I paved a little over 11,000sf (634'x11' driveway and a 50'by40' turn around) last summer.
I "knew" someone in the business and got a good deal. Paid a little over $1/sf. Had alot of prep work that needed to be done and alot of base brought it. They put down a 4" thick slab of asphalt, which he told me was thicker than normal.
Before I had him do it, I had an old client come out and give me a quote. Without any major prep work, I seem to recall that it was going to cost about $1.60/sf.
Therefore, it probably would have cost me $2/sf from a basic paving company.
If my driveway had been in decent shape, I may have decided not to pave it. However, I moved into this house about a year ago. The guy I bought it from had built the house and had not finished alot of things, one of them being the driveway. It was basically still a construction haul road.
It would've been too much for me to fix the road myself, and I figured that I'd rather spend the money to put down asphalt than to spend money on making a "really good" gravel driveway.
Alot easier to remove snow from a paved driveway than a stone driveway too.
If you want pavement, but want to save money, can probably to it on the prep work. Have someone come out and tell you what needs to be done, do it yourself, then just have them lay down the asphalt.