Andrew ChilesOver the past 25 years, the cost of web design and custom programming services has evolved in surprising ways. While one might expect tech-related rates to soar in the age of digital transformation, their growth has actually lagged behind both general inflation and the fee increases seen in many other professions. In fact, web design and programming rates have not kept up with the sharp rises observed for lawyers, plumbers, and other professionals. This trend emerges despite significant productivity boosts in the tech industry. Below, we’ll explore how these rates have changed since around 2000, how they compare to inflation and other industries, and why today’s companies may be getting more “bang for their buck” when investing in web development services such as those provided by eLink Design.
25 Years of Inflation in Perspective
First, consider the backdrop of general price inflation. Between 2000 and 2025, overall prices in the U.S. nearly doubled, increasing by about 88%[1]. In practical terms, something that cost $100 in 2000 would cost roughly $188 today. Any profession whose rates failed to rise at least this much effectively saw real (inflation-adjusted) earnings decline. With that benchmark in mind, we can better gauge how different industries have fared.
Web Design & Programming: Modest Rate Growth
Web design and software development rates have grown only modestly over the last quarter-century – roughly in line with inflation, and in some cases even less. In other words, the purchasing power of what agencies charge for their services hasn’t seen a major real increase since the early 2000s.
Hourly billing rates for web development tell the story. In the late 1990s, building a website was a niche skill; agencies often charged by the page or hour. In fact, at the lower end of the market, web design prices have dropped thanks to abundant competition and better tools. This is true at eLink Design, where we have lowered the cost of website design and search engine optimization projects in recent years. There are far more web designers and developers now than 10–20 years ago, and this increased supply and efficiency have driven down costs. In short, many routine web projects are more affordable than ever.
Why haven’t web design and programming rates skyrocketed, despite the tech boom? A key reason is explosive productivity growth in the field. Over the last 25 years, developers gained an arsenal of new tools and technologies that allow them to do far more in far less time. Consider how radically the workflow has improved since the 1990s: teams moved from clunky, low-level languages to high-level frameworks, from slow dial-up hosting to instant cloud servers, and from troubleshooting in thick manuals to finding answers on Stack Overflow in seconds[2]. Version control systems like Git, faster hardware (SSD storage, broadband internet), and powerful libraries/APIs have streamlined coding tasks by orders of magnitude. A single developer today can deploy an e-commerce website or mobile app with features that would have required a whole IT department in 2000. These efficiency gains mean that even though developers charge an hourly rate, each hour produces more value (more features, more robust sites) than it used to. In essence, the cost per unit of output in programming fell dramatically. As a result, many businesses find that a project that might have taken 6 months (and a big budget) in 2000 can be done in a few weeks today, often at a comparable total cost.
The rise of website builders and better frameworks (WordPress, Wix, Shopify, etc.) means that for simpler projects, clients have low-cost alternatives to those built from scratch. eLink Design has replaced its own internal Content Management System framework with WordPress and others, often resulting in faster, cheaper projects with steady support. The innovation and competition prevent web design agencies from simply hiking prices without losing business. The tech sector’s rapid productivity improvements and global talent pool have translated into stable, client-friendly pricing rather than windfall profits for developers.
Lawyers: Fees Far Outpacing Inflation
Contrast the tech experience with the legal profession. Lawyers’ rates and salaries have risen much faster than those of web developers. Legal services have a unique pricing power: clients often have limited options and high stakes (you can’t easily outsource your courtroom appearance overseas!), enabling law firms to push through hefty fee increases year after year. Over the past decade in particular, law firm billing rates have climbed at roughly twice the rate of inflation[3]. For example, in 2025 law firm “worked rates” (the hourly rates clients actually pay) were up about 7.4%, whereas inflation was only 2.8% – a pattern of annual increases well above cost-of-living[3]. As a Thomson Reuters report put it, the legal industry has achieved what most others can only dream of: “the ability to raise prices year after year, with clients consistently agreeing to pay more.”[3]
Over a 25-year span, the cumulative effect is striking. Back in 2000, the average lawyer’s salary was around $90k (mean of $91,320)[4]. By May 2024, the median annual wage for lawyers reached $151,160[5]. That’s roughly a 70% increase in nominal pay, which on the surface is similar to the inflation rate – but remember, many lawyers bill clients at hourly rates that have grown even faster. Consumer price index data shows that the cost of legal services rose about 139% from 2000 to 2024, far above the ~88% general inflation[6]. In other words, legal fees more than doubled in price, after inflation. It’s not uncommon now to hear of senior attorneys billing $500–$1000 per hour (we employ some of these at eLink Design), whereas a generation ago $200–$300 was considered premium. Even average lawyers today charge several hundred dollars an hour[7]. The legal field managed to increase its rates partly because clients perceived the value (or had no choice) and because the number of lawyers, while it has grown, has not flooded the market at the same pace as tech freelancers have in theirs. High specialization and strict licensing (you must pass the bar to practice law) create a quasi-monopoly that protects lawyer pricing.
The result is that law firm services have significantly outpaced inflation in cost. As a concrete example, from 2021 to 2023 alone the average lawyer wage jumped 19.2%, the biggest two-year leap this century (during a hot market for legal talent), easily exceeding the 13% inflation in that period[8]. Over the long haul, legal fees have consistently grown around 4% per year on average, compared to about 2.5–3% general inflation[6]. This compounding difference means legal services in 2025 take a much bigger bite out of company budgets than they did in 2000. In short, lawyers have aggressively raised their rates, and businesses have generally had to grin and bear it.
Plumbers and Other Skilled Trades: Steady Climb
What about skilled trades like plumbers, electricians, and contractors? Here we see a mix of trends. Wage data indicates that trades have kept up with inflation or just slightly lagged it – but crucially, the rates charged to customers have often exceeded inflation due to rising overhead costs and high demand. For instance, in 2000 the median wage for a plumber was about $18.19 per hour (around $37,000 annually)[16]. By 2024, the median plumber’s wage had risen to roughly $30 per hour (~$63,000 annually)[9]. That is about a 70% nominal increase, similar to a lot of tech and white-collar jobs (and a bit below the 88% inflation rate). So on paper, a typical plumber’s earnings grew only modestly in real terms.
However, the hourly rates homeowners and businesses pay for plumbing services have gone up much more dramatically. Back in the late 1990s, hiring a plumber might have cost on the order of $50–$60 per hour of work. Today, national average plumbing rates range from $80 to $130 per hour (often around $100/hr.) for residential jobs, with emergency calls running $150–$300/hr.[18][19]. In some regions, rates well above $150/hr. are now quite normal for experienced plumbers. This means the service fee to the customer has roughly doubled, even though the worker’s wage went up by a smaller factor. Why the discrepancy? A lot of it comes down to increased business costs that outpaced inflation – things like insurance, licensing, fuel, materials, and compliance with safety regulations. Simply put, plumbers today must charge more not only to cover slightly higher real wages, but also to cover these swelling operational costs and a persistent shortage of skilled tradespeople in many areas.
Other professional services show similar or greater increases. Medical professionals (doctors, dentists) have seen high income growth supported by complex factors like insurance and specialization – e.g. general dentists now average around $192k/year[23], much higher than most tech workers. Accountants and consultants also tend to bill more per hour now than decades ago, though their increases are somewhat closer to inflation. The main point is that web design/programming has not been an outlier in price increases – if anything, it’s been a laggard. Industries like law and specialized trades have taken the lead in raising rates.
Productivity Up, Prices Down: A Value Proposition for Tech Services
It might seem counterintuitive that programmers haven’t enjoyed outsized pay increases. After all, technology has revolutionized nearly everything, and demand for software is massive. But as we’ve seen, an abundant talent pipeline, global competition, and efficiency gains have kept their rates relatively contained. The silver lining for clients is that today you can get far more value for the cost of a developer’s time than you could 25 years ago. A website or custom software that might have cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in the early 2000s can often be built for a fraction of that cost today, or for the same cost but with vastly greater functionality.
