The short answer: price follows scope, not page count
In 2026 a business website can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to six figures. The difference is not vendor greed — it is a completely different set of deliverables. A few hundred dollars buys a template subscription: an account on someone else's platform. A five-figure custom build buys design source files, full source code, deployment docs and the right to migrate anywhere.
When comparing quotes, first establish what is being sold: "a website you rent for a year" or "a software asset you own". Contracts phrase these very differently.
What each budget tier buys
A rough market map for planning (CNY with USD equivalents):
- ¥3,000–8,000 (~$420–1,100): brand brochure site, 5–10 pages, responsive, basic contact form and SEO metadata. Good enough to establish an online presence.
- ¥8,000–30,000 (~$1,100–4,200): marketing / functional site with a CMS, product center, multilingual support, CRM-connected forms, structured data and performance tuning. For companies that need the site to generate leads.
- ¥30,000+ (~$4,200+): sites that are business systems — member portals, online ordering, quote configurators, ERP/payment integrations. The website is now part of the software.
The six costs that get left out of quotes
These surface mid-project more often than not. Ask about each before signing:
- Domain and hosting: typically a few hundred dollars per year — buy under your own entity.
- ICP filing (mainland China hosting only): free but takes 1–3 weeks. HTTPS certificates can be free.
- Copywriting and photography: product shoots, professional copy and logo source files are usually not included.
- Third-party services and APIs: payment merchant accounts, SMS, maps — each may bill separately.
- Content entry: organizing and entering dozens of product pages is real work, comparable to development itself.
- Post-launch maintenance: security patches, backups, content updates — clarify the free period and later pricing.
Four classic upsell traps
One: "CMS included" turns out to mean you can edit news but not products. Two: mobile responsiveness billed as an extra. Three: source code withheld, locking you to the vendor for every future change. Four: "SEO optimized" with no unique titles, no sitemap, no structured data.
The antidote is simple: demand a written feature list, a deliverables list and an explicit "not included" list — and phrase acceptance criteria as clickable actions ("open the homepage on a phone; the menu expands") rather than adjectives ("good mobile experience").
How to judge if a quote is fair
Convert the price into "how many qualified inquiries should this site produce per year". If the site is a trust badge, a cheap template is fine. If it carries paid or organic traffic, page speed, conversion paths and a content structure you can update yourself directly affect customer acquisition cost — not the place to save money.
Unsure which tier you need? Send your business context and reference sites — I provide a free initial proposal with an itemized quote, no strings attached.
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