The contract matters more than the design. That’s the thing I’d tell any attorney before they spend a dollar on a website, because I’ve looked at enough law firm sites at this point to know that the $20,000 build that looks beautiful on a desktop monitor often has a 4 second load time on mobile and has generated maybe two leads in six months, and when I ask who owns the site the attorney doesn’t know because the agency never brought it up.
And what “never brought it up” usually means is that the agency owns the CMS, the hosting, the code, and the domain configuration, and the attorney has been pouring content and backlinks into a site for three years thinking they’re building something they own when they’re actually building equity in someone else’s property. The day they try to leave, the agency says “sure, but the site stays with us” and three years of SEO work walks out the door with the relationship.
That’s the most expensive mistake in legal marketing and it doesn’t get talked about because the people writing “how much does a website cost” articles are usually the same agencies running the model. So this is what the actual costs look like in 2026 across the full range, what each price point gets you, what it doesn’t get you that matters more, and the specific contract language that tells you whether you’re buying something or renting it.
What the Market Actually Charges Right Now
What do law firm web design agencies charge? PaperStreet starts at $3,000 for template essentials and $15,000 to $25,000 for custom builds, with enterprise starting at $40,000. Grow Law charges $599 to $1,299 per month over 24 months or around $12,938 as a one-time payment. 12AM Agency puts realistic budgets at $15,000 to $40,000 for initial builds plus $250 to $750 per month ongoing. FindLaw and Justia use monthly subscription models starting around $80 to $100 per month but you don’t own the site. GoConstellation reports the average small to mid-size firm spends $3,000 to $10,000 with enterprise exceeding $20,000. The ABA notes costs range from $15 per month for DIY to over $20,000 for custom agency work.
The market has settled into three tiers and they’re pretty consistent across agencies, and the reason I’m naming specific companies and their prices is because every other article on this topic is written by one of these companies selling their own services and they conveniently leave out what everyone else charges.
At the bottom you’ve got the template tier which runs about $1,000 to $5,000, and what you’re getting at this level is a pre-built theme from a marketplace or a platform like Squarespace and someone drops your logo in, changes the colors, fills in your practice areas, and calls it done. PaperStreet’s “Essentials” package starts around $3,000 for this, which includes hosting and support.
The design looks fine because the template was designed by someone talented, but the architecture underneath is bloated because multi-purpose themes carry massive libraries of unused JavaScript and CSS that your visitors’ browsers still have to download, and that bloat is what tanks your Core Web Vitals before you add a single word of content. I’ve seen template builds where the theme alone loads 15 to 20 scripts that have nothing to do with the actual site, and that’s before plugins, and you end up with a page that technically looks professional but loads so slowly that Google won’t rank it and visitors won’t wait.
The middle tier is $5,000 to $15,000 and this is where most firms should probably land. You get semi-custom design meaning the framework is shared but the visual identity is yours, professional copywriting for core practice area pages which matters because legal writing and conversion copywriting are different skills, actual SEO foundations like Google Business Profile optimization and local citation work, and integrations with your intake software whether that’s Clio Grow or HubSpot or whatever you’re using.
GoConstellation reports this is where the average small to mid-size firm ends up based on data from about 70 projects, and the ABA basically confirms the same range.
The top tier is $15,000 to $40,000 or more and this is where you’re getting a site built from the ground up, often on a headless CMS or lightweight framework with near-perfect speed scores, full content strategy with silo architecture that establishes topical authority, bi-directional API integrations where your intake form creates contacts in your practice management system automatically, and high-value assets like video production and interactive tools.
12AM Agency puts the realistic budget for a serious firm at $15,000 to $40,000 for the initial build, and PaperStreet’s enterprise tier starts at $40,000 for AmLaw 100 and 500 firms that need advanced functionality across dozens of attorneys and practice areas.
The Number Everyone Ignores
What is the total cost of owning a law firm website? The initial build represents only 40 to 50 percent of the three-year total cost of ownership. Managed hosting runs $50 to $500 per month depending on security requirements; enterprise-grade hosting with application firewalls costs more but matters for firms handling sensitive intake data. Maintenance and security patches cost $200 to $1,000 per month because WordPress requires constant plugin updates and core patches to prevent vulnerabilities. Content and SEO retainers add $1,500 to $10,000 per month because a website that isn’t updated is invisible to search engines within 6 to 12 months. A $10,000 build with proper hosting, maintenance, and content costs $60,000 to $130,000 over three years.
