How much does a website cost in Toronto?
There are dozens if not hundreds of web design agencies to choose from in Toronto. When looking to get your website done by professionals, it can be daunting to go through all the different companies to find the best one that fits your budget.
Here is an up-to-date (2020) compilation of notable web design agencies and their pricing:
| Agency | Small Website Price (5 pages) | Larger Website Price (10 Pages) | E-Commerce Website Price (5 pages) | Hourly Rate | Typical Website Platform | Google Reviews Rating | Primary Services |
| The Website Architect | $1500 | $2000 | $3500 | $100 | WordPress | 5/5 | Web Design, Web Development |
| A Nerd’s World | $2500 | $5500 | $5000 | $120 | WordPress | 4.5/5 | Web Design, SEO, Logo Design, Photography |
| BrandLume | $2600 | $5300 | $9200 | $400 | WordPress | 5/5 | Web Design, SEO, PPC, Social Media, Video, Brand Identity, and alot more |
| Simplistics | $7500 | $7500 | $7500 | $150 | WordPress | 4.7/5 | UX Web Design, Web Development, SEO |
| Digilite | $1500-$2000 | $2000-$2500 | $4500-$6000 | $45 | WordPress | 4.8/5 | Branding, Web Design, Custom Applications |
What Toronto Agency has the best value for price?
Out of all the agencies list, I would say The Website Architect (me) provides the best value for the price. Digital Alpha’s prices are competitive however some of the portfolio pieces on their website arent real clients or websites, which comes off disingenuine.
The Website Architect is small, so you can benefit from the small-sized business prices while still getting a properly designed and developed website.
What factors into the price of a website in Toronto?
Platform
Depending on the kind of platform you use, the price of the website will change. Platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix usually require less overhead for an agency to develop your website, therefore, decreasing the overall price for you as a customer.
Hard-coding (making from roughly scratch) your website costs the company the most time and required expertise to develop. Hand-coded websites with particular requirements and guidelines are mostly requested by more established companies and corporations, like Ikea’s website for example.
The middle-ground of customization and requiring less time to make are platforms like WordPress. WordPress is the most common platform for websites to be made on, and for good reason. It’s easy to set up but it also can easily require the help of an Agency to implement specific customization. This makes it perfect for Agencies as it can provide for their customers within a more desired time frame.
Customization
Customization is one of the biggest oversights by people who aren’t familiar with the work that goes into creating functionality on a website. Sometimes a simple 5-word sentence or single bullet point can result in multiple hours of work of customizing and coding just to get done.
Here are some examples of how long it would implement common client customizations:
- Redo the layout of a page: 1-2 hours
- Add in a customized blog: 1-2 hours
- Step-by-step contact/consultation form: 2 hours
- Custom blog filters/sorting: 1h 30m
- Adding in an Instagram Feed: 25m
- Customization of a (WordPress) plugin: 10m – 1h
Amount of pages
The more pages you add to a website, the more time it takes. Each website page is usually uniquely designed around its content, making it a time-consuming process. Pages also often take even more time than initially considered because they go through revisions and tweaks to make it exactly as the client desires.
Pages are the most important part of any website, so it’s no wonder they take so much time to perfect and develop. Some Web Design Agencies charge a flat fee + $X per page to more fairly price a website for the time it takes to develop.
What’s the price of a non-profit website in Toronto?
Some agencies in Toronto have discount prices for non-profit or for-good charity websites. This is a way for businesses to give back and get some brand recognition and a portfolio piece at the same time.
Here are some agencies that provide discounted non-profit-specific web design:
