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Website cost guide · Canada

Website cost guide · Canada

How much does a website cost in Canada?

The honest answer depends on what the site has to do, how many languages it needs and how much of it is custom. This guide explains the cost drivers, the running costs Canadian organisations should budget for, and where our published starting prices sit.

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Currency: Canadian dollar (CAD)
Payments: Stripe, PayPal, Moneris
Data protection: Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
Time zone: UTC-5 (UTC-4 in summer), 5 to 6 hours behind Lagos (Eastern Time)

Overview

The short answer, and the honest one.

Search for website prices in Canada and you will find ranges so wide they are almost useless. That is not because agencies are hiding something. A five-page brochure site for a Calgary consultancy and a bilingual WooCommerce store shipping to every province are different projects, and their prices reflect that.

Rather than quote an average that fits nobody, we explain what moves the price, what you will keep paying after launch, and how our starting prices compare. All our project prices are in US dollars, scoped in writing, and we can give a Canadian dollar reference figure on request.

In detail

What drives the cost.

What actually drives the price

Four things account for most of the difference between quotes. First, how much is custom: a design built around your brand and content takes longer than adapting an existing layout. Second, functionality: bookings, member areas, courses, stores and integrations each add build and testing time. Third, content: someone has to write, gather and load it, and migrating a large existing site is real work. Fourth, Canadian requirements: a full French version, accessibility testing and privacy set-up all take effort, and they are better planned than bolted on.

The kinds of website and what each involves

A brochure site presents your organisation, services and contact routes, usually across a handful of templates. A content or member site adds structured content types, search, gated areas or renewals. An online store adds products, checkout, payment gateways, shipping rules and province-based tax. A learning platform adds courses, progress tracking, quizzes and certificates. A web application, such as a portal or dashboard, is closer to software: user roles, workflows and reporting. Each step up brings more planning, more testing and a larger budget.

Bilingual sites and accessibility

Two Canadian factors affect cost more than buyers expect. If you offer products or services to Quebec consumers, the Charter of the French language expects a French version of your website with the same information, which means translated content, a multilingual set-up and checking every template in both languages. In Ontario, organisations with 50 or more employees must meet WCAG 2.0 AA under the AODA. We build to WCAG 2.1 AA as standard, so accessibility is part of our price, but translation is usually a separate cost you control.

Running costs to budget for

After launch, plan for a .ca or .com domain renewed each year, hosting sized to your traffic, business email on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 per user, and any premium plugins or licences. Online stores pay processing fees to Stripe, PayPal, Moneris or whichever gateway you choose, set by those providers. Larger organisations may budget for a consent management tool and periodic accessibility checks. Then there is care: updates, backups, security monitoring and small changes, either handled in-house or on a maintenance plan.

Where our starting prices sit

We publish four starting prices in US dollars. Strategy & Design, covering discovery, website design, redesigns and landing pages, starts from $1,500 per project. Development, covering custom themes and plugins, WooCommerce, learning platforms and integrations, starts from $5,000 per project. Migrations start from $1,000 per migration. Managed Services, covering hosting through Cloudways or Hostinger, maintenance, security and performance, start from $2,000 per year. Most projects combine more than one, and the written scope shows exactly how.

How to get an accurate quote

The quickest route to a reliable figure is a clear brief. Tell us what the site must do, who uses it, which languages you need, roughly how many pages and products there are, and which systems it must connect to. If you have a formal request for proposal, send it as it is. We reply with questions, then a written scope with milestones and a price. Nothing starts until you agree it, and the domain and finished code belong to you.

What to have ready before asking for a quote

What to have ready before asking for a quote.

Strategy & Design from $1,500 · Development from $5,000 · Managed Services from $2,000 per year. See pricing

The main goal of the site and how you will measure it
Audiences, including whether Quebec consumers are among them
Languages needed at launch and later
Rough page count and the content you already have
Features such as store, bookings, members or courses
Payment providers or systems to integrate
Accessibility or procurement requirements
Target launch date and budget range

See our starting pricesThe full detail on our approach, process and what is included.

Our work

Platforms we have built.

The BFI School platform and our redesign of the Verbatim website show the difference in scope between a complex platform and a focused corporate rebuild.

BFI SchoolOnline school with payments in four currenciesRead the case study

VerbatimCorporate redesign for a consulting firmRead the case study

Questions

Frequently asked questions

What is the average website cost in Canada?

Any single average hides more than it reveals, because a small brochure site and a bilingual store with integrations are priced on completely different work. A better approach is to compare quotes against a clear brief. Our own starting prices are published: from $1,500 for Strategy & Design and from $5,000 for Development, in US dollars.

Why are your prices in US dollars?

We price every project in US dollars so the figure stays stable across the countries we work in. We can give a Canadian dollar reference figure on request, and payments are spread across milestones. Hosting, domains and payment processing are billed by those providers directly, often in Canadian dollars.

Does a French version double the cost?

Not usually. The design, build and functionality are done once. The extra cost comes from translation, which you control, and from setting up and testing the multilingual structure, which we include in the scope. Planning both languages from the start costs less than adding French to a finished English site.

What does a website cost to run each year?

Expect domain renewal, hosting, email per user, any plugin licences, and payment processing fees if you sell online. Then add maintenance, either your own time or a care plan. Our Managed Services start from $2,000 per year in US dollars and cover hosting, updates, security and performance.

Can you respond to a formal RFP?

Yes. Send the request for proposal as written and we will answer its questions, raise any gaps, and return a written scope with milestones and pricing. We are a remote team based in Nigeria, so we state that clearly in any proposal, along with how we schedule calls and reviews around Canadian time zones.

Who owns the website once it is built?

You do. Domains are registered in your organisation's name and you own the code once it is paid for. That means you can host it where you like and move to another developer if you ever need to, with documentation we provide.

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