Learning Path
Web Design Pricing and Retainers Path
Web design pricing is the most transparent pricing in freelancing — and the most often guessed. This path is the full pricing discipline: the floor from your real numbers, project pricing, the calculator on a real brief, deposits and terms, maintenance retainers, and the AI-builder answer. Take the Freelance Web Design Business path first if you have not already.
How this path works. Each lesson below is a short summary of the topic it links to, with an exercise that proves you can do the work. Work through them in order, do the exercise, and mark each lesson complete when you have read the guide and done the work. The two-question check under each lesson is for yourself — it is not scored and it is not a certificate. Your progress is stored only in your own browser, in local storage — no account, nothing sent to us. Completing this path gives you no certificate and no qualification, and it promises no income: the proof is the finished work from the capstone lesson, not a certificate.
What you will learn
- The floor: hours times rate, plus costs, from your real numbers.
- Project pricing: template customisation vs custom build.
- The calculator: what to charge for a website, worked.
- Deposits and payment terms: 50% upfront, milestones, scope.
- Maintenance retainers, and pricing when AI builds the site.
Your progress
0 of 6 lessons complete.
The lessons
Read each lesson summary, then open the full guide it links to. The summaries are written for this path — they do not repeat the guides, they prepare you for them.
Lesson 1: The floor — hours × rate + costs, from your real numbers
The pricing floor is the lowest price at which a website is worth building, and it comes from your numbers, not from a list. Hours the project will take, times your hourly rate from the formula, plus the costs — tools, images, hosting setup — and that is the floor. One reported worked example starts from a $70 hourly floor, and rates differ hugely by country and experience, so the example is a worked example, not a rate to copy. A price below your floor is work you pay to do.
This lesson works your floor on a real brief: the hours, the rate, the costs, and the total — written down, so the next lesson's quote starts from a number you can defend. You will learn why the floor is the first number in pricing and the last one to be cut: a negotiation that cuts the floor is a negotiation that should end.
Exercise: Work out your pricing floor for a real website brief: hours, rate, costs, total.
Check yourself — two questions on this lesson
1. What is the pricing floor?
Hours times your rate plus costs — the lowest price worth building at.
2. Why not copy a $70 example floor?
Rates differ by country and experience — the floor comes from your own numbers.
Lesson 2: Project pricing — template customisation vs custom build
A website can be a template customised or a custom build, and the price differs because the work differs: a template job changes the design, the words and the images of an existing site, while a custom build designs the structure from nothing. The client should understand the difference, because the price does — and a template sold at a custom price is a dishonest sale, while a custom build sold at a template price is a loss.
This lesson prices both: what a template job costs from the hours it takes, and what a custom build costs from the design work it adds. You will learn the honest sentence to say to a client — this is a template, customised for you, and here is what that means — and why the sentence builds more trust than any discount could.
Exercise: Price the same brief twice: template customisation, and custom build.
Check yourself — two questions on this lesson
1. What is the difference in work?
A template changes an existing design; a custom build designs the structure from nothing.
2. What must the client be told?
Which one they are buying — and what that means for the price.
Lesson 3: The calculator — what to charge for a website, worked
The calculator is where the floor becomes a quote: hours, rate, costs, and a risk buffer for the scope that grows — with the price visible before the client sees it. Worked on a real brief, the calculation answers the question no guide can answer for you: what should I charge for this website, with my rate, my costs, and my buffer? A calculator with no buffer is a quote that loses money on the first revision.
This lesson runs the calculator on your brief: the floor from the last lesson, the buffer, the deposit split, and the quote. You will learn the habit that keeps the quote honest — write the scope next to the price, so the client can see what the price includes, and so the first extra request has a price instead of an argument.
Exercise: Run the project pricing calculator on a real brief, with the buffer and the scope written down.
Check yourself — two questions on this lesson
1. What does the buffer pay for?
The scope that grows — the first revision, the extra page.
2. Why write the scope next to the price?
So the client sees what is included, and extras have a price, not an argument.
Lesson 4: Deposits and payment terms — 50% upfront, milestones, scope
The deposit rule is the consensus across guides: 50% upfront, the rest on milestones, and the site goes live when it is paid for. A deposit separates serious clients from the rest, pays for the work before it is delivered, and gives the designer the right to stop if the client disappears. The terms belong in writing before the build starts — milestones, due dates, what happens when payment is late, and where the scope ends.
