Pricing
How should I price a website design project?
Short answer
Start from the hourly rate your year actually needs, estimate the hours the site will take, and quote a fixed project price with the number of revision rounds written into the scope. Anything beyond that scope becomes a change order. The common mistake is dividing your income goal by a 40-hour week: billable hours are far fewer.
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Worked example
From income goal to a quote
The hourly rate calculator's defaults, then a site estimated at 60 hours.
- Take-home goal
- $75,000
- Tax set aside
- $32,142.86
- Business expenses
- $6,000
- Revenue needed
- $113,142.86
- Billable hours (25 a week, 46 weeks)
- 1150
- Hourly rate needed
- $100
- The naive rate (take-home ÷ 2,080)
- $36.06
- Site estimate (60 hours)
- $6,000
What to look for
A rate built from your real year
Dividing take-home by 2,080 hours ignores tax, expenses and unbilled time.
In PaloWorks
The free hourly rate calculator grosses up for tax and expenses and divides by the hours you actually bill.
A fixed price with edges
A fixed price without a defined scope is an open-ended commitment.
In PaloWorks
Scopes list deliverables, exclusions, included revision rounds, timeline and price, approved by the client.
A price for the extras
Extra pages and extra rounds are where web projects lose their margin.
In PaloWorks
Change orders price the extra work, and the client approves them before you start.
Quotes clients can accept
An estimate that turns into an invoice without retyping saves a day.
In PaloWorks
Estimates the client can accept, which become a draft invoice.
A second opinion on the number
Underpricing is the most common freelance mistake.
In PaloWorks
On Pro and Studio, an AI price range for a new job from the brief, for you to weigh.
How it works in PaloWorks
Step 1
Find your rate
Use the hourly rate calculator with your income goal, expenses, tax and billable hours.
Step 2
Estimate the hours
Break the site into design, build, content and launch, and add a margin for unknowns.
Step 3
Quote a fixed price
Put deliverables, exclusions and included revision rounds in a scope the client approves.
Step 4
Price the extras
Extra pages or rounds go on a change order, approved before the work starts.
When PaloWorks is the wrong pick
- If you bill purely hourly and never quote fixed prices, you need time tracking and invoices more than scopes. PaloWorks has both, but the method above assumes a fixed quote.
- Market rates vary widely by region, niche and experience; no calculator replaces knowing what your clients pay.
Comparing tools? Read PaloWorks compared, including what the others are better at.
Questions people ask
- Should I charge hourly or a fixed price for a website?
- Most clients prefer a fixed price for a defined scope. Work out the price from your hourly rate and an honest hour estimate, then protect it with revision rounds and change orders.
- How do I work out my hourly rate?
- Gross up your take-home pay for tax, add your expenses, and divide by the hours you actually bill in a year, not 40 hours a week. The free calculator does this.
- How many revision rounds should a website include?
- Write a fixed number into the scope, often two per stage. What matters most is that the client agrees to it before work starts.
- What if the client asks for more pages?
- Send a change order with the extra work and price. The client approves it, then you invoice it.