Three Levels, Three Prices

"Redesign" covers three completely different jobs, and the reason quotes vary so wildly is that the client and the developer are often not discussing the same one. A visual refresh starts around $300-800. A restructure — new pages, new navigation, new content model on the existing platform — runs $1,200-2,500. A full rebuild on a new foundation costs what a new site costs, plus migration: usually $1,800-4,000 for a business site.

Level 1: The Refresh — $300-800

Same structure, same pages, same platform. New colours, new typography, better spacing, replaced photography, a rewritten first screen. Two to five days of work.

• Right when the site works and converts but looks dated next to competitors
• Right when you have new branding and the structure is still fine
• Wrong when your actual complaint is that nobody finds the site or nobody enquires — a refresh will not change either number

Level 2: The Restructure — $1,200-2,500

The platform stays, everything above it changes: new page structure, one page per service, real case studies, a rebuilt navigation, new content model in the CMS, redirects for anything that moves. Three to five weeks. This is the level most businesses actually need and the level most often mis-quoted as a refresh, because from the outside it looks like "just a new design".

Level 3: The Rebuild — $1,800-4,000 and up

New foundation entirely. Justified when the current site cannot be fixed economically: an abandoned theme, a platform nobody supports, plugin dependencies that break on every update, or a performance floor you cannot get under. The honest test is arithmetic. If fixing the existing site costs more than half of building new, and you will still have the old constraints afterwards, rebuild.

Why a Redesign Can Cost More Than a New Site

This surprises people, so it is worth being blunt about it. A new site starts from nothing and owes nobody anything. A redesign inherits obligations.

• Content migration. Hundreds of pages, products or posts have to move without losing formatting or images
• URL mapping and redirects. Every address that changes needs a permanent redirect, or you hand your search rankings back
• Preserving what already works. Nobody knows which page brings the leads until you check, and checking takes time
• Integrations already in place: CRM, analytics goals, ad pixels, payment providers. Each has to survive the move
• Running two sites during the transition, so the business does not go dark on launch day

Which Level Do You Need?

• "It looks old" — level 1, and check the numbers first in case it is not really the problem
• "People visit and do not enquire" — level 2. This is content and structure, not colour
• "Nobody finds us" — level 2, weighted toward new pages rather than new design
• "Every change needs a developer and breaks something" — level 3
• "It is slow and updates keep breaking it" — level 3, or a serious level 2 with a platform audit first
• "We are changing what the business does" — level 3, because the structure has to follow the offer

Before You Approve Any Quote

Record your current numbers: monthly visitors, enquiries per month, which pages bring them, and your speed scores. Without a baseline you cannot tell whether the redesign worked, and you will be arguing about taste instead of results. Then ask the developer one specific question: which pages will change address, and what happens to them. An answer that includes the word "redirects" without being prompted tells you the person has done this before.

Conclusion

The cheapest redesign is the one that solves the actual problem, which is why the diagnosis is worth more than the design. Businesses that spend $2,000 on a beautiful new version of a structure that never converted have bought a nicer version of the same result. Decide what you want to change about the numbers before deciding what you want to change about the look. The price follows from that, and so does whether it was worth it.