This lesson writes your payment terms: the deposit, the milestones, the scope boundary, and the late-payment rule. You will learn the conversation that protects both sides — the terms are stated when the client still wants the site, not when the invoice is overdue — and why a designer who works without a deposit is a designer working on credit.
Exercise: Write your payment terms: deposit, milestones, scope boundary, and the late-payment rule.
Check yourself — two questions on this lesson
1. What is the consensus deposit?
50% upfront, the rest on milestones.
2. When should terms be agreed?
Before the build starts — when the client still wants the site.
Lesson 5: Maintenance retainers — pricing recurring care plans
A maintenance retainer is the web design business's recurring revenue: a monthly fee for updates, backups, small changes and support. Pricing it from your costs is the same discipline as pricing a build — hours per month, times your rate, plus the tools — with the scope written down so a retainer cannot quietly become unlimited work. The retainer that is priced below its cost is a loss that arrives every month, so the floor matters more here than anywhere.
This lesson prices your care plan: the hours per client per month, the price, the scope boundary, and the review that happens when the scope grows. You will learn the sales sentence — the site stays fast, safe and up to date — and why a retainer sold at the end of a build, when the client is happiest, is the easiest sale in the business.
Exercise: Price your care plan: hours per month, rate, scope boundary, and monthly price.
Check yourself — two questions on this lesson
1. What is a maintenance retainer?
A monthly fee for updates, backups, small changes and support.
2. Why price it from your costs?
A retainer below cost is a loss that arrives every month.
Lesson 6: AI builders and your price — what to sell when AI builds the site
AI builders can now make a basic website in minutes, and the bottom of the market — the simple brochure site — is the part they take first. The designer's answer is not to compete on building, but to sell what the builder does not do: the design that fits the business, the words that bring enquiries, the setup of everything around the site, and the care plan that keeps it working. A client who needs only a basic site was never going to pay a designer's price; a client who needs a site that works still will.
This lesson rewrites your offer for the AI era: what you sell, what you stop selling, and how the price follows the value — design, words, setup and care, priced as a package, with the build as the smallest part of it. It ends with the capstone: a priced proposal for a real website brief, with deposit terms and a care-plan offer.
Exercise: Capstone: write a priced proposal for a real website brief, with deposit terms and a care-plan offer.
Check yourself — two questions on this lesson
1. What do AI builders take first?
The bottom of the market — the simple brochure site.
2. What do you sell instead?
Design, words, setup and the care plan — what the builder does not do.
Try the tools
These free tools let you practise what the lessons describe — everything runs in your browser, and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
- Freelance Project Pricing Calculator — quote a website with a risk buffer
- Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator — turn a take-home target into a minimum rate
- Monthly Expense Planner — work out what the business costs each month
Check what you learned
6 questions, all based on the lessons above. Answer them all, then check your score — each answer explains itself, so a wrong answer teaches as much as a right one. The quiz is practice, not a test: there is no pass mark and no certificate.
Answer all 6 questions, then check your score.
Download your notes
Download a plain-text summary of this path: the lesson list, which lessons you marked complete, and your quiz score. The file is generated on your device — nothing is uploaded.
Key terms in this path
The terms this path uses are defined in the Glossary, each with an example. If a lesson uses a word you do not know, look it up there first.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for a website?
From your floor — hours times your rate plus costs — not from copying another designer. The floor lesson and the calculator show the full maths on a real brief.
What is a good hourly floor for a web designer?
One reported worked example starts from a $70 hourly floor, and rates differ hugely by country and experience. The floor comes from your own numbers, not from a copied example.
Should I take a deposit?
Yes — 50% upfront is the consensus, with milestones for the rest. A deposit separates serious clients from the rest and pays for the work before it is delivered.
What is a maintenance retainer?
A monthly fee for keeping a site updated, backed up and supported. It turns one-off website sales into recurring revenue, and its pricing is the fifth lesson.
How does AI change web design pricing?
AI builders can make a basic site, so the price must cover what the builder does not do: design, words, setup, and the care plan. The final lesson shows what to sell instead of a build.