Most people who call us about a website have already been quoted three very different numbers and cannot tell what separates them. That usually means nobody explained what drives the price or which decisions will matter a year from now.
These guides answer the questions we get asked before a project starts. What a site costs, how long it takes, whether WordPress or a custom build makes more sense for how you work, and what you should have ready before you hire anyone. We have been building sites for Oklahoma businesses since 2013, so the answers come from our own projects rather than from general advice.
If you would rather talk it through, our web design page covers what we build and how we work.
How Long Does It Take to Build a Website?
Websites take anywhere from two weeks to six months depending on the complexity and size of the site. A focused site with content ready can be quick. A large site with custom functionality, or one waiting on content and decisions, takes months.
How Much Does a Website Cost?
Most website projects we build land between $7,000 and $15,000, and the full range runs from about $5,000 to $35,000. The more custom the site, the more it costs. What drives the number is how many pages there are, how much of the design is built from scratch, and what the site has to connect to.
Redesign or Rebuild Your Website?
If the structure works and the site loads well but looks dated, a redesign is usually enough. If it's slow, breaks on phones, can't be updated without a developer, or nobody can safely change it, the problem is underneath and a rebuild is the honest answer.
What Website Hosting and Maintenance Should Include
Hosting should cover where the site lives, an SSL certificate, backups you can actually restore from, and monitoring that tells someone when the site goes down. Maintenance should cover platform and plugin updates, security patching, form testing, and someone paying attention before your customers notice a problem.
What to Have Ready Before You Hire a Web Designer
Before you hire anyone, get clear on why you need the site, decide who is writing the content, gather your logo, brand colors and photos, and find your domain and hosting logins. Those four things set most of the timeline and a fair amount of the cost.
WordPress or Custom Built?
WordPress makes sense when you want to add pages, move sections and upload photos yourself without calling a developer. A custom build in HTML and CSS makes sense when performance and precision matter more, or when the design has to be exactly right. The real question is who will be updating the site in six months.
