Guide6 minute read
What affects the cost of a website in Nigeria
Why two website quotes can differ by millions of naira, which decisions drive the price, and how to compare proposals fairly.
By LEO Digital. Published .
Ask five providers to quote for "a website" and you can receive five numbers that differ by millions of naira. Often nobody is being unreasonable: they have each assumed a different project. Here is what actually drives the price, so you can describe your project clearly and compare quotes fairly.
The biggest factors
What the website needs to do
A five-page site that explains your services is a very different project from an online shop, a booking system or a publication with hundreds of articles. The type of site sets the baseline. Everything else adjusts it.
How many unique page designs it needs
Page count matters less than the number of unique templates. Fifty blog posts share one article template. Ten service pages might share one service template. A site with twelve pages that are all designed differently can cost more than a site with fifty pages built from four templates.
Features and integrations
Each feature has design, build and testing time attached: contact forms connected to email, a blog, a multilingual set-up, a customer login area, online payments through Paystack or Flutterwave, or a connection to your CRM or inventory system. Integrations with third-party systems carry extra uncertainty, because their documentation and reliability vary.
Design approach
Adapting a well-made template is quicker and cheaper. A fully custom design takes longer because it starts from your brand, audience and content. Neither is automatically right. A custom design is worth it when the site needs to differentiate you, carry a premium brand or support complex content.
Content
Content is the most underestimated part of a website project. Someone has to write the copy, choose or commission images, and collect information from across the business. If you supply final content, the project moves faster and costs less. If the provider writes or edits it, that time appears on the quote, or should.
Timeline
A shorter timeline does not reduce the work. It means more people working in parallel, or other projects being moved. Rush timelines usually cost more.
What is often left out of a quote
When you compare proposals, check whether each one includes:
- Domain and hosting. These are usually ongoing costs paid annually or monthly.
- Professional email. Branded addresses usually carry a per-user monthly fee from providers such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
- Premium plugins, themes or software licences.
- Search engine set-up. An XML sitemap, metadata, Search Console and analytics.
- Training and handover. Can your team update the site afterwards?
- Support after launch. What happens if something breaks in month two?
A quote that looks cheaper can end up costing more once these are added.
Questions to ask every provider
- Who owns the website, design files and code when the project is paid for?
- How many rounds of design revisions are included?
- Can we edit the content ourselves, and how?
- How will the site perform on a mid-range phone on mobile data?
- What is included in the price, and what will cost extra?
- What happens after launch if something goes wrong?
Get an indicative range
We built a free website cost guide that shows an indicative price range for your choices and every assumption behind it. It is not a quote, but it helps you plan a budget and understand which decisions affect the price.
For a firm price, send us a brief. We reply with a written proposal that sets out scope, timeline and cost, including the items above.