The question every attorney asks is “how much does the website cost” and the question they should be asking is “how much does the website cost over three years” because the build price is honestly the smaller number and the recurring costs are where firms either build something sustainable or slowly watch the whole thing degrade.
Hosting alone ranges from $50 to $500 a month in 2026 and if you’re still on cheap shared hosting at $10 a month you’re sharing a server with hundreds of other sites and your speed penalty and security risk are both real, and managed hosting through providers like WP Engine creates a baseline of $50 to $100 a month before you add anything. Enterprise-grade hosting with application firewalls and DDoS protection pushes that to $300 to $500 a month, and if your firm handles sensitive intake data through the site the hosting security requirements are even higher.
And then there’s maintenance which is $200 to $1,000 a month because open source platforms like WordPress need constant attention; plugins need updating, core software needs patching, backups need verifying, and if you neglect this for six months the site starts degrading quietly in ways you don’t see until something breaks. I call it code decay; the performance score drops a few points, a plugin conflict creates a security hole, an expired SSL certificate triggers a browser warning, and by the time you notice you’re paying emergency rates to fix problems that would have cost $200 a month to prevent.
And then there’s the biggest recurring cost which is content. A website that stops publishing is dead to search engines within a year, and maintaining rankings in competitive practice areas requires a steady stream of content that meets Google’s quality standards for experience and trustworthiness.
Content retainers run $1,500 to $10,000 a month depending on practice area competition, and if you do the math on a $10,000 build with proper hosting and maintenance and a modest content program, you’re looking at $60,000 to $130,000 over three years, which means the initial design was maybe 8 to 15 percent of the total investment.
The Ownership Question Nobody Asks Until It’s Too Late
Can I take my law firm website with me if I leave my agency? It depends entirely on the CMS. If the site is built on an open source platform, the entire site is portable; the database, the theme files, and the content can move to any hosting provider in the world without rebuilding anything. If it’s built on a proprietary CMS owned by the agency, leaving means losing the design, the layout, the URL structure, and the functional code. You may get a file with raw text and images but the site itself stays with the agency. Firms on proprietary platforms report exit penalties of $5,000 or more just to get their content files, and rebuilding from scratch without perfect URL redirects can destroy years of accumulated search rankings overnight.
This is the part that makes me the most frustrated because I’ve talked to attorneys who spent five years building content and earning backlinks and accumulating domain authority on a website they thought they owned and then they try to leave the agency and discover they can’t take any of it with them, and the reason is the agency built the site on a proprietary CMS that they own and the attorney was basically licensing access to the technology the entire time.
And the way the trap works is actually pretty simple. The firm signs up because the upfront cost is low or the package seems convenient with everything bundled into one monthly fee, and over the years they invest in content and gather backlinks and the site becomes a genuinely valuable asset.
But because the underlying code belongs to the agency, it can’t be exported. The database structure is proprietary and incompatible with standard platforms. So when the firm tries to leave they discover that the “website” they’ve been paying for was never theirs; the agency offers to send them a file with their text and images but the design, the URL structure, the schema markup, the functional code, all of it stays behind.
And then the firm has to rebuild from scratch on a new platform, and if the URL redirects aren’t handled perfectly; which they usually aren’t because the outgoing agency has zero incentive to help with a clean transition; the firm loses years of search engine trust and their traffic craters. I’ve seen firms lose 60 to 70 percent of their organic traffic after a bad migration away from a proprietary platform, and that translates directly into lost cases and lost revenue for months or sometimes years while the new site rebuilds authority.
The difference between open source and proprietary comes down to one question: if you fire your agency tomorrow morning, what happens to your website by tomorrow afternoon? On an open source platform the answer is nothing; you revoke the agency’s login credentials, hire someone else, and the site keeps running because the underlying technology belongs to the global community, not to any single vendor. On a proprietary platform the answer is usually “it depends on what your contract says” and that ambiguity is the entire problem.
