What each price bracket actually buys

Across six countries, the single most-searched thing anyone asks about this trade is not “how much does a website cost”. It is web design price list — and the difference matters, because the people typing it do not want an essay about ranges. They want the table. Almost nobody publishes one. Here is ours, with what each bracket actually buys and what moves you from one to the next.

The price list

The price list runs 4 fixed brackets in CAD: $999 for one page, $2,400 for a small multi-page site, $4,900 for a site with a content system, and $9,900+ once the build has to integrate with another system. Page count, integrations, a catalogue, and an unbuilt brand are what move you between them.

The plus sign on the fourth is not a hedge. Past that point the number stops being a price and becomes a scope conversation, and pretending otherwise would be the thing this table exists to avoid.

What moves you between brackets

Four things move you between brackets, and only four: page count, integrations, a catalogue, and a brand that does not exist yet. If a quote lands a bracket higher than you expected and none of these is named in it, ask which one applies — a studio that has done this before will answer in a sentence.

1. Page count, because each page is written as well as built. Count the pages a buyer actually opens before contacting you, not the pages in your menu.
2. Integrations, because somebody else’s system gets a vote on the timeline. Zero or one keeps you in the first three brackets. Two or more does not.
3. A catalogue, because product data has to survive the move intact, and that is an engineering job rather than a design one.
4. A brand that does not exist yet, because a site cannot be designed around one that is not there.

What should not move it: the number of revision rounds, stock photography, a page count padded with pages nobody opens, and “SEO” sold as a line item on a build that ought to be searchable by default.

Why so few studios publish a price list

Three reasons, one is good. The bad one: a quote after a discovery call can be shaped to what the buyer seems able to pay. The neutral one: bespoke work is hard to bracket, which is why our fourth bracket carries a plus sign. The good one: a published number invites comparison against studios doing less for the same figure.

If you are collecting quotes, the useful move is to ask each studio for its bracket before the proposal. A studio that cannot name a range before scoping will name one after you are invested.

Reading any price list, including this one

1. Check whether the number is a price or a starting point. “From” doing a lot of work in a sentence usually means the real figure arrives later.
2. Ask what happens to the deposit if you stop before work begins. Ours is a refundable booking. The point is not our policy — it is that a studio which has done this often enough has written one down.
3. Ask when you see design, and whether that is a commitment or an estimate. We give a working build and the live date inside 48 hours.
4. Ask who owns the site afterwards, and whether you can edit it without going through anyone.
5. Ask for one live link to a site they built for someone who is not a friend. Then click it.

Where to go from the table

From the table: pricing a build from scratch? What a small-business website costs in Canada explains the brackets and trade-offs. Already have a site? What a redesign actually costs covers rebuild versus repair. Measure yours first with the free nine-point audit, and get your exact figure on the pricing page.