Working out what to charge for your web design services can be very difficult. Most designers don’t publish their rates so it can be impossible to compare your prices to others in the industry. I thought it would be helpful to find out and share what others are charging!
Our short questionnaire is completely anonymous and should only take a minute or two of your time. It is open to web designers of all levels of experience (including agencies)
UPDATE: 17/12/09 – An additional 150 survey responses have been added to the results (220 in total) with more reports being added soon!
We are keeping the questionnaire running to get the most accurate data possible so please feel free to share your prices anonymously below if you haven’t done so already and we will update the results data regularly.
Obviously, the more people that complete the questionnaire the more accurate the data will be so I’d really, really appreciate any links or tweets to help spread the word.
Thanks for taking part 
Web Design Prices Questionnaire
The Results So Far…
We are pleased to publish our results based on the first batch of responses to our web design pricing questionnaire. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this post so far!
To ensure we can provide the most accurate feedback we will be leaving the questionnaire open and will be updating the results every couple of weeks based on new data so please feel free to complete the survey if you haven’t already done so.
Please note: All currency conversions are approximate and based on the correct rate on the date of publication.
Number of responses data is based on: 220
Date last updated: 17th December 2009
Thanks to everyone who has submitted their rates for this survey! Hopefully the results will grow and grow over time to provide an increasingly accurate indication of web design rates. If you haven’t already submitted your rates please feel free to do so at the top of this page.
If you have any additional reports you’d like to see please leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to arrange this for the next update.
Related Posts
Popular Posts
Leave Your Response
Popular Posts
62 Responses
Great idea Phil! Looking forward to seeing the results
Excellent idea! Please share the results when you’re done…
It would be great to get a benchmark out of this if you publish the results. Wicked idea!
Looking forward to the results!
Great idea. Looking forward to results!
looking forward to the results also. thanks very much – this info will be extremely useful!!!
When can we expect the outcome?
Hi Robert. The first results should be out on Monday or Tuesday. Thanks
Really really interesting – glad to see I was slightly above-average in most of the categories, I think that’s a good place to be!
Hey cool, really interesting. Quite impressive the average cost of a basic cms!
Interesting results – Something definitely to bear in mind when I start taking on work.
Interesting how 10 yrs + charge an average less than the 9-10yr experienced. Short changing yourselves guys/gals! :-p
Thanks for spending the time collating this data for us.
Interesting results, but not half as useful as they would have been if they differentiated between freelance and agencies rates.
For freelancers I suspect these prices look surprisingly high, and for agency employees they will look surprisingly low. As a result, they’re not much use to either!
Lovely. Results are very nicely compiled.
To Kevin: The very low prices for CMS etc. must be overseas guys prices.
Thanks for commenting Pete. Unfortunately, from the first batch of responses I had only 3 were from agencies so I’m waiting until we get a bit more data.
When we have more information I’ll work out the difference between part time freelance / full time freelance and agency rates and add them to the results. The questionnaire is still open so hopefully we’ll have enough data within about a week.
Great, thanks Phil. I look forward to the update!
Phil.
Have you thought about doing this with some location data?
It would be interested to see where in the UK (or the World) the averages where coming from.
Hi Lee. Yep, I plan to add more reports based on country data very soon. I’ve had another 30 completed surveys since publishing this batch of results so there should be enough for some good geographic data soon!
This is a great idea and has really helped me get a better idea of pricing and the competition.
I’ve added my data to your questionaire and was surprised to see I was undercharging for the CMS and eCommerce.
Wow, didn’t know people were charging so much. I’m new to the field, so it’s interesting to see what current people are charging.
Sorry I hate to do this but there are a number of issues with the data this survey will collect!
Each agency and freelancer will consider a different set of features ‘core’ for a content management system or e-commerce site. That’s why there is why there is a range between £360 and £12,000 for an e-commerce site.
A more in-depth survey would give far more reliable results that would actually be of use to the community.
Hi Ash. Yes, I agree, it is difficult to give an accurate figure based on the vague descriptions of each project. In the next update to the data I’ll be introducing additional reports that separate freelancers and agency results and also some geographic reports too.
This is a great poll/article. Helps a lot with freelance pricing. Thanks!
Great job!
How about splitting the data in values based on the designers country?
very essential article…..many thanks
I think people need to start charging more…
Very interesting stats. I’m really looking forward to seeing the geographical data. My personal prediction is that once broken down the gap between the highs and lows for website design prices will shrink considerably by region.
I concur with what Ross is saying, people need to start charging more. More and more people are undercutting each other to get the business then it gets down to the cheapest quote and its a bloody template.
Can we have a conversion for dollars. I’m to lazy to google it….
Hi Tylor. Thanks for visiting the site. Each report already has GBP, EUR and USD prices for the data. Cheers, Phil
I don’t know how I happened to stumple upon this post and your fantastic website, but I am happy I did. This is a great post that I’m sure a lot of young website developers like me who are trying to make the switch to be a full-time freelancer will find interesting. I sure did. It is just another peice of assurance staring me in the face, tell me that I need to not be charging so little for my services. I’m learning how to deal with it though. Thank you so much!
I charge $175 per hour, and a base PSD website template design (no HTML/CSS) starts at $3,000.
Somehow clients find me and pay me and are happy with the experience!
Then again I have a beautiful portfolio and pay a lot of attention to detail, which takes time and skill. But I wouldn’t say I am a superstar designer or anything. In fact I am a lousy networker and have no gallery featured websites or a Twitter following or famous clients in my portfolio.
What can I say, I just know what I’m worth?
People, charge what you’re worth! The survey results so far are scaring me!
