The short answer
A custom website in Alberta in 2026 costs anywhere from $297 to $50,000+ CAD depending on what "custom" means and what's included. The tiers, in plain numbers:
- DIY templated build (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy): $0–$2,000 CAD all-in. Free to a few hundred dollars in monthly subscription, plus a freelancer or in-house team to set it up. Looks like every other site on the platform. Cannot pass a serious Core Web Vitals test.
- Webflow / WordPress agency work: $3,000–$15,000 CAD. Better-looking than templated DIY, but still constrained by the platform's CSS bundle and plugin ecosystem.
- Hand-coded custom (the bracket Designer Digital sits in): $5,000–$50,000 CAD for marketing sites; $15,000–$75,000+ for e-commerce. No platform constraint, full design freedom, top-tier Core Web Vitals.
- Designer Digital starter offer: $297 CAD for a focused, hand-coded landing page. Lower entry than any other custom-coded option we know of in Alberta.
The rest of this article unpacks why those numbers, what each tier actually buys, and the hidden costs almost no agency mentions until invoice time.
What "custom" actually means
Most agencies use the word "custom" loosely. There are three meanings, and they cost very different amounts.
Custom design, templated build. The designer works in Figma to make a one-of-one mockup, then a developer rebuilds it in Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, or WordPress + Elementor. Easy to spot: the site looks unique but loads slowly and feels stiff to interact with. $3,000–$10,000 CAD typically.
Custom design, custom theme on a platform. Same as above, but the developer writes a custom theme (Liquid for Shopify, a custom WordPress theme, a Webflow custom code block). Less platform overhead, faster, more flexible. $10,000–$25,000 CAD typically.
Fully hand-coded. No platform. The site is HTML, CSS, and TypeScript, written from scratch and deployed to a CDN like Vercel or Cloudflare Pages. The fastest possible delivery, infinitely flexible. $5,000–$50,000+ CAD depending on scope, with a $297 CAD starter at the low end at Designer Digital.
The first kind is what most "custom" Alberta web design quotes actually deliver. The third kind is what we do.
What drives the price up
Within the hand-coded bracket, six things move the price:
- Page count. A 5-page focused site lands in the $5,000–$10,000 range. A 20-page site with industry hubs, location pages, and a blog runs $20,000–$40,000.
- Animation depth. Static modern design with subtle reveals: low end. Heavy GSAP timelines, scroll choreography, Three.js scenes, custom shaders: high end.
- CMS requirement. A small marketing site without editor access is faster to ship. Adding Sanity, Payload, or another headless CMS adds $2,000–$5,000.
- Brand identity work. If you don't have a logo, color system, and typography decisions already, expect $4,000–$15,000 for the brand layer on top of the website.
- E-commerce. Custom Shopify themes start around $15,000. Headless commerce (Hydrogen) starts around $25,000. Fully bespoke storefronts (custom Stripe, custom inventory) start around $40,000.
- Integrations. CRM, marketing automation, payment, calendar, scheduling, custom booking — each adds $500–$5,000 depending on complexity.
Hidden costs nobody mentions until invoice time
These are the line items most agencies don't bring up in the first call:
- Hosting. Vercel and Cloudflare Pages have generous free tiers; you'll pay $0–$50/month at most for typical marketing sites. WordPress hosting (Kinsta, WP Engine) runs $30–$300/month. Shopify is $29–$299/month for the platform alone.
- Domain. $10–$25 CAD/year. The price you negotiated should explicitly include or exclude it.
- Stock photography or photography commission. Anywhere from $0 (you have it) to $5,000+ (full commercial shoot).
- Custom illustration. $500–$5,000 per illustration depending on style and licensing.
- Copywriting. Most agencies pad this in the design quote, but if you need a copywriter to interview your team and write brand-voice copy, expect $2,000–$8,000.
- Ongoing maintenance. $300–$1,500/month for content updates, security patches, dependency updates, performance monitoring.
- Paid tool subscriptions. Sanity, Mailgun, Postmark, Stripe, Cloudflare Pro — pass-through costs of $20–$200/month combined.
We itemize all of these in our quotes so there are no surprises. Most agencies don't.
Where Designer Digital fits
We have two prices people remember: $297 CAD starter and custom from there. The starter buys a tightly-scoped, hand-coded landing page — the right call for new businesses, side projects, or single-purpose campaigns. Full marketing sites quote from there based on actual scope, typically $5,000–$25,000 for the work most Alberta businesses need.
The reason we can offer $297 isn't magic — it's that we keep the starter scope tight (one page, no CMS, your existing brand, no custom photography) and run it on a productized timeline (1–2 weeks). It's the same engineering quality as our larger work, just smaller scope.
If you want a quote for your specific project, the contact page asks the right questions. We'll respond within two business days, usually same-day.