Grows: booking and payments
Calendars, capacity, payment flows, and receipts are projects inside the project.
Resource / Website
The price of a website depends on the job it must do.
We quote no fixed price for websites, because a brochure site and an online service with booking, payments, and integrations are not the same product. Features, content volume, systems the site must talk to, and what must be operated after launch - those answers set the size of the work. This guide explains each cost driver, what typically grows or shrinks scope, which questions to ask a vendor, and what we need from you for a concrete assessment.
Last updated: September 26, 2026
- 01
Features first: what the site must do
Start with the job, not the design. Must the site inform, sell, take bookings, take payments, show account content, or follow up with customers automatically? Each job means features to build, test, and operate: forms with validation and notifications, calendars with capacity and cancellation, payment flows with receipts and refunds, logins with password reset and access roles. List the features concretely before asking for a price, and mark what must ship at launch versus what can wait. A site that informs is different from a site that sells - and the price follows the job, not the page count.
- 02
Content: the underestimated cost driver
Most website projects stall on content, not technology: copy that is not written, images that do not exist, and a menu structure nobody has decided. Every page needs a headline, body copy, images, and a call to action - multiplied by pages and languages. Settle early who does what: do you write from a template, or does the vendor write, who sources photography, and who approves? Finished content at kickoff is the cheapest way to hold the price down. Unfinished content, on the other hand, is the most common reason launches slip - and slippage costs, because the team must reserve time that cannot be used elsewhere.
- 03
Integrations with your systems
Once the site must talk to other systems, scope grows: CRM for inquiries, accounting for invoicing, booking systems for capacity, specialist systems for data, newsletters for consent. Each connection needs access, testing, and failure handling - what happens when the CRM is down, or when a payment fails halfway? Modern documented APIs are cheap to connect; older systems without an API can demand manual routines or custom work. List the systems honestly, and say which connections are critical at launch and which can wait. Many projects get cheaper by starting manual in one area - for example inquiry exports by email - and automating only when volume justifies it.
- 04
Languages and user groups
Each extra language is not just translation; it is more pages to maintain, more menus to keep in sync, and more versions to test. Machine translation with human review is different from professional transcreation of all content - settle the ambition level before pricing. The same logic applies to user groups: an open information site is one job, while a site with open pages, a logged-in customer portal, and a staff view is easily three jobs with different access rules. Start with the language and the group that matter most to the business. You can always add languages and roles after the core works and is measured.
- 05
Design: template, adaptation, or bespoke
Design is priced by how unique it must be. A proven template with your logo, colors, and images is cheapest and often exactly right for a business site. Adapted design on standard building blocks gives more character without reinventing wheels. Full bespoke - unique templates per page type, animation, illustration, and interactive elements - costs most, because everything is drawn and built from scratch. Ask the vendor which of the three levels the quote sits at, and what is concretely included: number of design drafts, revision rounds, and what happens if you change your mind. Remember design is also maintenance: unique solutions must be retested with every update.
- 06
Operations, maintenance, and ownership
Launch is the start, not the end. Hosting, domains, certificates, security updates, backups, uptime monitoring, and small changes cost every month - either as a fixed agreement or as running hours. Settle who owns what: the domain, the content, the design, the code, and the visitor data. Secure administrator access to everything that is yours, plus a written agreement on what happens if the engagement ends: do you take everything with you, and in what format? Also ask who fixes bugs after launch, and how fast. A cheap site with an expensive, unsettled operating setup is rarely cheap for long.
- 07
Mid-project changes and vague scope
Website projects almost always grow along the way: someone wants chat, someone wants a news slider, someone wants another language version. Each idea can be good, but without rules they eat the budget. Agree before starting what is fixed scope, how change requests are filed and priced, and who decides whether something goes in now or waits for phase two. Ask the vendor to warn early when you approach the frame, with suggestions for what can be cut or simplified. Be sceptical of quotes with no change routine: they end either in fights over add-on invoices, or in the vendor swallowing the cost and losing motivation. Neither produces a good site.
- 08
Questions to ask the vendor
Ask to see what is fixed scope and what is assumption. Ask who writes copy and sources images, and what happens if content runs late. Ask how the site is measured: analytics, goals, load time, and visibility. Ask who owns the domain, design, code, and data, and what the operating agreement covers month by month. Ask to see a site they built that still runs well after a couple of years - that says more than a fresh portfolio. Finally, ask how much of your own peoples time to budget for content, review, and approval. A vendor who needs nothing from you is building a site for themselves.
- 09
What Aprex needs for a concrete assessment
Describe what the site must do for your customers, in priority order: inform, sell, book, follow up. List the systems it must talk to, and say how much content exists today - finished, draft, or not started. Tell us how many languages you need at launch, and how success is measured: inquiries, sales, bookings, or visibility. Send two or three sites you like, with one sentence on what you like about each. With that, we can usually say whether the need is a simple site or an online service, what we would build first, and what the next step is. Without it we would have to guess - and we do not price on guesses.
Overview
What grows and shrinks scope
Rules of thumb for what makes a website bigger or smaller. Illustration, not a pricing promise.
Shrinks: finished content
Copy and images ready at kickoff remove the most common delay.
Grows: many integrations
Each system needs access, testing, and failure handling.
Shrinks: standard blocks
Proven patterns for forms and pages hold price and risk down.
Grows: more languages
Each language is more pages to maintain, test, and sync.
Shrinks: clear scope
A prioritized feature list with now and later makes quotes comparable.
Request a quote
How to write a request vendors can actually price.
Read more →Service
See the Aprex service for websites and web services.
Read more →FAQ
Price FAQ
- Why do you give no fixed price?
- Because a brochure site and an online service with booking and integrations are different products. Price is set by function, content, and integrations - we see that first when we have seen the need.
- What does an assessment cost?
- Send a short description to post@aprex.no. We reply with whether the need fits us, and what the next step is.
- What makes a website expensive?
- Unclear scope, many integrations, missing content, and custom functionality built from scratch. Clear scope and finished content keep the price down.
- Will we get a site visible on Google?
- We build for visibility: fast loading, clear structure, metadata, and measurement. But nobody can guarantee first place - content, competition, and time decide.
- Who owns the site after launch?
- That is agreed in writing before starting: domain, content, design, code, and data. Secure administrator access to everything that is yours - whoever you choose.
- What do monthly operations cost?
- It depends on hosting, updates, monitoring, and change needs. Ask to see what an operating agreement covers point by point, instead of one round sum.
- How do I compare quotes?
- Compare features, content responsibility, integrations, ownership, and operations - not just the bottom line. Ask for quotes on the same request, and see our guide to requesting a quote.
- What is a red flag in a website quote?
- Fixed price without seeing content and systems, unclear ownership, no operating agreement, and no plan for measurement and visibility after launch.
Honest about price
We would rather give no price than a price we cannot stand behind. This page describes what affects the price, not what your site costs - we find that out together after seeing the need.
Send the need for assessment
Describe what the site must do, which systems it must talk to, and how success is measured.
Contact Aprex →