| Hours clients pay for, 46 weeks at 20 hours | 920 |
| Floor | About $102 an hour |
Two lines need explaining. Self-employment tax is 15.3% on most of your net earnings, which on $70,000 comes to about $9,900. And 20 paid hours a week is deliberate. The rest of a full week goes on finding clients, writing proposals, sending invoices and learning, and nobody pays for those hours.
For a sense check, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts median pay for web developers and digital designers at $47.85 an hour as of May 2025. That's employees, with an employer covering benefits and half the payroll tax. If your freelance rate comes out close to that, you're probably earning less than the job would pay.
Count the hours you really spend
Most people estimate the design and forget the rest. Here's an example for a five-page site for a local trade, from first call to handover.
| Stage | Hours |
|---|---|
| Sales call and proposal | 2 |
| Gathering facts, photos and logins | 2 |
| Writing and first draft | 5 |
| Client changes | 3 |
| Domain, forms and testing on phones | 2 |
| Launch, handover and follow-up | 1 |
| Invoicing and admin | 1 |
| Total | 16 |
At the example floor, 16 hours comes to $1,632. Add what you pay out for this client, such as stock photos and the builder's cost for the first year. Call it $170, which brings the floor for this job to about $1,800.
AI builders shrink the "first draft" row and leave the others alone. The client changes row can even grow, because a fast first draft invites more opinions. If the draft takes one hour instead of five, your floor drops by about $400. Whether your price drops is a separate question, and the next section answers it.
Work out what one job is worth to them
Your floor says what you need. The client's numbers tell you how much room you have above it. Ask two questions on the first call.
What's a typical job worth to you? And roughly what do you keep after materials and labor?
Then do one calculation. First-year price divided by profit per job gives the number of jobs that pay for the site.
Take a roofer. Angi's cost guide puts the average roof repair at roughly $1,150 to $1,200. Say the roofer keeps 40% of about $1,175, which is about $470 a repair. Use their own figure if they'll share it. At $1,200 setup plus $100 a month, the first year costs $2,400, which is about 5 repairs.
Now take a barber who keeps $20 of a $35 cut. The same $2,400 takes 120 cuts. That's why one price is an easy yes for one owner and a hard one for the next. Charge the barber less, include less, or pick a different trade.
This tells you whether a price is sensible to the owner. It doesn't promise those jobs will come, so use it to explain the price and leave forecasts out.
Common web design pricing by project
These are rough US ranges for freelancers and small studios, drawn from published price guides and what sellers advertise. They vary a lot by area, trade and experience, and they aren't rules. For comparison, one 2026 guide estimates a small business site from a hired WordPress developer at $2,000 to $7,600 and from a full-service agency at $5,000 to $15,000.
| Job | Usually includes | Rough hours | Commonly charged |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-page site | One page, a contact form, their own domain | 3 to 8 | $300 to $1,500 |
| Small local business site | 5 to 7 pages, forms, basic search setup | 12 to 40 | $1,500 to $6,000 |
| Service business with area pages | 10 to 25 pages by service and town | 25 to 80 | $3,000 to $10,000 |
| Redesign of an existing site | New design, moved content, redirects | 15 to 60 | $1,500 to $8,000 |
| Online store | Products, checkout, shipping setup | 40 to 120 | $3,000 to $15,000 |
| An add-on | Booking, a blog, a new page | 1 to 8 | $100 to $1,000 |
| Monthly plan | Hosting, small changes, a short report | 1 to 3 a month | $50 to $300 a month |
If your floor comes out above the range for your market, you have three choices: spend fewer hours per site, pick a trade that pays more, or sell more than a website. Cutting your rate isn't on that list.
One-off, monthly or both
There are three common ways to charge. The prices below are examples, and each model behaves differently over time.
| Model | Example | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-off | $2,400, then changes by the hour | Clients who want to own it and move on | Starting from zero every month |
| Setup plus monthly | $900, then $99 a month | Most local businesses | Clients who cancel in the first year |
| Monthly only | $0, then $149 a month | Owners short on cash | Carrying the build cost until it's paid back |
Lay them side by side. Setup plus monthly passes the $2,400 one-off in month 16, and monthly only passes it in month 17. A client who stays past about a year and a half is worth more on a plan.
Now look at the other end. A monthly-only client who leaves after six months has paid $894, against a job that cost you $1,800 to deliver. A setup fee or a minimum term covers that gap. Our guides to website as a service and maintenance packages work through what goes in the monthly part.
One number or three
In a first conversation, give one number. A plain answer such as "$99 a month, and that covers hosting and any small changes" gets you past the price question and back to the site.
In a written proposal, two or three options can help, because the owner weighs your options against each other instead of asking whether to buy at all. For example, $600 for one page, $1,800 for five pages, or $3,500 for ten pages with a page for each service. Make the middle one the one you'd like them to pick, and write it the same way each time.
When someone asks for a discount, take something out. Fewer pages or one round of changes less keeps your rate where it is, and it shows the price was real.
What to say when they push back
Have a short, honest line ready for each of these. You'll hear them all.
"That's more than I expected."
What did you have in mind? If it's closer to $[amount], I can do a one-page version now, and we can add the rest once it's paying for itself.
"My nephew can do it for $300."
He might do a fine job. I'd just ask who'll update it in two years, and who answers when it goes down. If he's got that covered, you're all set.
"I can build it myself on Wix."
You can, and for some businesses that's the right call. What you'd be paying me for is the hours you'd spend on it, and someone to call when it needs changing.
"Can you do it cheaper?"
Yes, with less in it. Would you rather drop the extra pages or the monthly plan?
Notice what none of these do. They don't argue, and they don't cut the price for free. A few owners will still walk away, and at your floor that's fine.
When to raise your price
- You're winning nearly everyone you quote. A few no's are a healthy sign that you've found the top of your market.
- You're booked weeks ahead. That's demand telling you the price is low.
- Your floor has moved. Tools, tax or your own hours changed, so your numbers did too.
Raise it for new clients first, since a new price costs you nothing with them. Give monthly clients notice in writing, say 30 to 60 days, and remind them what the plan covers.
What goes wrong
- Unlimited revisions. Promise two rounds in writing, then an hourly rate. Our contract checklist has sample wording.
- No deposit. A common pattern is half up front and half at launch. A client who won't pay a deposit often wasn't going to pay at all.
- Charging by the hour while you get faster. Every hour a tool saves you then costs you money. Price the result, and keep your hours as your private check.
- Hosting thrown in forever. A one-off fee with free hosting becomes a monthly cost you never priced.
- Forgetting sales tax. Some states tax web design. Washington, for one, began taxing custom website development in October 2025. Check your state and your client's.
- Quoting on the spot. If the job is unclear, say you'll send a price within a day. Then do it.
Run your own numbers
The web design pricing calculator does this math with your own rate, hours and costs. Once you have a price, put it in a proposal and send it the same day.