The reason WordPress dominates law firm web development isn’t because it’s the most sophisticated technology; it’s because the database format and file structure follow global standards that any developer on any server can work with, which means you’re never dependent on one company’s willingness to let you leave. The agency that built your site and the agency that maintains it don’t have to be the same company, and if you want to see what that looks like in practice there are firms doing it right now without the exit penalties and rebuild costs that proprietary platforms create.
The Four Questions That Prevent the Hostage Scenario
What questions should I ask a web design agency before signing? Ask four things before signing any contract. First: upon termination, do I receive a full backup of the database and theme files in a format installable on a standard host? The answer has to be yes without qualifications. Second: is the CMS proprietary to your agency or is it open source like WordPress? Open source is always the safer choice for portability. Third: who owns the domain name registration account? You must be the registrant, not the agency. Fourth: are there liquidated damages or termination fees if I leave before the contract ends? The answer should be no or minimal. Any agency that hesitates on these questions is telling you something.
I know this sounds paranoid but I’ve seen this go wrong enough times that I think every attorney should ask these four questions before signing anything, and the way the agency responds tells you almost everything you need to know about whether you’re entering a partnership or a trap.
The first question is whether you get a full backup of the database and theme files in a portable format upon termination, and the answer has to be yes with no qualifications. A promise to provide “a PDF of your content” or “an export of your text” is not the same thing; you need the SQL database or an XML/CSV export and the actual theme files, because without those you can’t recreate the site on another platform.
The second question is whether the CMS is proprietary or open source, and if the agency built their own platform that’s a significant lock-in risk no matter how good the platform is. The third is who owns the domain registration, because if the agency registered your domain in their account they hold the ultimate control over your entire online identity. And the fourth is whether there are termination fees or liquidated damages clauses, which are often designed to recoup the cost of a subsidized initial build by making it financially painful to leave.
Any agency that gets defensive or evasive about these questions is telling you exactly what would happen if you tried to leave, which is probably not what you want to find out two years into a contract after you’ve built real search authority that you can’t take with you.
What Actually Matters Versus What Looks Good in a Pitch
What features should a law firm website have? The must-have features are speed under 2.5 seconds LCP, mobile-first architecture optimized for the thumb zone, trust signals on attorney bios including bar admissions and verified reviews, sticky click-to-call headers on mobile, HTTPS encryption, and WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility compliance. Nice-to-have features include AI chat agents that qualify leads in real time, video bios, and interactive calculators like settlement estimators. Features that waste money include image carousels which get less than 1 percent click-through, generic stock photography of gavels and handshakes, embedded social media feeds that send visitors away from the site, and intro animations that add seconds to load time.
I’ve seen firms spend $5,000 on a homepage carousel that looks impressive in a design presentation and then the data shows less than 1 percent of visitors ever click past the first slide, and meanwhile the carousel slowed down the page load by 2 seconds which means roughly 14 percent of visitors left before they saw anything at all, which is a negative return on a feature the agency presented as a selling point.
The things that actually generate revenue are boring. Speed matters more than anything else because roughly 40 percent of potential clients abandon a site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load, and when you’re paying $150 to $500 per click on personal injury keywords that means every second of delay is literally burning ad spend.
Mobile architecture matters because over 58 percent of legal traffic comes from phones and the “thumb zone” placement of call buttons determines whether someone actually contacts you or gives up. Attorney bio pages matter because they’re the second most visited pages after the homepage and they need bar admissions, court certifications, and real third-party reviews to establish the trust signals that Google’s quality guidelines specifically look for.
And then there’s the accessibility question which almost nobody discusses during the sales process. Law firm websites are targets for ADA litigation because they’re “places of public accommodation” under the ADA and various state laws, and the quick-fix accessibility overlays that some agencies install are increasingly viewed by courts as insufficient and sometimes even evidence of non-compliance.
Real accessibility means WCAG 2.2 AA compliance built into the code, which includes keyboard navigability, sufficient color contrast, proper alt text, minimum touch target sizes, and consistent placement of help mechanisms across every page, and if your agency isn’t talking about this during the build process they’re handing you a liability.
