You ask three web agencies for the same five-page brand website and get quotes of NT$30,000, NT$80,000 and NT$300,000. This is the question we get asked most often in consultations: what is the difference, and is the expensive one better?
The short answer: the difference is almost never in the page count or the design. It comes down to four things. Once you understand them, you can judge whether a quote is reasonable, and work out which kind of website you actually need.
1. Does anyone help you think it through?
A NT$30,000 website usually goes like this: you send text and images, they drop them into a template, adjust the colors, and launch. Nobody asks who your customers are, what they come to the site to do, or why they should choose you.
From about NT$80,000 up, there is an interview and planning stage first. Someone listens to you describe your business before deciding which pages the site needs, what each page should get visitors to do, and how they move through the site. This work is invisible, but it decides whether the site is actually useful after launch, whether it really brings in customers, and whether it delivers any marketing value. It is arguably the single most important step. We have had plenty of clients discover during this interview that the pages they had in mind were not what their customers wanted to see at all.
This is the biggest source of the price gap. You are not paying for pages; you are paying for someone to plan properly so that your digital business card actually does its job.
2. Who organizes the content?
"Copy supplied by the client" appears on almost every quote, but what happens after you supply it varies enormously.
Some agencies put up exactly what you send: three paragraphs in, three paragraphs on the page. Others review what you give them, tell you which page is missing what, which section is too long and which sentence customers will not understand, and then reshape it into something that reads well on a web page. The latter takes people's time, and that shows up in the price.
A simple test: ask, "What happens if the content I give you is not enough?" Whether the answer is "then we leave it blank" or "we give you a checklist of what each page needs" tells you everything you need to know.
3. Who looks after it after launch?
On many quotes, responsibility ends on launch day. After that, changing a word, swapping an image, a hosting problem, an expired certificate: each one means finding someone and paying separately, and often the people who built the site are nowhere to be found. You spend hours going back and forth and the problem still is not solved.
Agencies that charge a little more usually spell out what happens after launch: who manages the hosting, how often backups run, what you can change yourself, and who to call for what you cannot. The value of this only becomes obvious around the third month after launch, but it is what you will rely on every day for the next three years.
Our own approach is to separate the system fee from the build fee. The system fee is a fixed amount paid once a year and covers hosting, backups, certificates and technical support. The build fee is quoted per project and covers planning, design and pre-launch checks. Listing the two separately means you know exactly what you are paying for each year.
4. What does NT$300,000 buy?
Brand websites at NT$300,000 and up are usually custom-built: unique interactions, unusual layouts, integrations with internal systems. For some companies these are essential, such as a manufacturer whose site has to talk to its ERP, or a design firm whose brand image is itself the product.
For most small businesses, associations and clinics, though, none of that is necessary. A site that is clearly structured, can be found in search, is ready for the AI era and can be maintained by you is far more useful than a flashy one you cannot change. If someone quotes NT$300,000, first ask exactly what features the extra money buys, then ask yourself whether you would ever use them.
How to tell which kind you need
Ask yourself three questions:
- What do I need my website to do? Is it just something I can open and show people, or should it let people find me in the vast sea of the internet, contact me, get to know me, and eventually trust me enough to buy my services or products?
- Who will make changes after launch? Me, my staff, or a developer I have to pay every time?
- Do I have the time to work out what should go on it myself? If not, I need a professional web consultant to talk it through with.
If your answers are "let people find me and contact me", "we can change it ourselves any time" and "I need a consultant to talk it through", then you need the middle option: properly planned, with someone organizing the content and looking after the site after launch, and without custom features you will never use. A website made for the business you want to build.
That is exactly where our AI website design service sits. If you are not sure which kind you need, fill in the consultation form and let's talk it through first.