What drives the price of a corporate website
The main things that set the price of a corporate website are how the site is built (a ready-made theme or code written for you), who will manage the content and how, how many languages it runs in, and what moves over from the old site. The difference between two sites that look the same usually shows up not on day one but in the years after: yearly theme and plugin licences, pages that break after an update, content that can't be moved to another provider. So when comparing quotes, look beyond the first price, at the total cost over a few years and at who will own the site.
A ready-made theme or a site written for you
Most corporate sites are built on a ready-made theme with plugins added on top. This route is quick and the first price is low. For a one-page presentation site whose content rarely changes, or for a small business, it's often enough, and in that case you don't need custom code.
The limit shows as the site grows. One of the plugins updates and a page breaks. Each plugin makes the site a little slower. Most security holes come in through plugins. The theme, the plugins and the hosting are each paid for separately every year, and on the day you want to move the site, none of them come with it.
A site written for you has no theme and no plugins. Pages are prepared on the server, the browser downloads only what that page needs, and images are resized to the screen. The first price is higher; in return there are no yearly licences, and the source code and data belong to the company.
What sets the price
- Number of languages. Each language gets its own address, its own sitemap and its own text written in that language. Writing the text in that language takes more work than machine translation.
- Content management. Will you manage products, categories, news and documents from your own panel, or write to someone for every change?
- What moves over from the old site. Redirecting every address on the old site to its new one protects your Google ranking and the links others have given you. The more addresses, the bigger the job.
- Forms. A simple contact form, or an application form with file uploads.
- Who writes the text. Will the text come ready from your company, or will a team write it, taking the industry knowledge from you?
- Search and AI visibility. Structured data, a sitemap, llms.txt and a clean heading structure let the site be read by Google and by assistants such as ChatGPT.
- Hosting. Will the site run on your own server, or on a server run for you?
- After launch. Whether broken pages and search position are monitored in the first weeks.
Hidden costs
These are the items a quote doesn't mention but you pay for later:
- Yearly licences. Payments renewed every year for the theme, plugins and page builder.
- Update breakage. Repairing a page that broke after a plugin update.
- The cost of small changes. Writing to the agency and waiting your turn to change a price list.
- Lock-in. Not being given the code or the content when you want to change provider.
- Lost addresses. Old addresses not redirected in a redesign; your Google ranking and years of links to your site are wasted overnight.
Questions to ask when getting a quote
- Do the source code and data pass to us on delivery?
- Will we pay a yearly licence for a theme, plugins or a platform?
- What will we be able to change ourselves from the panel?
- Will the addresses on our old site be redirected to the new one, and will that be checked?
- Will each language have its own address and its own text?
- Is the site's loading speed measured before delivery?
- Will our email be touched during the switch?
- How many days of follow-up are there after launch?
The answers to these questions explain most of the difference between two quotes.
The real question: is the site working for you
A corporate site isn't just a shop window. If a visitor can't find the product they're looking for, or a question asked after hours waits until the next day, you lose the business however good the site looks.
On request, the sites we build also get an advisor that works from your product data. It answers only from your catalog and documents, records the document behind each answer, doesn't make things up when it doesn't know, and passes the question to you with the visitor's contact details. It's a separate piece of work and can be added to your existing site too.
If you build it with us
- The code and data are yours. On delivery the source code and data pass to you; there's no theme, plugin or platform licence.
- Live the moment you change it. You add content from your own panel, and it appears on the site as soon as you save.
- Old addresses are checked one by one. Every old address is redirected to its new one and checked before the switch. No page fails to open on launch day.
- Loading speed is measured. How fast the pages open is measured before delivery.
- We don't touch your email. Your domain's mail records stay exactly as they are.
- Thirty days of follow-up. We monitor broken pages and search position.
- We pick the launch day carefully. We don't launch on a Friday evening or right before a holiday.
Why we don't list prices
"Corporate website" covers very different jobs: a single-language presentation page and a four-language site with a panel and migrated addresses can't cost the same. Instead of a fixed package list, we look at where you are now and work out the scope together.
Common questions
Can you rebuild our theme-based site?
Yes. You don't have to build a new site; we can also bring the current one up to today's standard. Old addresses are redirected to their new ones.
Is there a monthly or yearly fee?
There's no theme, plugin or platform licence. How hosting and maintenance will work is written separately in the quote.
Will the site reach the top of Google?
We can't give a date for rankings. We can measure that the structure is built correctly; nobody can measure when Google will respond.
Are social media and ads included?
No. We build the site so it can feed them, but we don't run the campaigns.