Complex integrations, APIs, and web apps. Calculate the cost of code.
There is a big difference between "Web Design" and "Web Development." Design is how it looks; Development is how it thinks.
If you are building something more complex than a standard brochure site—like a booking engine, a membership portal, a real-time dashboard, or a calculator tool like ours—you are paying for logic, not just pixels. These projects are notoriously hard to price, which is why most agencies refuse to quote them online.
We built the Cold Development Calculator to change that.
Coding the Complex
Development costs in 2026 are driven by complexity and connectivity. Use our pricing tool to see how specific features impact your budget:
- API Integrations: Do you need your website to "talk" to other software? Connecting your site to CRMs (HubSpot, Salesforce), property feeds, or inventory management systems drives up development time significantly.
- Gated Content & Memberships: Building a secure area where users can log in, view private content, or manage subscriptions requires robust database work and security testing.
- Advanced Performance: Google's "Core Web Vitals" are now a ranking factor. High-grade code optimisation ensures your site loads instantly, even with complex features. This "under the hood" work is invisible to users but essential for SEO.
The "No-Code" vs "Custom Code" Debate
At Cold, we leverage modern tools like Webflow to handle the visuals, but we write custom Javascript and connect APIs for the heavy lifting. This hybrid approach saves you money compared to a "from scratch" build, without sacrificing power.
Get a technical estimate
Don't get stuck in "scope creep" hell where the price doubles halfway through the project. Get a realistic range for your custom build before writing a single line of code.
