The range
A creative business website costs from a free portfolio page to several thousand, and the spread is about three things: whether the portfolio loads fast however big it gets, whether the packages are stated with from-prices, and whether a date enquiry leads to a contract and a deposit without you chasing either. Here are the bands, what each buys, and where the money goes.
Band 1: Instagram, a Pixieset or Squarespace portfolio, nothing else
Cost: nothing to low hundreds a year.
You get: the work on a grid, a contact link, and a following that already knows you.
You do not get: a site that ranks for "wedding photographer [town]", packages a couple can compare, a date-check form that asks for the venue and the budget, or a route from enquiry to signed contract. Enquiries arrive as DMs missing the date.
Right for: a second shooter or someone starting out who is full from referrals.
Band 2: a template site, $800 to $2,500 (roughly £650 to £2,000)
A photography or events theme with your logo, a gallery and a contact form.
You get: a presentable site with your name.
Usually missing: speed. Templates load the full-size export and the portfolio takes ten seconds on a phone. Also missing: from-prices with inclusions, an enquiry form that captures date, venue, guest count and budget, any link to HoneyBook, Studio Ninja or Dubsado, and instant booking for portrait or mini sessions.
Right for: a business full from referral that wants a business card.
Band 3: a purpose-built creative site, $2,500 to $6,000 (roughly £2,000 to £4,800)
Built around the sequence a couple or a client follows: work, price, date. A portfolio that compresses and sizes every image automatically, organised by type; a Packages and prices page with from-prices and inclusions you edit yourself; a Check my date form with date, venue, guests and budget; contract and deposit through your studio tool from the enquiry; instant booking with a deposit for portraits, mini sessions and consultations; real reviews with permission; an About page with the person they will spend the day with; fast on a phone; structured data; tracking; everything in your name.
You get: a site that shows the work fast, filters enquiries to the ones in range, and turns a date check into a deposit paid.
Not usually included: your photography (you have it), copy unless specified, the studio tool's subscription.
Right for: wedding photographers, videographers, planners, DJs, florists and celebrants who want more of the right enquiries.
Band 4: venues, multi-service studios and agencies, $8,000 and up (roughly £6,400 and up)
Event venues with a page per space, capacities, virtual tours and availability against a calendar; caterers with menus, allergen pages and per-head guides; studios with several photographers and separate wedding and commercial routes.
After launch
- Hosting: managed WordPress at $20 to $50 a month (£15 to £40) or often free on a framework host, in your name.
- Domain: small, annual. Yours.
- Studio management tool (HoneyBook, Studio Ninja, Dubsado, Light Blue, Tave): whatever you pay now; the site does not add to it. Acuity or Session for instant session booking if you use one.
- Client gallery hosting (Pixieset, Pic-Time and the like) stays as it is; the website portfolio is separate.
- Maintenance: a care plan at a modest monthly fee, or hourly.
Where the band 3 money goes
- The fast portfolio. Automatic compression and sizing, lazy loading, no slider, so a hundred-image gallery loads in under two seconds. This is the largest single cost and the largest single difference from a template.
- Packages as records with from-price and inclusions, editable by you, so a price change does not need a developer.
- The date-check form, wired to your studio tool so the enquiry lands as a lead with the date, venue, guests and budget attached.
- Instant booking deep-linked from session pages.
- Reviews with permission, real names where allowed, near the buttons.
- Speed, search foundation and structured data for a local creative business.
- Tracking of enquiries and bookings by page.
- Ownership and a recorded walkthrough.
Judging a quote
Ask: what is the load time target for a full gallery on a phone; can I edit packages and prices myself; does the enquiry form ask date, venue, guests and budget; does it feed my studio tool; can sessions book instantly with a deposit; whose name is the hosting in. A quote that cannot answer the first question is band 2 however good the demo looks.
What we charge
Our creative business sites are band 3 at a fixed price; the scope is on the photography and events page. Venues and caterers usually sit at the top of the range. If your site is in band 1 or 2, the question is how many couples looked at a portfolio that was still loading and enquired with the photographer whose site had finished.