LDC – or all fool your clients for not looking around
But then again it all depends on your client base and their requirement. For example I used to work for jaguar cars and they wouldn’t even talk with an agency unless charged OVER a certain amount (it was seen as the higher the cost the better the work would be, which isn’t true..lol)
We’re an agency of 7 employees who eat, drink & live zen cart ecommerce and can offer an ecommerce website fot less than £200 (yes under 200!) see http://www.JSWeb.co.uk/silver.
Great work on collating this info so far Phil, perhaps a follow up survey could be setup specific to each section CMS/ECommerce/etc
Well, after looking at this data – one thing is for sure – I’m too cheap!
JSWeb – Well! Many of my clients have come to me after a bad experience with another designer, having heard about me from someone they know. Then they see the difference in the quality and the experience when working with someone like me – because I truly care about their project and their success. So I get repeat business. And yet other referrals. And the clients don’t act like they know better than me how things should be designed. They listen to what I have to say. That’s the added bonus when they are paying me good money!
I think sooner or later people learn that they get what they pay for. I guess anyone could charge £200 for a whole website, but I doubt that while working on it they would have the emotional capacity to truly care about the project and create something amazing for their client.
Which is my goal with every project.
LDC – Yes, I certainly know where you are coming from and its a good goal to have.
Obtaining clients that lookup to you (especially when recommended) and want you to work your magic are great!
..and yes we’ve all experienced the clients that want it all for nothing so I suspect you are by passing them through your higher rates.
When new Businesses start up, budgets can be very tight and this is why we offer a range of services (hense having Bronze > Silver > Gold Packages….)
Some clients are able to pick up an entry level Bronze/Silver plan and roll with it and fair play – for some the output is really really good!
Others (based on their initial budgets) start with a Bronze/Silver and then (after time) want to use our knowledge and high standards so opt for our Gold Packages…
So really as long as ALL OF US are offering our clients a GOOD SERVICE (after all they are paying you your wages!) then no rate is too low or high.
…………..and if any of you out there are after a quick Buck and offer a terrible service then ALL FOOL YOU as before long your clients will jump ship and join a provider that does care
Kind Regards
JSWeb Team
I would love to see a more detailed survey conducted! I’m very interested to see the hourly rates divided up into groups (freelancers, firms, small teams, etc …)
Wow… that’s quite an insight!
Thanks for running this survey & compiling the answers.
thanks a lot Phil, this really a pretty handy information, i shall not feel guilty to raise my fee…
great to know ! very interesting information, i look forward to see the result
Good Stats to know and nicely presented…
Im not a designer, but in fact an internet-marketer..
So, If I need custom work I ALWAYS outsource using freelance sites… and always get very good value for money.. on the downside – sometimes poor communication .
Nice blog here.
Happy new year. -JD
Nice idea. It will give us some really good information
Blimey – nearly £500 for a static 1 page website! I need to put my rates up!
Thanks for sharing the survey results, I now need to review the prices I’m charging !!
Wow, this is some great information. We fall pretty favorably in the mix there. I’ll definitely bookmark this to show people when they questions our rates.
Thanks for the results and information.
It seems very competitive but even though there is alot of competition the market is satured with designers (maybe not all decent). It still shows the skilled / good designers are earning what they deserve which is great.
I wonder how foreign markets are compared to these stats eg: USA, Australia etc…
As mentioned above, also interesting to see who are agencies, freelancers and smaller companies.
I had a meeting today with a medium size business today they decided to bring another company on the table to kind of choose which company they wanted to go forward with; the other company was charging twice, and to my experience the guy was very old school, however he was much old and he was charging a bit more then my company. His proposal was stupid and very general despite all that he got the job.
So I kind of think its best to charge client as much as possible and just keep saying we are the greatest and we have lots of resources and all other companies are stupid.
Sadly now I think this is the best way to charge the client and be successful, lol
Very interesting article, thanks for posting it. Glad to see I am not over or under charging, although I may need to address the minimum fee, I am way too kind with ad hoc administrative work fees.
Excellent idea and a very well presented survey. I have one question though. How can you be certain that everything that people completed in the survey is for real. I am referring to the prices here. Maybe some of them revealed some higher or lower prices in order force the prices up or down.
Great resource, but i agree with @john, other metrics might be more useful.
For example:
- instead of average rates, mediana might more accurately reflect “real average” prices
- instead of high and low prices, standard deviation channel would work better, because you discard extremes.
Just my 2 cents.
@Phil maybe you could post a csv file with the data so everyone would be able to make calculations for himself?
and if we compare this data with designers in india and Pakistan, what would be the result, two low!
I guess I am already charging about the right amount. It is difficult to gauge how much someone is willing to pay for a website as if you over quote you will lose them. Thanks again!
Nice read, interesting to see the results so far, kind of mixture though
thanks for the survey! It is very interesting to see what the average web designer charges.
Very interesting, this information is hard to come by.
Definately time to up my prices a bit!
Thanks for the insight. I’m not sure if I’m undercharging or others are overcharging heh (probably a bit of both).
As someone else mentioned, making your data open would be brilliant.
Since I first read this article I have upped my rates quite a bit and found that if you have a great portfolio and reputation people will pay for an expert.
Thanks so much for the information, really interesting how much the costs vary
Thank you so much for your innovative way of finding answers to a very elusive question. I’m in the fortunate position where I am able to offer quality websites at very affordable prices. I’ve decided that I won’t be upping my prices inspite of these results!! All very fascinating. Thanks.
Excellent work, and well don’t for all the people that took the time to complete the data.
when choosing a website designer, look at portfolios, and find out which designer from that company made that site.
Great article, I’m just off to a meeting with an agency who want me to do some freelance work, now I feel a bit more confident about my prices.
Thanks again for collating all these results. I think I’ll be subscribing to your rss, seems like you have some good stuff here for web designers like me.
Great bit of information thanks for sharing this