If you are searching for ‘cheap website design’, you are probably recovering from receiving a high quote.
A $3,000 quote for a website feels expensive when someone on Fiverr promises the same thing for $300.
I’ve spent years building websites for local businesses in the Durham Region. I want to walk you through the true cost of a ‘cheap’ website, because it’s rarely about the price.
The Mindset Behind “Cheap”
Most people searching for cheap website design believe that simply having a website is the goal. Build it, put it online, and customers will find it. That belief comes from not knowing the difference between a website that works and one that just exists.
A website isn’t a brochure you hang up once and forget about. It’s a piece of business infrastructure. It needs to load fast, work on every device, capture leads, and stay secure and updated. None of that is visible when you’re comparing a $300 quote to a $3,000 quote. But it matters once the site goes live.
A Real Example: Website Redesign
I redesigned a WordPress site for an office rental company in downtown Oshawa. Their existing site actually looked good. On the surface, it seemed fine.
But, it had two serious problems. The contact form wasn’t working. Their booking platform wasn’t working either. And they had no idea. Nobody told them.
Every visitor who tried to reach out through that form vanished. No error message, no bounce back, nothing. The business owner had no idea, because the site looked like it was doing its job.
During the site rebuild, I setup the contact forms to use SMTP for email delivery. That one fix alone meant the difference between a form that looks like it works and one that actually does.
Nobody bidding $300 is testing your email deliverability or auditing your plugin stack for abandonment risk. They’re building something that looks done.
Where Cheap Websites Cut Corners
In my experience, cheap WordPress builds tend to cut corners in the same three places every time.
Hosting
Cheap websites usually land on cheap hosting. Slow load times hurt your rankings and they hurt conversions.
Plugins
I try to avoid free plugins whenever possible. Most of them get abandoned by their developers. A site built using free plugins could crumble at any time, and usually does, the way The Firms’ contact form did.
Updates
A cheap website build does not usually receive maintenance updates. Once it’s delivered, it’s delivered. Nobody checks back in six months to ensure your core, theme, and plugins are secure. That leaves your site running on outdated software until it suddenly breaks.
What Cheap Actually Costs You Over Time
A cheap website design might run you a few hundred dollars upfront. A professional website design costs a few thousand dollars. On paper, that gap looks huge.
But the upfront price isn’t the real cost. The real cost is what happens after launch. It’s the leads that never reach you because a contact form message doesn’t get sent. It’s the bookings that go nowhere because a plugin stopped working. It’s the rebuild you’ll likely need in a year or two anyway.
Most of my redesign clients aren’t first time website owners. They already paid for a website once, either DIY or through someone cheap, and it didn’t work for them. So they end up paying twice. Once for the cheap version, and again for the version that actually performs.
If You’re Going to Go Cheap Anyway, Here’s What to Look For
Hiring a web design agency can be expensive, and that’s not realistic for every business. Hiring an experienced freelancer is a more affordable option, and it can still get you a site that holds up. If you’re set on keeping your budget low, here’s what to actually look for before you hire anyone.
- Get a signed contract that lists every feature, page, and revision included in the price.
- Ask which plugins they plan to use, and if they are using free or pain premium plugins are reputable.
- Ask who will be responsible for updates after launch, and get that answer in writing.
- Test the contact form yourself. Don’t assume it works.
- Ask to see examples of other sites they’ve built, and actually click around on them. Test the forms on those too.
The Bottom Line
A cheap website isn’t the best value. Cheap often means hidden problems. Chances are you won’t discover until they’ve already cost you leads, bookings, or sales. If you’re going to invest in a website at all, invest in one that’s actually built to work. Choose the Right Web Designer
If your thinking about a redesign, I’d be happy to take a look at your website, and tell you where it stands. Sometimes a redesign is worth it. Sometimes it’s a few targeted fixes. You deserve to know what’s actually happening behind your website. Not what it looks like on the surface.
Larry is a local web designer located in Oshawa, Ontario. He specializes in building WordPress websites for service-based businesses in Durham Region, and is committed to helping his clients outrank their competition.