Software development companies like eLink Design have leveraged tools and automation to dramatically increase output per hour, and we’ve effectively passed those savings on to clients. As one tech CEO observed, the “increased abstraction and sophistication of every part of the development cycle” – from ready-made frameworks to cloud services – means developers no longer reinvent the wheel for each project[24]. Huge swaths of code are now handled by libraries, and infrastructure that once required dedicated staff can be managed with a few clicks. While internally this may feel like a “yo-yo” of productivity (new complexities emerge alongside new tools)[25][26], the net effect is undeniable: one developer today accomplishes what might have taken 5 or 10 developers in 2000. In economic terms, the supply of effective coding labor (when you factor in productivity) exploded – keeping prices in check.
For businesses considering a new website or custom software project in 2025, this is excellent news. It means that web design and development services are more affordable relative to their output than many other professional services. While you’ve likely had to budget more for legal fees or skilled trades over the years, the cost of building and maintaining a quality website has remained relatively stable – even as the websites themselves have become far more powerful. To illustrate, a company that spent $10,000 on a basic brochure website in the early 2000s might spend a similar amount today and get a modern, responsive site with e-commerce capabilities or other login functionality in the bargain. Or, they might spend less. In real dollars, investing in digital services gives more return today than it did in the past.
Conclusion: A Changing Rate Landscape
Looking back over 25 years, it’s clear that not all rates march upward equally. Web design and programming rates have risen modestly and mostly in step with inflation, constrained by huge productivity gains and intense competition. By contrast, industries like law have flexed far more pricing power, and even local service trades have nudged their rates upward faster than inflation at times to cover costs and shortages. For the general public – and especially for companies weighing where to allocate their budget – these trends are worth noting.
Web development and programming have not seen the dramatic rate inflation that many other professions have. In fact, relative to many services, they’re a bargain in today’s terms. This means that businesses can confidently invest in digital projects, knowing that they’re likely paying a fair price that hasn’t ballooned nearly as much as, say, legal counsel or facility maintenance costs.
At the same time, the tremendous increase in developer productivity means you aren’t just paying the same to get the same – you’re often getting much more value for each dollar spent on programming talent. Modern websites and software can do things that were pipe dreams 25 years ago, yet the cost to build them hasn’t kept pace with the value they deliver. From the standpoint of companies considering web design and custom programming (such as those looking at eLink Design’s services), the takeaway is encouraging. Digital services today offer an excellent ROI: their rates have remained reasonable even as capabilities have soared. In a world where many costs are rising unpredictably, the relative affordability and high productivity of web design and development stand out. It’s an era where you truly can do more with less – and that’s something both businesses and developers can celebrate, each for their own reasons.
Andrew Chiles
CEO, eLink Design
Sources:
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator[1]
- Stephan Schmidt, The Yo-Yo Effect of Developer Productivity – Commentary on dev tools vs complexity[2][25][26].
- Thomson Reuters Legal Institute – Law firm rates rising faster than inflation[3]
- BLS Occupational Employment Statistics – Lawyer and Plumber wages, 2000 vs 2024[4][9][16]
- American Bar Association Profile – Lawyer wage surge 2021–2023 vs. inflation[8]
- In 2013 Dollars CPI data – Legal services price inflation vs general inflation[6]
- Housecall Pro Plumbing Report – Average plumber hourly rates in 2025[18][19]
- Balkan Plumbing (NY) – Inflation of plumbing costs and overhead (permits, insurance)[27][20]
[1] $2,000 in 2000 → 2025 | Inflation Calculator
[2] [25] [26] Developer Productivity Stagnation: Why Teams Don’t Ship Faster
[3] Law Firm Rates Report 2026: Law firms discover the hidden engine driving their pricing power – Thomson Reuters Institute
[4] [16] Occupational Employment and Wages, 2000
[5] Lawyers : Occupational Outlook Handbook – Bureau of Labor Statistics
[6] Legal services price inflation, 1986→2024
[7 ] The £2,000 per hour solicitor – Legal Cheek
https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/04/the-2000-per-hour-solicitor/
[9] Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
[18] [19] 2025 Plumbing Price Guide: Average Rates & How to Estimate
https://www.housecallpro.com/resources/marketing/how-to/how-to-price-plumbing-jobs/
[20] [21] [22] [27] Ever Wonder How Much Plumbing Prices Changed Over the Years?
https://www.balkandraincleaning.com/plumbing-prices-over-the-years-change/
