Static website quotes vary enormously for what sounds like the same thing, and the variation is usually not margin. It is scope that has not been made explicit.
What actually drives the number
Distinct page templates, not page count. Twenty pages sharing three layouts is a far smaller job than eight pages each designed individually. When comparing quotes, compare templates.
Who writes the content. This is the most common hidden cost. A quote assuming you supply finished copy and images is a different quote from one including writing and sourcing. Projects stall here more than anywhere else — the build finishes and then waits three months for text.
Design origin. Adapting a template costs less than original design, which costs less than original design with multiple revision rounds. Agree the number of revision rounds in writing.
Whether you can edit it. Hand-coded HTML is cheapest to build and requires a developer for every change. A static site generator with a content interface costs more upfront and removes that dependency. Which is right depends on how often content changes.
Integrations. A contact form is trivial. A booking calendar, payment collection, a CRM connection or a multi-language setup each add real work.
The ongoing costs that get left out
Quotes usually cover the build. The running costs are real and recurring:
- Domain renewal, every year
- Hosting, though static sites are cheap to host and sometimes free at low volume
- SSL, typically free but requiring renewal
- Content updates, either a retainer or hourly
- Periodic dependency and framework updates if built on a generator
- Any third-party service the site depends on — form handling, analytics, a booking tool
Ask for a first-year total and a subsequent-year total. The difference is often larger than expected.
Static or dynamic
Static suits sites where content changes occasionally and nothing is personalised per visitor: brochure sites, portfolios, documentation, campaign pages. The payoff is speed, minimal attack surface and negligible hosting cost.
You need something dynamic when content changes frequently by non-technical staff, when users log in, when a catalogue must be searchable or filterable, or when pages differ per visitor.
The middle ground is common and often the right answer: a static site with a content interface, rebuilt when content changes. Fast to serve, editable without a developer.
Reading a quote properly
Things that should be explicit:
- Number of templates and number of pages, separately
- Who supplies copy and images, stated plainly
- How many revision rounds are included
- Whether you can edit content afterwards, and how
- Who owns the code and the design files on completion
- What happens after launch — is there a support period, and what does it cover
- Hosting, and whether it is included, arranged or your responsibility
A quote silent on these is not cheaper. It is less specified, and the gap resurfaces as change requests.
The question worth asking
"If I want to change the text on the homepage in six months, what do I do?" The answer separates a site you own from a site you rent — and it is the difference people most often discover too late.
About the author. Kislay Chandan has worked with schools since 2014. Rather than gathering requirements from the outside, he worked inside a school to see what actually goes wrong day to day, and built what he found into the software. He still works with Shemrock Glitters in Patna — most changes to the product start with something that came up there.
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