If you run a business in Vancouver, Camas, Battle Ground or across the river in Portland and you have asked two web designers for a quote, you have probably received two numbers that differ by a factor of ten. That is normal — and it is not because one of them is ripping you off. They are quoting different products.
Short answer for 2026: a do-it-yourself builder costs $15–$50 a month plus your evenings; a freelancer building on a template typically charges $1,500–$6,000; a small agency $3,000–$8,000; a studio designing from scratch with copy, local-SEO structure and tracking $6,000–$20,000; an online store $8,000–$30,000 and up. A single landing page for ads is $800–$3,000. Those are the ranges we see in the Portland–Vancouver market; the rest of this guide explains what sits behind each number so you can pick the right level — once.
The four price levels and what you actually get
| Option | Typical price | Timeline | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy) | $15–$50 / month + your time | Weekends for a month | A template you fill in yourself | Testing an idea, a hobby business |
| Freelancer on a template | $1,500–$6,000 | 2–4 weeks | Template customized with your logo, photos and text you supply | Businesses that need “something online” fast |
| Small agency | $3,000–$8,000 | 4–8 weeks | Semi-custom design, some copy help, basic SEO setup | Established businesses replacing an old site |
| Custom studio | $6,000–$20,000 | 4–6 weeks | Design from scratch, copywriting for local search, integrations, GA4 and call tracking | Businesses that want the site to bring in calls and bookings |
| Online store | $8,000–$30,000+ | 6–10 weeks | Catalog, checkout, payments, shipping, email flows | Products, restaurants with direct ordering |
The gap between the second and the fourth row is not “prettier design”. It is who does the thinking: which pages exist, what each page says, what a visitor is supposed to do next, and whether anyone can measure the result.
What drives the price up or down
Number of pages. Every real page — a service, a city you serve, a case study — is research, copy, design and build. A home page plus contact is cheap; twelve service and city pages that actually rank are not, but they are also where the traffic comes from.
Copy and photos. If you hand over a folder of text and professional photos, the price drops. If the designer has to write the copy for local search and source or shoot photos, it rises — and the site usually performs better, because “we do it all, call us” does not rank for anything.
Integrations. Online booking, ordering, reservations, a CRM, call tracking, a payment system, a client portal. Each one is a few hours to a few days of setup and testing.
Custom vs. template. A template is a fixed layout you adapt to. A custom design starts from your customer’s next step. Templates are cheaper to build and more expensive to fix later.
Who is doing it. A student on Fiverr, a one-person freelancer, a small local studio, a 30-person agency with account managers. Overhead shows up in the invoice; skill does not always.
The ongoing costs nobody mentions in the quote
A website is not a one-time purchase. Budget for:
- Domain: $10–$20 a year.
- Hosting: $0–$30 a month for a modern static or Next.js site (Vercel, Netlify); $10–$50 a month for WordPress hosting worth having.
- Business email: about $7 per user per month for Google Workspace, or free forwarding through your domain registrar to start.
- Plugins and subscriptions: booking tools ($0–$50 a month), forms, chat, premium fonts or stock photos.
- Care plan: $50–$500 a month for updates, security, backups and small changes — optional, but the alternative is a site that is out of date in six months.
- Growth work: new pages, landing pages for ads, local SEO, reviews — this is where the site starts paying for itself, and it is either your time or a retainer.
Where small businesses waste money
Paying twice. The most common pattern we see: a $700 site in year one, a $1,500 “refresh” in year two, then a proper site in year three. The cheap site did not just cost $700 — it cost two years of missed calls.
Buying “SEO packages” for a site that cannot rank. No amount of monthly SEO fixes a site with one page of generic text. Structure first, then promotion.
Paying for features you do not need. A blog nobody will write, a client portal for three clients, a membership area “for later”. Build for the next twelve months.
Not owning the site. Some agencies keep the domain, the hosting and the code in their name. If you leave, you start from zero. Whatever you pay, make sure the domain, hosting and files are yours.
What a fixed-price project from a studio should include
When you compare quotes, look for these lines. If they are missing, ask.
- A discovery call and a look at your competitors, then a sitemap and a page-by-page plan.
- Custom design reviewed with you before development — with a stated number of revision rounds.
- Copywriting written for the searches your customers type, not placeholder text.
- Mobile-first build tested on real phones, with target load time under two seconds.
- Forms, booking or ordering connected to where you actually work — your phone, your inbox, your CRM.
- Google Business Profile, GA4, Search Console and call tracking connected on launch day.
- Ownership: domain, hosting and files in your name, with all logins handed over.
- A launch date on the calendar and a fixed price agreed before design starts.
That is how we run every project at EastOrca — how we work walks through the six weeks — and it is a fair checklist for anyone you hire.
What EastOrca charges
To put our own numbers next to the market ranges above, our website design and development services range from $1,500 to $10,000:
| Project | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Landing page | $1,500–$2,500 | One offer, one page: copy, custom design, form, call tracking, Google Ads conversion import |
| Small business website | $3,000–$5,000 | 5–8 pages, custom design, copywriting for local search, forms or booking, GA4 and call tracking |
| Custom website | $5,000–$10,000 | Larger sites, online stores, integrations (ordering, CRM, portals), multi-location and city pages |
Final pricing depends on project scope and functionality, and complex projects may exceed $10,000. Maintenance, SEO campaigns and advertising are priced separately, month to month, with no long-term contract. The exact number is fixed after a 20-minute call, before any design starts.
How to get an accurate quote in one call
Bring three things: the list of services you want to sell, the towns you serve, and two or three competitor websites you like or hate. Say whether you have photos and whether anyone on your team will edit the site. With that, any competent studio can quote a fixed price on the spot instead of “it depends”.
If you want a number for your business, start a project — we reply within one business day, and the quote is fixed before we design a single screen.
