How a Fixed Quote Is Calculated
A fixed quote starts with the step your project fits, and the step sets the range: EUR 900-1.500 for a mini-site, EUR 1.500-3.500 for a business website, EUR 3.500-7.500 for a site with login, a dashboard or payments. Scoping then decides where in that range your number lands, and it lands there for reasons you can read on the quote.
Some of those reasons are in your hands, which makes them ways to spend less.
The step sets the range
The first decision is which step you are on, and that depends on what the site has to do rather than how big it feels.
| Step | What it covers | Range | Build time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Single-page landing | 1 page, form, analytics, responsive | EUR 600-900 | 1-2 weeks |
| 02 Mini-site | 2-3 pages, contact flow, basic CMS | EUR 900-1.500 | 2-3 weeks |
| 03 Business website | 4-7 pages, CMS, service pages, booking or contact | EUR 1.500-3.500 | 3-6 weeks |
| 04 Advanced site or web app | Login, dashboard, API, CRM, payments, chatbot | EUR 3.500-7.500 | 6-12 weeks |
| 05 Custom SaaS platform | Scope, auth, billing, admin, deployment | from EUR 7.500 | after discovery |
The full ladder is on packages.
What moves you up a step
Some features do not push a quote to the top of its range. They change the range. Each of these is step 04 work, EUR 3.500-7.500 over 6-12 weeks:
- Customers or staff logging in
- A dashboard that shows each user their own data
- An API, or a connection to a CRM
- Payments of any kind: checkout, deposits, paid bookings, fees
- A chatbot
The reason is what each one brings with it. A login means accounts, password resets and permissions. A payment means a provider account, confirmation emails, failed payments and refunds, each tested before launch. A booking form that emails you is step 03. A booking form that takes a deposit is step 04, even if the page looks identical.
If what you describe is a product rather than a site, with its own billing and admin, it is step 05, from EUR 7.500, and the number follows discovery.
What moves the number inside a step
Once the step is clear, these are the inputs we look at. None of them is padding: each is work that either has to happen during the build or does not.
| Input | Toward the low end | Toward the high end |
|---|---|---|
| Page layouts | Pages share a layout and differ in content | Each page needs a layout of its own |
| Content | Final copy and photos arrive before the build | Copy is written or images sourced during it |
| Design starting point | A logo, colours and typeface already exist | The visual identity is being decided on the site |
| Editing | You change a few fields now and then | Your team edits most of the site itself |
| Forms and booking | One contact form | Booking, conditional questions, forms routed to different people |
| Languages | One | Two or more, each with content to manage |
| Existing site | Nothing to carry over | Content to migrate and old addresses to redirect |
| Approvals | One person signs off | Several people review each round |
Pages are counted by layout
Seven pages that follow one layout can be less work than four pages that each need their own. A service page repeated for each service is one design filled several times. That is why two step 03 quotes with the same page count can land at opposite ends of the range.
Content is the input you control most
Copy that is final before the build gets placed once. Copy that arrives in pieces gets placed, adjusted and placed again, and the layout moves with it. Content that still has to be written is work, and it belongs in the number rather than turning up later as a delay.
What is not in the number
Hosting is agreed per project: we can host, and where that is part of the arrangement it is written into the quote. Ongoing work is priced apart: Care at EUR 100-300 a month for updates, monitoring, backups and small fixes, not a redesign or new features; SEO growth at EUR 500-800 a month; and SEO + GEO at EUR 750-1.200+ a month. SEO foundation is a one-off of EUR 450-750. Whatever the number, the code, the repository and the database are yours.
Three briefs, three outcomes
These are illustrations, not past projects.
- Five pages mostly on one layout, final copy supplied, a contact form, one language. Step 03, toward the low end of EUR 1.500-3.500.
- Six pages each with its own layout, copy still to be written, an old site with content and addresses to migrate, two languages. Still step 03, toward the high end.
- Four pages and a booking form where the customer pays a deposit. Fewer pages than either, and step 04 at EUR 3.500-7.500, because of the deposit.
How scoping turns into one number
- Your description. From a first message we can tell you which step it sounds like and its range. That is an indication, not a quote.
- Scoping. We write down the page list, what each page has to do, which forms or bookings exist and where they send, who supplies the content, and what is out of scope.
- The fixed quote. One number against that written scope, with the inputs from the table above visible in it, so you can see which ones you could change.
- The build. 1-2 weeks at step 01, 2-3 weeks at step 02, 3-6 weeks at step 03, 6-12 weeks at step 04. Step 05 is scheduled after discovery. How design and code are built in the same hands is on design and engineering, and the stack is on our Next.js page.
- Review. This is the part that waits on you. The quote assumes feedback comes back gathered together rather than in pieces.
A change after the quote gets a written line and a revised number before it is built. If the change is a client login or payments, that line follows the add-on, EUR 1.500-4.000 for a login or EUR 600-1.500 for payments, and the quote confirms the scope.
When to spend less
- If your quote lands high in step 03 because of pages you are unsure about, cut them. Step 02, EUR 900-1.500 over 2-3 weeks, is a proper site, and an extra page is an add-on at EUR 150-250 once you know it earns its place.
- If content pushes the number up and someone on your team writes well, have them write it before scoping.
- If you only need to know whether anyone wants what you sell, a step 01 landing page at EUR 600-900 over 1-2 weeks answers that, and a bigger site does not answer it better.
- If you cannot yet say what the pages are, do not ask anyone for a quote, because any number given now has to cover the largest version of your project. Write the page list first. Until it exists, do not hire us yet.
Questions buyers ask
Why can you not give me a fixed number from my first email?
Because a first email describes the site you imagine, not the one that gets built. We can give you the step and its range straight away. A fixed number is a promise about a defined piece of work, and until scoping defines it, any number would have to cover the largest version of what you might mean.
Why is another agency's quote so different from yours?
Compare the scope, not the total. Hold both quotes against the same page list, content responsibility and forms, and ask each agency what is out of scope. A lower number that leaves out content, migration or redirects is a smaller project. Check who owns the code, the repository and the database at the end too, because that changes what you are buying.
What if my project sits between two steps?
Scoping decides which step the work belongs to, and we quote that step. If you described four pages and three would do the job, that is a step 02 quote rather than a stretched step 03. What never sits between steps is a login or a payment: those are step 04 whatever the page count.
Tell us what you are building and we will tell you its step and its range, at contact.
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JP Studio designs and builds websites, storefronts and product interfaces.