How Much Does A Squarespace Web Designer Cost?
Squarespace web designers’ prices can vary greatly depending on their experience level and services offered. This can be confusing to navigate if it’s your first time hiring a professional designer.
In this article I’ll break down exactly what does into pricing a Squarespace web design project so you can be better educated when making the decision to hire a professional.
How Much Does a Squarespace Web Designer Cost?
Squarespace designers charge an average starting price of $3000 for a custom website design. You can expect to pay an hourly rate between $50-$125 per hour for help with an existing site.
Price Ranges For Squarespace Web Designers
Squarespace web designers come in all shapes and sizes. Depending on where you look, you’ll find a lot of beginner designers with less than a year of experience. These entry level designers will have low prices, and their quality of work may not be great. Although you can find some good, affordable Squarespace web designers, it’s important to see some examples of their work and make your hiring decision based on more than just cost.
What Goes Into Pricing a Squarespace Website?
The experience level among today’s Squarespace designers varies greatly. A lot of different factors like branding, strategy, SEO, copywriting, etc., go into building a successful website and not all designers are equipped to handle the full process. A designer’s full skillset and years of experience will dictate their pricing.
When getting a quote for you web design project, there are several key factors the designer will consider. For example, the most commonly looked at factors are:
Number of pages. Most simple websites will have at least 3 pages, with the sky really being the limit here. If you already know what pages you need for your website that will help the designer put together a quote for you. Not sure what pages you need? Talk with your designer and they should be able to make recommendations for you based on your needs.
Special features and integrations. If your website requires any third-party features that aren’t built-in with Squarespace, that will cost extra to set up. For example, maybe you need an appointment scheduling software added or a custom form embedded. Talk with your designer about any extra features you’ll need so they can factor that into the price.
Ecommerce functionality. If you want to sell things through your website there will be some additional set up involved with that. Your designer will have to connect a payment processor like Stripe or PayPal and configure other store settings for you. You can also expect additional fees if you need your designer to import products to the store for you.
How Much Should You Pay For A Custom Squarespace Website?
How a designer sets their prices can vary greatly, and no two website projects are the same. That said, I think I can still provide some guidelines on how much you should pay for custom web design.
As a rule of thumb, you should probably be spending at least $1000 for a comprehensive, custom designed Squarespace website. The initial setup of a new website, regardless of page quantity, is one of the most involving steps in the process. Any good web designer will probably have a minimum project fee to cover that initial setup. So, just because your website only has one one page does not mean it’ll be super cheap. Website set up is a big process and it sets that initial cost high. Any subsequent pages on the website will just be a small fee compared to the initial setup.
Pricing Tips for Hiring a Squarespace Web Designer
If you’re on a tight budget it might be temping to work with a cheaper designer for just a few hundred dollars. I do not recommend this.
It will end up costing you more in the long run; whether that be by paying another designer to fix the mistakes, or the lost business opportunities from your site being ineffective at converting traffic.
You get what you pay for. Save your money up for a quality designer.
Flat Rate Or Hourly Billing For Squarespace Web Design?
A common question in this whole process is if flat rate or hourly billing is better. Both can be good options depending on the specific project requirements.
Hourly billing. A great option for doing updates to an existing Squarespace website is hourly billing. Or, if you’re working with a designer on a broad range of stuff, hourly can keep things simple.
Flat rate. Most new website projects will be billed as a flat rate. This works great when the scope of the project is well defined. It’s great for the customer as you know upfront what you’ll be paying, and it’s good for the designer as it incentivizes them to complete the work quickly. There’s also no need to mess with time tracking and multiple invoices, so this is definitely the simplest and most popular option.
Hybrid billing. Another great option for web design projects is hybrid billing. With hybrid billing, the initial project is quoted as a flat rate, and an hourly rate is agreed on for any work that falls outside the originally agreed on scope. This can be great for handling revisions at the end of the project, or maybe assigning some additional tasks to the designer mid-project. I personally use this billing method with my clients and it works great for everyone!
Tips For Finding The Perfect Squarespace Designer
Any good website will have a high return on investment that pays for itself quickly. Instead of getting tied up on the cost, focus on what your goal is with the website. Then find a designer who’s fit to help you achieve your goal.
Here’re some tips for finding the perfect Squarespace designer:
Strategy. Find a designer who does more than just make things look good. Find a designer who understands strategy and takes it into account with their websites. Tell your designer about your goals and see how they’ll drive results.
Timeline. Experienced Squarespace designers are usually booked out weeks in advance. If you need your website done in a rush, take a step back and see if you can find more time to work with. This will open up your options a lot more when selecting a designer.
SEO and other skills. A lot of other factors besides design go into building a high-performing website. Ask your designer about any other services they might offer (like search engine optimization) and see how they can help you.
