Clients rarely overpay for a complex site. They overpay because the task was vague, and changes in the middle of the work eat both time and budget. A brief of eight questions saves both.
- What is the site for? Taking enquiries, selling, showing a portfolio, explaining a service? The goal decides everything else: structure, buttons, copy.
- Who is your customer and where do they come from: search, social media, referrals. This tells us what belongs on the first screen.
- Which pages do you need. To start, home, services, about and contacts are usually enough. Everything else can be added later.
- Do you need several languages. Plan a second language from day one: reworking the structure for it later costs more.
- How will you take money and enquiries: a form, a messenger, card or crypto payment. Online payment is a separate chunk of work.
- Who will change texts and prices. If you, you need an admin panel. If once a year, you can skip it, and it is cheaper.
- Do you have the materials: logo, photos, texts. Waiting for texts from the client is what most often delays a launch.
- Are there sites you like and ones you dislike. Three links save several rounds of edits.
How this affects the price. A landing page starts at 200 EUR, a multi-page site at 400 EUR, a shop with payments at 1000 EUR, but the real figure depends on the answers above. More detail: How much does a website cost.
What to avoid:
- Asking for "like the competitor" without explaining what you like about it.
- Approving the design in pieces by different people: one voice on the client side makes the work twice as fast.
- Adding features mid-work without recalculating the deadline.
- Leaving the texts "for later": an empty block delays a launch more than any layout.
If you are still choosing between your own site and a builder, the comparison is here: Custom site or website builder. And what happens after launch is covered in Do you need website support after launch.
Send answers to at least half of the questions and I will name the timeline and price the same day: kovalev.trade/websites
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