How Much Are Attorney Websites: 2024 Pricing Guide

There’s no correct answer to what your law firm’s website design will cost. You can expect to spend anything from a few dollars to thousands of dollars depending on what purpose you want your law firm’s new website to serve and who’s developing it.

That said, understanding how much you can expect to pay to develop different parts of your attorney website is an excellent place to start.

As a website design agency serving lawyers for over a decade, the cost is one of the most asked questions. Here’s a complete breakdown of the specific components.

Factors That Influence the Cost of a Law Firm Website

The actual cost of your custom website depends on various factors.

Functionality

Functionality is about how your website works and what results from that. Hence, it has the biggest impact on your law firm’s website design cost. The better website functionality you have, the easier it will be for your target audience to get the information they’re looking for and take action, aka move forward in their buyer’s journey.

Some functionality options you may need on your legal website are forms, lead magnets, third-party integrations, live chat, email captures, appointment schedulers, client login, payment portal, live social media feed, and mobile responsiveness.

Here’s an example of Chicago Accident Injury Lawyers. They make the user experience so seamless that without scrolling a single time, their target audience can get their hands on almost every piece of information about the law firm with a single click.

Design

Another important factor that affects the cost of your website is your design. The cost varies depending on the type of web design – template-based or custom-coded – you want, the number of pages you need, and the professional you hire.

Using a Template-Based Design

Many website builders, such as WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and LawLytics, offer several templates you can use to build your website. These templates are available from free of cost to a few hundred dollars.

Once you’ve decided which template you’ll use, your cost will depend on how you customize it. For instance, if you choose to do it yourself, the price may go from zero to a few hundred dollars. However, hiring a freelancer or an agency can increase the attorney websites’ costs quite a bit; you can expect to pay anything from $500 to a few thousand dollars.

Custom-Coded Design

In a custom-coded design, you can have as many additional features as you want — for instance, having a high-quality video embedded on your homepage, yet, having your webpages load faster as the code base of such sites is cleaner than a template.

However, it takes more time to develop such a design, and you can expect to pay top dollar for having this type of website, starting from a few thousand dollars.

Related: Best WordPress Themes for Lawyers

Content

Content is the inevitable need for your website, and it can affect the overall cost significantly. Here’s how you can expect to pay for content.

Content Creation

If you’re creating a website from scratch and need content for all your web pages, the copywriting cost will eventually add up. You’ll primarily need copy for webpages, landing pages, meta descriptions, title tags, and alt text for videos and images.

Depending on the skills, experience, portfolio, and background of the copywriter or the marketing agency you hire, you can expect to pay anywhere from $50 – $25,000 per page.

Content Migration

If you’re redesigning your website and already have a lot of content, then the agency you hire will need to migrate the existing content to the new design. Parts of this process can be automated, but if the content is unstructured, they might need to improve it manually.

The cost will depend on the amount of content they migrate.

Professional Photography

Hiring a professional photographer to provide high-quality images and videos for your website may also add to the cost of your website design.

Check out the home page of The McClellan Law Firm for reference.

Size of the Law firm

The more attorneys you have, the more services you’ll offer. Hence, the more pages you’ll need on your website. The additional web pages will increase the overall cost of your website design.

Options For Building a Law Firm’s Website

DIY

The cost of building a website yourself will be less than $500.

• Domain: $12-$50 per year
• Web hosting – $40-$150 per year
• SSL Certificate – $0-$70
• Website Template or Theme: $0-$150
• Apps and Integration: $0 – $100

If you’re tight on budget or a solo practitioner with extra time on your hands, you can take this approach to create your website.

Pros

• This is the most inexpensive way of building your website.
• Once you learn to do everything, it’ll be fast to set up.

Cons

• The website may not be that functional, making it challenging to get leads from it.
• Site performance won’t be top-notch.
• There will be a steep learning curve if you haven’t done it before, which may take much of your time.

Hiring a Freelancer

The cost of hiring a freelancer can be $1000 and up.

Hiring a freelancer can be a great option if you don’t want to spend hours honing your web designing and developing skills. You can get a solo web designer from sites like Upwork or Fever or look for local or seasonal freelancers that can get the job done at this price. Check their references and portfolio before signing the contract with them.

Moreover, give preference to the freelancers who have previously worked with other law firms or have some knowledge of your industry.

Pros

• They will have expertise in creating websites
• You’ll have multiple choices available.
• You can get pretty good deals due to several options available to hire from.

Cons

• Their expertise in your field may be limited.
• You’ll need management time to go back and forth with the feedback and its application.
• Post-launch changes may be required.
• You’ll be depended on the availability of a single person.

Hiring a Website Design Agency

The cost of hiring an agency can be $5000 or upwards of that.

If you want your website to serve its primary purpose, which is to deliver leads, and want it to be done right the first time, then hiring a website design agency will be a better choice for you.

After communicating about your web design needs, they’ll determine the features required to get the results you’re looking for and create a website based on that.

Additionally, their team will have an SEO specialist, a copywriter to take care of the content needs, and other marketing experts to deal with your digital marketing requirements like website analytics, visitor tracking, logo, and more.

That way, you can get everything in one place.

Pros

• All the benefits of a freelancer.
• They will also provide marketing benefits.
• You can ask for unlimited customization for your website.

Cons

• They will be too expensive.

Hiring a Website Agency (That Specializes in Working With Law Firms)

The average cost of hiring an agency that develops law firm websites will start from $2500.

Just like a general website design agency, they’ll provide you with a complete solution for your website design. Plus, they’ll be familiar with law firm marketing, content, and SEO requirements and know your industry inside out.

Working with the right agency can help you get the results faster without spending much time figuring out most things yourself.

Pros

• All the benefits of a freelancer.
• They will be experts in your industry.
• They will provide marketing agency benefits.
• The cost will be low.

Cons

• They may use a common layout for your website as other law firms.

Law Firm Website Cost For Regular Maintenance

Depending on your website, its maintenance costs between $50 – $5000.

Your website features, services, platforms, tools, domain, web hosting services, and several other factors will contribute. Let’s discuss them one by one.

• Your domain and web hosting plan will need to be renewed every month. Although, you can also make a yearly payment at once.
• To maintain the functionality of your website, you’ll need tech support. Most web hosting plans come with chat, email, and call assistance. Still, if you’re building a large enterprise website for multiple offices and several attorneys with tons of functionality, you may need to purchase a 24×7 tech support plan to ensure that your site is up all the time.
• If you have invested in premium plugins, contact forms, subscription-based themes, or website builders, it’ll add to your maintenance cost.
• You can also add the monthly SEO tools or services fee to it.
• If you hire an agency to maintain your website, it can cost you anywhere around $200-$5000 per month. They will have a dedicated team to help you when needed.
• If you hire a freelancer to maintain your website, it can cost you anywhere from $20-$75 per hour. You can calculate the total cost by adding the number of hours for which you’ve retained them or used their services.
• If you maintain it yourself, it will only cost you for the premium purchases and monthly domain and website renewals.

Final Thoughts on Law Firm Website Design Cost

Website design cost can be a tricky subject to discuss as it depends on way too many factors. Now, you must have a brief idea of how much you can expect to spend on your website, depending on your needs.

Besides budget, the primary goal you want your website to fulfill should decide which option you should go for to build it.

For instance, if you want a highly functional website that contributes to the growth of your law firm, then hiring a web designing agency that understands your needs will be the right choice for you.