Short answer: Website redesign cost at Abiyas is not a separate published price, because no two existing sites need the same work. A redesign is quoted as a fixed-price project based on scope, after we look at your current site. For reference, our published prices for a brand-new website are US$299 for Launch Site (up to 5 pages), US$799 for Business Site, and US$1,499 for Ecommerce Storefront, plus HST, listed on our pricing page. A redesign that keeps your content and structure can be a smaller job than starting over; one that changes your platform, pages, and content is closer to a new build. In the wider market, prices vary widely, because what is included varies just as much. Below: the difference between a refresh and a rebuild, the five factors that set the price, and how to judge any quote.
Redesign, refresh, or rebuild: three different jobs
These three words get used as if they meant the same thing, and that confusion is where most pricing surprises start. A refresh keeps your site’s structure and content and updates how it looks: newer colours, cleaner typography, better photos, tidier layouts. The pages and words mostly stay as they are. It is the smallest of the three jobs.
A redesign goes further. The look changes, but so can the structure: pages are merged, split, reordered, or rewritten, navigation is reorganised, and the path from landing to sending an inquiry is rebuilt on purpose. You keep your domain and history, but visitors experience a genuinely different site.
A rebuild starts the technical side over: a new platform or a new site built from scratch while the old one keeps running. Sometimes that is right — an old site on an abandoned platform can cost more to rescue than to replace. Our guide to what a new website costs in Toronto covers that side in full.
Before you ask anyone for a number, decide which of the three you need. Paying rebuild money for a refresh is wasteful; paying refresh money when the structure is the problem just postpones the real job.
What drives website redesign cost: the 5 factors
Two sites with the same number of pages can produce very different quotes. These five factors explain most of the gap.
1. How much of the site survives
Every page that carries over unchanged is work you do not pay for twice. Every page rewritten, merged, or replaced is writing, design, and review time. A ten-page site where eight pages survive is a modest project; one where every page is new is effectively a new build. An honest quote starts page by page: keep, revise, merge, or drop.
2. Whether you change platforms
Staying on your current platform is usually simpler. Moving — from an old builder to WordPress, for example — means rebuilding every page in the new system and reconnecting forms and tools. Sometimes moving is still right: our comparison of WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace explains the trade-offs. Just know that a platform change is a project inside the project, and it should appear as its own line in the quote.
3. How custom the design is
A polished design built on a proven layout in your existing branding costs less than a fully bespoke design from a blank page. Most small businesses are best served by the middle ground: a clean, fast, mobile-first design that looks unmistakably like their business. What pushes the price up is not quality — it is the number of unique page designs and revision rounds.
4. Content, photos, and media
Websites are mostly words and images, and both take real work. If your text is current and your photos usable, they move across cheaply. If services have changed or the only photos are dark phone shots from years ago, someone has to write, edit, and prepare new material. For many sites, that new content is the most valuable part of the project.
5. Protecting your search visibility
A site that already gets found on Google has something to lose. Changing page addresses without redirecting them, or deleting pages that earn traffic, can undo years of search progress. Google’s own guidance on moving a site sets out how moves should be handled, and the principle applies to redesigns too: every old address should land somewhere sensible, and the change should be monitored afterwards. Our explainer on how long SEO takes shows why protecting progress matters more than starting again. A quote that never mentions redirects is missing part of the job.
What a proper redesign quote should include
Whatever the total, a serious quote names the work, in writing:
- An audit of the current site — what exists, what performs, what is broken, what carries over.
- A page-by-page plan — pages kept, revised, merged, created, or removed.
- Design and build — new layouts, mobile-first, tested on real screen sizes.
- Content handling — who writes, edits, and loads words and images, named explicitly.
- Redirects and SEO protection — old addresses mapped to new ones, search settings carried across.
- Forms and tools reconnected — contact forms, booking tools, and analytics tested end to end.
- Launch checks and a fix window — testing after go-live, and a defined period where launch issues are put right.
If your current site runs on WordPress, much of this can often be done without touching what already works underneath — one reason an audit comes before a number.
When you do not need a redesign at all
Honesty cuts both ways: sometimes the right advice is not to redesign. If your site loads quickly, works well on phones, brings in inquiries, and simply looks dated, a refresh of colours, photos, and headlines may solve it for far less. If one page underperforms, redesigning that page alone can be the smart spend.
Redesign is the right answer when the problems are structural: visitors cannot find what you offer, the site misrepresents what the business now does, or inquiries are rare despite decent traffic. No new colour scheme fixes those. Our services overview shows how redesign work sits alongside new websites, SEO, and ongoing care.
How to judge any redesign quote (including ours)
- Does it start with your current site, or ignore it? A quote given without looking at what you have is a guess.
- Is the price fixed and itemised? You should see what is included, what is not, and the full total including HST before work starts.
- Who does the content work? “Design” that quietly assumes finished text and photos from you is not the whole job.
- What protects your rankings? Redirects, preserved addresses where possible, and post-launch checks should be named.
- What happens after launch? Ask about optional care — ours runs US$69 per month — and what it covers, in writing.
- Are the promises believable? No honest provider guarantees a ranking or a sales figure. Judge the plan, not the hype.
Frequently asked questions
Is a redesign cheaper than a new website?
Often, yes — when your content, structure, and platform carry over, you are not paying to create them again. Our published new-build packages are US$299, US$799, and US$1,499 plus HST on the pricing page, and they are a useful reference point. But a redesign that changes platform, rewrites every page, and reorganises the whole structure can cost as much as a new build, because the work is the same. The audit is what tells you which situation you are in.
Why isn’t there a single published redesign price?
Because the starting point is different every time. Your final website redesign cost depends on how many pages survive, whether the platform changes, how much content is rewritten, and how much search protection the move needs. One number for all of that would overcharge simple jobs and under-scope complex ones. A fixed quote after a proper look at your site is the honest version: the exact total, in writing, before any work begins.
Will a redesign hurt my Google rankings?
It can, if done carelessly — changed addresses without redirects and deleted pages are the usual causes. Done properly, with addresses preserved where possible, changed addresses redirected, and results monitored after launch, a redesign should protect what you have. Before you sign, tell any provider which pages bring you traffic today, and ask how each is handled.
How long does a redesign take?
It depends mainly on scope and on how quickly content decisions get made. A refresh of a small site is a short job; a full redesign with new content and a platform change takes longer. Your quote should include a timeline with the stages named — audit, design, build, content, launch checks — rather than a single hopeful date.
What happens to my site while the redesign is being built?
Your current site stays live and keeps taking inquiries. The new version is built separately, reviewed with you, and only replaces the old site at launch, after checks are done. Customers never see a half-finished page, and your email and domain are untouched. If a provider plans to build directly on your live site, ask why.
Get a fixed quote for your redesign
Start with an audit and an exact number, not a guess. Tell us what your current site is failing to do and Get a Free Quote — we will look at your site, tell you honestly whether you need a refresh, a redesign, or a rebuild, and quote the job as a fixed price with HST shown up front. Compare our published website packages on the pricing page or read about our website and redesign services first.