Brochure site pricing is honest when the hours behind the number are visible. A five-page site for a local business is not a mystery product. A quote that cannot be broken into pieces is either padded or underestimated. Here is how to count the hours, and how to read a quote when someone else did the pricing.
This piece is about the arithmetic of a small project. For the wider question of what pushes a budget up or down, see how to set a website budget range.
Brochure site pricing: how do you count the hours?
List the pieces of work, estimate hours for each, multiply by a rate and add a buffer you can name. That is the whole method. What makes it honest is that every line is visible. The client can then ask “why six hours for the contact page?” and get an answer.
The usual lines for a brochure site: discovery and sitemap, design of the home page and one inner template, build of the templates, content entry, forms and email routing, basic SEO setup, mobile and browser testing, launch and redirects, and a short handover. Each of those has a different risk profile. Content entry, for instance, balloons when copy arrives in pieces over six weeks.
Write the assumptions next to each line. “Home page design: two rounds of revisions” is a price. “Home page design” with no assumption is an invitation to a dispute.
Where do packages hide hours?
Fixed packages are fine, and many small businesses prefer them. The trouble starts when the package is vague about what sits inside it. “Up to five pages” does not say who writes the pages, how many revision rounds are included, or whether photo sourcing is on the studio or the client.
Three places hide the most time. Revisions are first: unlimited rounds mean the real price is set by the slowest decision-maker on your side. Content is second, since a studio that quotes for “build” and receives half-finished copy will either wait or write it, and neither is free. Third is the stuff nobody sees, such as redirects from the old URLs, email deliverability for the contact form, and the privacy page.
When you compare two quotes, line them up by those three items before you compare totals. The cheaper one often leaves one of them out.
What should a buffer look like, and who pays for it?
A buffer covers the unknown, and it should be shown as a separate line or a stated percentage, not folded into every rate. Folding it in makes each task look slower than it is, and then nobody can tell whether the project ran over or under.
Agree in advance what happens when the buffer runs out. The clean answer is a change order: a short written note with the new hours and a yes or no from the client before the work starts. Without it, the studio absorbs the overrun quietly and resents it, or bills it quietly and the client resents that.
It also helps to say what the buffer is not for. New pages, a blog, a store and a second language are scope, not uncertainty. Those go on a separate estimate, the way the “Not in this project” list works in discovery call notes.
How can you check a quote without being a developer?
Ask for the breakdown, then ask three questions. What is the assumption behind the largest line? Who is responsible if copy or images arrive late? What happens to the price if you add one more page? A confident answer to all three, in writing, is worth more than a low total.
Be wary of two extremes. A quote of a single round number with no detail leaves you nothing to negotiate or verify. A quote with forty micro-lines at fractions of an hour often means the vendor is padding the look of precision. A quote you can read in one sitting, with each line tied to a deliverable, is usually the sweet spot.
For BeWebco’s own approach, start with the pricing page, and see the web development service page for what a build covers.
Before you sign
- Every line has hours and a stated assumption.
- Revision rounds are counted, not “unlimited”.
- Content responsibility is named on both sides.
- The buffer is visible and has a change-order rule.
- Extras such as a blog or store are priced separately.