The short answer
A website audit costs anywhere from $0 to $25,000+ depending on depth, scope, and who does the work. Automated tool reports are free to a few hundred dollars. Freelancer audits typically run $100–$500. Agency audits run $500–$5,000. Enterprise engagements with large sites and stakeholder interviews run five figures. The price you should pay depends on one question: do you need a list of technical errors, or do you need to know why the site isn’t producing customers?
What each tier gets you
- Free / automated ($0–$99). Tools like Lighthouse or an SEO crawler produce a score and an error list. Useful for catching broken basics; blind to messaging, strategy, competition, and anything requiring judgment. If you want this level, our 12-point DIY checklist gets you most of it free.
- Freelance ($100–$500). A human runs the tools and annotates the output. Quality varies enormously with the freelancer; industry context is usually thin.
- Boutique / specialist ($200–$2,000). Proprietary tooling plus expert interpretation, usually with a specific lens — local, ecommerce, or (rarely, still) AI search visibility. This is the tier where prioritization gets good.
- Agency ($500–$5,000). Broad and polished. The common failure mode: the audit is a sales document for the agency’s retainer, and the work is done by whoever’s junior that week.
- Enterprise ($5,000–$25,000+). Big sites, compliance requirements, stakeholder interviews, months of timeline. Right for corporations; absurd for a small business.
What actually drives the price
Four things: site size (auditing 40 pages is not auditing 40,000), scope (technical-only vs. technical + content + local + AI visibility), who does the work (software, a junior, or the person whose name is on the report), and deliverable quality (a raw export vs. a prioritized plan you can act on). When a quote seems high or low, one of these four is why.
What to demand at any price
Whatever you pay, insist on three things: evidence (real data from your actual site, not generic advice), prioritization (what to fix first and why — a hundred-item list with no order is homework, not help), and coverage of where search is going — if an audit in 2026 doesn’t check how you appear in ChatGPT and AI search, it’s auditing your past instead of your future. New to the topic? Start with what a website audit is and covers.
Why SEMPITE prices ours at $199
Our Brand Audit sits deliberately in the boutique tier at a freelance price: proprietary crawler and AI-visibility tooling do the data gathering, the founder does the interpretation, and every audit ends with a prioritized fix list — including the AI search layer most providers don’t check at all. If you become a monthly client, the audit fee comes off your first month.
SEMPITE's Brand Audit is $199: proprietary tools, founder-reviewed, AI search visibility included, prioritized fix list at the end.
Get in TouchFrequently Asked Questions
How much does a website audit cost?
From free (automated tools) to $25,000+ (enterprise engagements). Typical prices: $100–$500 for freelance audits, $200–$2,000 for boutique specialists, $500–$5,000 for agencies. Price is driven by site size, scope, who does the work, and deliverable quality.
Are free website audits worth it?
As a starting point, yes — automated reports catch broken links, speed problems, and missing metadata. But they can't evaluate messaging, competition, strategy, or AI search visibility, and free audits from agencies are usually lead-generation documents designed to sell you a retainer.
How long does a website audit take?
An automated scan takes minutes; a DIY checklist pass takes an afternoon. A professional audit of a small-business site typically takes several days to two weeks including analysis and the written report. Enterprise audits run one to three months.
What should a website audit include for the price?
At any price: evidence from your actual site, a prioritized fix list (not just an error dump), and coverage of both traditional SEO and AI search visibility. If the deliverable doesn't tell you what to fix first and why, you paid for a report, not an audit.
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