What goes into the cost of custom website design?

One of the most common questions we hear before any project starts is: "how much does custom website design cost?" The honest answer is that it depends — but we can be more precise than that. Here are the factors that actually move the price.

1. Information architecture and page count

A single-page landing page isn't comparable to a multi-section corporate site (services, work, blog, separate landing pages per service). The more complex the information architecture, the more design and development time it takes.

2. Do you need a content management panel?

If your team needs to add content, tours, products or articles without a developer's help, a dedicated admin panel has to be built. This is one of the areas with the biggest effect on both cost and timeline — it's effectively a separate piece of software behind the site.

3. Integrations with other systems

Connecting to a payment gateway, SMS provider, an internal CRM, or another service's API each takes separate implementation and testing time. If your project connects to several external systems, plan for that from day one.

4. Custom UI/UX design vs. a ready-made template

A fully custom design that builds your brand's visual identity takes longer than using a ready-made template — but you feel the difference in user experience and in standing out from competitors.

5. Data volume and the need to scale

If your site is meant to hold thousands of pages or records from day one — like the migration of a 5,000+ recipe archive we did for Ghashogh o Changal — the data architecture has to be designed for that volume from the start; that's a different job than building a simple presentation site.

How to get a real estimate

The best way is a short discovery session: define the pages you need, the admin-panel features, and the systems you need to connect to. With that in hand, you get a written estimate with a clear scope and timeline — not a number pulled out of thin air.

In short: page count alone doesn't set the price of a custom website. The admin panel, integrations and data volume are the three factors you need clarity on from day one.