Edip Kilinc is the founder of Webwavers. Together with his team, he develops websites, brands, and digital presences for ambitious companies – with over 250 completed projects and accolades including the German Design Award 2026.
Web design is often thought of as a single item: "the website". In fact, there are six, and they behave very differently.
1. Concept and structure. Clarifying goals, developing the sitemap, assigning search terms. 8 to 15 percent of the total. The item that is most frequently cut – and the most expensive to make up for later.
2. Design. Drafts for the different page types, feedback rounds, design grids. 25 to 35 percent.
3. Implementation. Building the pages, mobile optimization, editing capabilities, testing. 30 to 40 percent.
4. Content. Texts, image selection, image editing. 0 to 40 percent – the largest fluctuation in the entire project.
5. Technology and migration. Redirects, data migration, interfaces. 5 to 20 percent.
6. Launch and training. Testing, handover, training. 5 to 10 percent.
Anyone comparing two quotes should break them down into these six items. Almost always, it turns out that one of them is completely missing one of these items.
Web design is often thought of as a single item: "the website". In fact, there are six, and they behave very differently.
1. Concept and structure. Clarifying goals, developing the sitemap, assigning search terms. 8 to 15 percent of the total. The item that is most frequently cut – and the most expensive to make up for later.
2. Design. Drafts for the different page types, feedback rounds, design grids. 25 to 35 percent.
3. Implementation. Building the pages, mobile optimization, editing capabilities, testing. 30 to 40 percent.
4. Content. Texts, image selection, image editing. 0 to 40 percent – the largest fluctuation in the entire project.
5. Technology and migration. Redirects, data migration, interfaces. 5 to 20 percent.
6. Launch and training. Testing, handover, training. 5 to 10 percent.
Anyone comparing two quotes should break them down into these six items. Almost always, it turns out that one of them is completely missing one of these items.
An example that happens all the time in practice. A company obtains three quotes for "a new website with ten pages" and receives 4,200, 11,800, and 24,500 euros.
All three are calculated correctly. They just describe three different projects:
4,200 euros: A purchased template is customized. Content comes entirely from the client, including images. No concept, no structure, no search engine optimization. Two rounds of revisions.
11,800 euros: Individual design for three page types, content from the client with fine-tuning, basic search engine optimization, redirects. The solid middle ground.
24,500 euros: Concept phase with goal definition and keyword research, individual design for six page types, eight pages of text from the agency, migration of a blog, onboarding of the team.
The difference does not lie in the quality of the service providers, but in the scope of services. And this scope is rarely stated so clearly in the quote that you would recognize it just by skimming through.
Almost every comparison starts with the hourly rate. This is understandable and yet misleading.
An agency with an hourly rate of 140 euros that needs three hours for a service page is cheaper than one with 80 euros that needs eight hours. The hourly rate describes the price per unit of time, not the price per result.
Two other numbers are more meaningful: how many hours are calculated in total and how they are distributed among the six items. An offer that puts 60 percent of the hours into implementation and nothing into the concept will deliver a different result than one that invests 20 percent upfront.
Realistic hourly rates for 2026 in Germany: Freelancers 60 to 110 euros. Small and medium-sized agencies 90 to 160 euros. Network agencies 150 to 250 euros. Significantly below this almost always means outsourcing or little experience.
Four things make a web project disproportionately more expensive. Anyone who knows them can decide early on whether they are worth the money.
Unclear requirements. The most expensive factor of all. If pages are added during the project, structures change, or new decision-makers emerge, multiple feedback loops are created. Every adjustment costs more than the original work.
Too many decision-makers. Feedback from five people with different ideas creates coordination rounds that no one budgeted for. A single authorized decision-maker saves more money than any negotiation over the hourly rate.
Special functions. Configurators, calculators, filters, bookings, customer areas. Each of these functions is its own small software project with its own testing phase.
Late content. If texts only arrive after the design is done, the design is made twice. This is the most common avoidable extra effort in the entire course of a project.
Saving sensibly:
On the number of page types. Building five templates instead of eight saves a significant portion of design and implementation, without the website being able to do any less.
On the texts. Write specialist content internally, and only have it structured and sharpened externally. This is usually the best combination of cost and result.
On functions that fit into phase two. Blog section, career page, second language – everything can be retrofitted if the structure is designed for it from the very beginning.
Do not save on:
The concept phase. This is the item with the greatest leverage and the smallest share of the total. Anyone who cuts corners here will build a website that no one has found.
The redirects. During a relaunch, this is the point where you lose rankings that have developed over years. The savings are in the three-figure range, the damage in the five-figure range.
The mobile implementation. The majority of visitors come via mobile. A site that stutters there makes every other investment ineffective.
Service company, 25 employees, twelve pages, four page types, half of the content is external.
Item | Hours | Rate | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
Concept and structure | 14 | 120 € | 1,680 € |
Design, 4 page types | 38 | 120 € | 4,560 € |
Implementation, 12 pages | 46 | 110 € | 5,060 € |
Texts, 6 pages | 24 | 110 € | 2,640 € |
Redirects and migration | 9 | 110 € | 990 € |
Testing, launch, briefing | 11 | 110 € | 1,210 € |
Total | 142 | 16,140 € |
This is a typical mid-range calculation. It shows two things: Design accounts for just under 30 percent, not half. And 142 hours is around four full-time working weeks – spread over a project duration of three to four months.
Anyone who receives a quote that estimates 40 hours for the same project should ask which items are missing.
