I skipped the total and read the appendix. How much does it cost to redesign a business website? The appendix was a new sitemap. The live URLs already had titles. They had priced a second site and written redesign on the cover.
I treat this as business websites. Keep the URLs or throw them out is redesign a website, or start over. A site that doesn't exist yet is how much a custom website costs. If the live pages describe a service you dropped, this table won't fit.
How much a website redesign costs
Dollars, from briefs where the site was already up. I leave the words and the URLs where they are. A quote that replaces both is the last row, and that fee is on the other page.
| What they asked for | What it costs | What the fee covers |
|---|---|---|
| The homepage only | $4,000 to $9,000 | One template. I quote it when I click the service pages and they still describe the work. A new homepage on interiors from another decade shows up when someone opens the contact page. |
| New templates on the live URLs | $7,000 to $18,000 | I replace the templates. The words stay, and so do the URLs, which is why this sits under a new marketing site. The PDF at the top of this page was this row. They had multiplied by the page count. |
| Several layouts, same URLs | $14,000 to $28,000 | A case study, a team page, a long service page, each with its own frame. I still don't write the pages in this row. The URLs stay, including the ones Google already sends people to. |
| A new site sold as a redesign | The other receipt | A blank sitemap, new URLs, and the old form has to keep sending mail while you build. That fee is how much a custom website costs, plus the weeks both sites are up. I leave it off this table. |
Their appendix listed 18 pages. Fourteen were one service layout with the city swapped. Contact was the homepage with the hero taken off. The case study needed its own frame. I would have billed two templates. They billed 18.
What you are paying for in a website redesign
Read the sitemap at the back before you read the fee. If those URLs are not the ones on the live site, the fee is for pages you already have. The words are sitting in the editor. You would be paying someone to typeset them again and then argue about redirects.
The invoice I mean is the templates. There was a logo buried in the same fee on that PDF. I don't draw logos. That one line is how a template job picks up a second project without anyone noticing until the Figma is late. If it isn't on its own line, it isn't in the number.
The weeks are shorter than a new site because the copy is already written. That calendar is how long a website redesign takes. How long a custom website takesis the date for a site that isn't up yet. I don't use it for a type change. Whether a custom website will rank is what you are buying if the new templates ship on new URLs. The redirects show up on the next invoice, after the old ones are already gone.
The appendix was titled proposed information architecture, their word for a new sitemap. The live nav had six links.
What pushes a website redesign into another price
A day rate doesn't tell you which row you're on. I write a brief before I quote. Fixed price or hourly comes after the pages are named. Before that, the structure is a guess with a deposit attached.
The Google Doc still describes last year's offer
Changing a heading is part of the template. Writing what you sell is not. If the doc still lists a package you retired, this page has the wrong fee. I can say that on the first call. Finding it in week six, after the layouts are already drawn, means I guessed.
The quote also says you'll leave WordPress
Templates on the system you already publish in are this table. Leaving WordPress is a different job, and I don't hide those hours inside "design." If the theme is the thing that's broken, start with keep WordPress, or rebuild. If nobody can change a heading without a vendor ticket, you're replacing how the pages get made. That's the last row.
When I won't quote a website redesign
Some of these I send back. The fee is a real number for a job I wouldn't take.
The services page still lists the 2019 package
New type makes a dead sentence look current. It is still the wrong sentence. Then I'm pricing a new site, and the custom website page has the fee. I'll keep a URL that still matches a service you offer. I won't keep one so the nav has the same number of links as last year.
Someone on the team hates the font
Customers don't, and the form still sends. I'll change the type and leave the URLs where Google already has them. I've watched the form go quiet for a month after a team swapped every URL so the launch would feel new. People had those URLs bookmarked.
A slow page is a different invoice. New type on a page that takes three seconds is a slower page in a nicer font. I won't call that a redesign. A slow website is a product problem. Time it on a phone, then talk about the type. A few of the live ones are in selected work. If you want me to mark the PDF, send it.
