Quotes for the same brief in New York routinely range from a few hundred dollars to five figures. That spread is not random, but it is also not all justified. Here is what actually moves the number.

What genuinely costs money

Page count, but less than you would expect. Custom design rather than a template. Functionality: booking, payments, memberships, anything connected to another system. Content, if somebody has to research and write it. And time spent on performance, which is invisible in a demo and obvious six months later.

What is usually padding

Charging per page for pages that share one template. Monthly fees for hosting resold at several times cost. Maintenance retainers that amount to running updates. Vague strategy line items with no deliverable attached.

What to refuse

Any arrangement where you do not own the site, the code or the domain at the end. Any quote without a written scope. Any agency that will not tell you what happens if you leave.

A realistic range

For a small business site of five to fifteen pages, custom designed and properly built, the honest range in this market is roughly one to five thousand dollars. Below that you are getting a template with your logo dropped in, which is fine if that is what you agreed to buy. Above it you should be getting functionality, not just more pages.