Making the Call

What a B2B website actually costs, and what drives the number

Summarize with AI

How much does a B2B website cost? At Alkali, most projects start at $15,000. Scope moves it up from there. Three things make up most of the scope: how many pages are worth building, who writes them, and what the site has to plug into, like a CRM, a quoting tool or a parts catalog. A tight capability site for a fabricator and a distributor site pulling a searchable catalog out of the ERP both start from that floor, and they don't end anywhere near each other.

If you're replacing a site you already have, the drivers of website redesign cost are the same, plus one that's easy to miss: how much of what's on the current site is still true. A brochure site and a system that quotes, integrates, and sells are both "a website," and they aren't the same purchase, so a starting figure only tells you where the floor is. The rest of this piece takes the drivers one at a time, so you can scope a project with eyes open and compare quotes that mean something.

Why there is no single price

A website is not a product with a sticker. It is a range of very different things wearing the same word. The gap between the cheapest and the most expensive version of "a B2B website" is enormous, and it is driven almost entirely by scope and by how much of the work is custom to your business versus assembled from a template. Any honest shop will quote you a range and then narrow it as your requirements get specific, because the requirements are the price.

What actually drives the cost

A handful of factors do most of the work.

  • Scope and page count. A focused site that does one job well costs less than a large site with many services, industries, locations, and resource sections. More surface area, more to design, write, and maintain.
  • Custom versus template. A templated site is cheaper up front and looks like other templated sites. A custom design built around your positioning costs more and is the reason a site can actually set you apart. Most established B2B companies land somewhere in between.
  • Content and copy. This is the line item owners underestimate most. Words are the part of the site that actually sells, and someone has to write them well. A project where you supply finished copy is very different from one where the team has to interview you and write it. It is also why your marketing team often cannot just fix the site: the hard part is the thinking, not the typing.
  • Integrations. A site that connects to a CRM, a quoting tool, a parts catalog, or a payment system carries real engineering. A site that ends in a contact form does not.
  • What survives from the old site. On a redesign, pages that still describe what you sell today can move across with light editing. Pages describing work you've moved past get cut or rewritten, and the rewrites land back on the copy line above.
  • One-time versus ongoing. The build is a project. Hosting, maintenance, security, and content updates are a smaller recurring cost. Treating a website as buy-it-once is how sites quietly rot, which we cover in why the rebuild gets bigger every quarter.

The cheap option that costs more later

The instinct to minimize the upfront number is understandable and often expensive. The cheapest build is usually a template with copy you wrote in an afternoon, and it tends to produce a site that looks like the other templated sites and says nothing specific. It photographs fine and converts poorly. You do not see the cost, because the buyers it fails to convert never call. Then a few years later you are paying again to fix it, on top of the ground you lost in between. The real comparison is not price against price. It is price against what a clearer, faster site would have earned you in the meantime, which is the story in what changes when established businesses relaunch.

How to scope it so the quote means something

Before you ask anyone for a price, get clear on outcomes. What does the site need to do, who is it for, what does a win look like, and what do you already have, like finished copy or a clear positioning, versus what you need help creating. A shop that quotes you before asking those questions is guessing. A shop that asks them first will give you a range you can trust and a way to move within it.

If you want a concrete starting point without committing to anything, our complimentary homepage mockup rebuilds the top of your current site so you can see the level of work involved before you ever talk price.

Common questions

How much does a B2B website cost?

At Alkali, most projects start at $15,000. Where one lands above that comes down to how many pages it needs, who's writing the copy, and which systems it's wired into, such as a CRM, a quoting tool or a parts catalog. On a redesign, add how much of the current site is still accurate enough to keep. A quote is only worth comparing once someone has asked about all of that.

Why do website prices vary so much?

Because the underlying projects are genuinely different. A templated brochure site and a custom, content-heavy, integrated B2B site share a name and almost nothing else. Scope and custom work drive most of the difference.

Is a template cheaper than a custom website?

Up front, yes. A template lowers the initial cost and looks like other sites built on it. A custom design costs more and is what lets a site reflect your specific positioning. Many established companies choose a middle path: a custom top-of-site and messaging on a solid, maintainable foundation.

Is $1,500 a good price for a website?

It can be, if the job is small. A site of a few template pages, with copy you take the time to write well yourself, is a reasonable purchase at that price, and for a new business, or one with a simple offer that sells mostly by referral, it may be all that's needed. For an established B2B company with a more involved offer, it's usually a different purchase. That budget rarely covers someone interviewing you and writing the pages, or a design built around what sets you apart. If you sell from a catalog, it won't cover a quoting tool or a searchable catalog tied into your systems either. For calibration, most Alkali projects start at $15,000.

What is the most underestimated cost in a website project?

The copy. Words are the part of the site that actually sells, and good copy takes real work to produce, whether it is written by you or by the team interviewing you. Projects where the writing has no clear owner tend to stall or ship vague.

Is a website a one-time cost or ongoing?

Both. The build is a one-time project; hosting, maintenance, security, and content updates are a smaller recurring cost. Treating a site as buy-it-once is how it slowly falls out of date and starts working against you.

How do I get an accurate quote for my website?

Get clear on outcomes first: what the site must do, who it is for, and what you already have versus need created. Then ask a shop that leads with those questions rather than a price. The requirements are what determine the number.

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