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# The $10K Checklist. 

E I G H T T H I N G S T H A T S E P A R A T E A $ 1 0 K W E B S I T E F R O M A $ 2 0 0 O N E . 

01 

## Point of view, not a template. 

The site commits to a specific design direction — brutalist, editorial, dark-luxury, retro-modern, whatever — and executes it without flinching. A $200 site is generic. A $10K site has taste. 

02 

## Typography that does work. 

A paired display + body face, neither of them Inter or Roboto. Scale and weight carry hierarchy. The headlines feel chosen, not defaulted. 

03 

## A restrained color system. 

Three to five colors, used consistently. No rainbow palettes. Premium signals through restraint, not decoration. 

04 

## Hierarchy that breathes. 

Whitespace, scale, and contrast tell the viewer where to look without effort. The page has a clear primary, secondary, tertiary — no flat walls of content. 

05 

## Imagery with intent. 

Not Unsplash defaults everyone’s seen. Either custom photography, generated assets that match the art direction, or curation tight enough that the images feel commissioned. 

06 

## Motion that whispers. 

Micro-interactions and scroll behavior feel hand-crafted, not AOS-fade-up slop. The bar: a designer would nod, not roll their eyes. 

07 

## Mobile that’s designed, not shrunk. 

Layout decisions for phone are different from desktop, not the desktop version compressed. This is where 90% of cheap sites collapse. 

08 

## The invisible expensive stuff. 

Sub-2s load, WCAG AA contrast, keyboard navigation, semantic HTML, real meta tags. Viewers don’t see it directly but they feel “this site is fast and works” — the felt difference between expensive and cheap. 

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