What AI Search Changes About the Website You Need
Does AI search change what a law firm website needs? Yes. Search engines now map entities and relationships rather than just matching keywords, meaning your website needs structured data markup like LegalService and Attorney schema that explicitly links your firm to practice area concepts. AI agents increasingly serve as intermediaries between your site and human searchers, parsing your code to synthesize answers, so content must be structured in logical heading hierarchies that large language models can easily extract and cite. Websites optimized for entity search and AI citation are showing up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, which now appear on approximately 25 percent of legal queries.
This is the part most web design agencies haven’t caught up with yet because the shift happened fast. Google moved from keyword matching to entity understanding, and the practical difference is that your website now needs to speak in structured data that tells search engines not just what words are on the page but what your firm is, who your attorneys are, what they know about, and how all of that connects to legal concepts in Google’s Knowledge Graph.
The way you do this is through Schema markup, specifically JSON-LD structured data that implements LegalService for the business type, Attorney for individual practitioners, knowsAbout to link attorneys to their specific practice areas, and sameAs to connect your site entity to verified profiles on the state bar and LinkedIn and Avvo. And the reason this matters for cost is that template-tier builds almost never include schema implementation, most mid-tier builds include basic schema at best, and proper entity architecture is really an enterprise-tier deliverable that requires someone who understands both the technical markup and the legal concepts being mapped.
And then there’s the AI agent question. In 2026 the “user” visiting your website might not be a human at all; it might be an AI agent synthesizing options for a human client, which means your content needs to be structured in clean heading hierarchies that large language models can parse.
And your practice area pages need to directly answer common questions in concise factual paragraphs that AI can extract and cite as the source. If your site is built primarily for visual impact with content buried inside JavaScript-rendered carousels and accordion widgets that AI agents can’t read, you’re invisible to an entire channel that’s growing fast.
A Way to Think About the Decision
How should I budget for a law firm website? For a hypothetical $25,000 total budget, allocate roughly 40 percent to design and development for a clean, fast, mobile-first WordPress build with custom branding; 40 percent to content and SEO strategy for deep practice area pages and full schema implementation; 10 percent to photography and video for professional headshots and an about-us video; and 10 percent to infrastructure covering the first year of managed hosting, security firewalls, and accessibility monitoring. The most common mistake is spending 80 percent on visual design and 20 percent on everything else, which produces a site that looks beautiful and generates nothing.
I’m not going to tell you what to spend because I don’t know your practice area or your market or your current marketing budget or whether you’re trying to generate cold traffic from search or just convert referrals who already know your name, and those variables change the answer completely.
But I can tell you that the firms I’ve seen get the most out of their investment tend to weight the budget toward content and performance rather than visual polish. Something like 40 percent toward the actual design and development on a fast mobile-first WordPress build, 40 percent toward content strategy and SEO implementation including the schema and entity work that feeds AI search.
And then 10 percent toward real photography and video because attorney headshots and an about-us video do more for trust than any design element, and 10 percent toward infrastructure meaning the first year of managed hosting and security and accessibility monitoring.
The most common mistake is flipping that ratio. Firms spend 80 percent on making the site look incredible and 20 percent on everything else, and then wonder why a $20,000 website doesn’t show up in search and doesn’t convert the traffic it does get. The design is honestly the cheapest component of a website that works; the invisible stuff underneath is where the money either builds something that compounds in value or disappears into a pretty shell that sits there doing nothing, which you’d think would be obvious but apparently it’s not.
If your current site is working and generating the cases you need, don’t rebuild it just because an agency told you it looks dated. But if you’re getting traffic that doesn’t convert, or you’re not getting traffic at all, or you just found out you don’t own the platform your site is built on, then yeah those are real problems that a proper build actually solves, or you could keep doing what you’re doing and hope it gets better on its own which in my experience it doesn’t but I don’t know your situation.
Not sure what your website is actually built on?
I’ll audit your current site and tell you whether you own it, whether the speed is killing your conversions, and whether a rebuild makes sense or if targeted fixes are the smarter move. If you don’t need a new site I’ll tell you that too.
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