How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost? (Real 2026 Prices)

Short answer: most small businesses should expect to pay $500–$5,000 to get a website built, plus $10–$25 a year for the domain and something for hosting and upkeep. The huge ranges you see elsewhere exist because "a website" can mean anything from a one-page template to a custom platform. Here's how to know where you land — with real numbers, including ours. What a website costs by routeRoute Typical price What you're really paying forDIY builder (Wix, Squarespace) $15–$50/mo Your own evenings and weekendsFreelancer $500–$5,000 One person's skill — and their availabilityProductized studio (like us) $500–$1,500 fixed A fixed scope, a fixed price, live in daysTraditional agency $5,000–$50,000+ Meetings, revisions, and a project managerEvery route can produce a good website. The difference is risk: with hourly billing you find out the price at the end; with a fixed scope you know it before you start. What actually drives the price Three things move the number more than anything else:Page count. A single page that sells one service costs a fraction of a 20-page site. Most small businesses need fewer pages than they think. Who updates it. If you want to edit content yourself, the site needs a CMS. That's real work to set up — expect it to add a few hundred dollars, not thousands. Custom features. Booking systems, portals, calculators — anything interactive moves you from "website" money to "software" money. Budget from $3,000 when you cross that line.What should not drive the price: "design revisions" without a cap, "SEO setup" sold as a mystery add-on, or hosting marked up ten times. If a quote can't tell you what's included, the price isn't real yet. The costs after launch The build is the beginning. A working site carries three ongoing costs:Domain — $10–$25 a year. Register it in your own name. Always. Any provider who insists on owning your domain is building a cage, not a website. Hosting — anywhere from $5 to $50 a month on typical plans. Fast hosting is one of the cheapest speed upgrades you can buy. Maintenance — updates, backups, security, and small changes. Skipping it works right up until it doesn't. Here's what website maintenance costs and what it should include.Already have a site that needs a refresh instead? That's a different budget — see what a website redesign costs. What we charge (public, since 2026) Most agencies hide pricing behind a sales call. We publish ours:Package Price DeliverySingle-page site $500 5–10 business daysUp to 5 pages $1,200 5–10 business daysSite you can edit yourself $1,500 5–10 business daysWebsite checkup (audit) $99 48–72hMaintenance & hosting $79–199/mo ongoingEvery package lists exactly what's included — see the full pricing page. No sales call, no surprise invoices, and the $99 checkup comes off any build you buy next. How to decide in three stepsCount the money, not the pages. What's one new customer worth to you? A $1,200 site that brings in two customers a month isn't a cost. Get the scope in writing before the price. Pages, revisions, who supplies content, what's excluded. A price without a scope is a guess. Not sure what your current site is worth fixing? Get the $99 checkup — it shows exactly where your site is losing customers and what to fix first.Common questions How much does a website cost per month? DIY builders run $15–$50/mo. A professionally built site costs more upfront ($500–$5,000) but the monthly cost drops to hosting and maintenance — ours is $79/mo all-in. Why do quotes vary so wildly for the same request? Because hourly agencies price their process, not your outcome. The same 5-page site can be 20 hours or 200 hours depending on how many meetings are attached to it. Is a cheap website worth it? A cheap site that loads fast and says clearly what you sell beats an expensive one that doesn't. Price and quality correlate less than the industry wants you to believe — scope discipline matters more. Do I own the website after I pay? You should. Domain in your name, files and content yours. If a provider won't put that in writing, walk away.