Free web design invoice generator
Bill design phases, development, hosting and maintenance on one document, with pass-through costs at cost — then download a PDF ready for the client’s finance team.
Build your web design invoice
Prefilled with a typical website build milestone. Replace the phases and amounts, then download.
| Description | Qty | Rate | Amount |
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What is a web design invoice?
A web design invoice bills for building or maintaining a website. It usually mixes three different kinds of money: your fees for design and development work, recurring charges for hosting or maintenance, and pass-through costs such as domains, themes, plugins and stock assets.
Keeping those three separate is the whole discipline. A client who sees “Website — $8,400” has no way to tell what is labour and what is a third-party licence they will be renewing next year. Once the lines are separated, the invoice explains itself and renewals stop being a surprise.
Website projects also run long enough that a single invoice at the end is bad for both sides. Milestone billing — deposit, design approval, development, launch — keeps cash flowing and gives the client natural checkpoints for approval.
What to include
Everything below is already in the generator above — this is what each part is for.
Project name and phase
Which project, and which milestone this invoice covers — for example “Phase 2 of 4: UI design approved”.
Fees split from pass-through costs
Your labour on its own lines; domains, themes, plugins and stock on theirs, billed at cost or with a stated markup.
Recurring charges
Hosting, maintenance or support retainers with the period named, so they are never mistaken for project fees.
Scope reference
The proposal or SOW date the work sits under, and any signed change order for work added since.
Deposit and balance
What was paid up front and what remains, so the amount due needs no explanation.
Terms and launch conditions
Payment terms plus anything conditional on payment, such as final file handover or DNS switchover.
Three steps to a finished PDF
Set project and milestone
Enter your studio and the client, then name the project and phase in the line descriptions and notes.
Split fees, hosting and costs
Your work on separate lines from hosting and third-party costs. Add sales tax only if your state taxes the deliverable.
Download and send
Download the PDF and send it at the milestone, not weeks later — approval and invoice should arrive together.
Structuring website project billing
Bill in phases with a deposit
A common structure is 30–40% to start, a stage payment on design approval, and the balance at launch. Each payment is tied to something the client can see, which makes it far easier to collect than a lump sum sent after go-live. Put the phase on the invoice line, not only in the email.
Separate recurring revenue from project revenue
Hosting, maintenance and support are where a studio’s stability comes from, and they should look different from project work on the invoice: named period, fixed amount, clearly recurring. Mixing them into a project total is how studios end up giving away support for free.
Pass third-party costs through honestly
- List each licence, plugin or stock asset with what it is and what it renews at.
- If you add a handling percentage, show it as its own line rather than inflating the cost.
- Note who owns the licence after launch — you or the client.
Tie handover to payment
Final files, repository access and DNS changes are worth more before payment than after. Say in your terms that handover follows receipt of the final invoice, and the last payment stops being the hardest one to collect.
Three mistakes that delay payment
One line for the whole site
It hides pass-through costs and makes every future price look arbitrary.
No deposit
Financing a build with your own cash flow is the fastest way to a stalled project.
Scope creep billed silently
Extra work with no change order reference is the work most likely to be short-paid.