Website Pricing, Explained
How much does a small business website cost?
Most answers to this question end in "it depends" and a contact form. Here are the real ranges, what moves a quote up or down, and exactly what we charge.
Short answer: $0 to $99 a month if you build it yourself, $500 to $5,000 for a freelancer, $3,000 to $15,000 or more for an agency build.
What the market actually charges
Published cost guides from Forbes, GoDaddy, Leadpages, and Elementor land in roughly the same places. These are the four ways a small business buys a website.
Do it yourself
$0 to $99 a monthWix, Squarespace, Canva, Google Sites. You get a working site for the price of a subscription. What you spend instead is your own time, and the result is limited by how much design and copywriting you can do yourself.
Right when the budget is genuinely zero and your time is worth less than the cash.
Freelancer
$500 to $5,000 one timeOne person builds the site and hands it over. Quality varies more than any other option here, and so does what happens six months later when you need a change.
Right when you know exactly what you want and you have someone you trust.
Agency build
$3,000 to $15,000 one timeA team scopes, designs, builds, and launches. Ecommerce and custom functionality push it well past the top of that range. You own the result outright, and ongoing work is quoted separately.
Right when the site is central to how you sell and the budget exists up front.
Monthly plan
$50 to $529 a monthThe build is folded into a recurring fee instead of an up front invoice. What varies enormously between providers is whether the fee covers only the site and its hosting, or also the work of getting it found.
Right when cash flow matters more than owning the asset on day one.
Ranges reflect widely published 2026 cost guides. Any individual quote depends on scope, and every source we checked said the same thing.
What Moves the Number
Why two quotes for the same site differ by $10,000
Every one of these changes the price, and most quotes never break them out.
Page count
A one-page site and a fifteen-page site are not the same job. Each page needs its own copy, its own layout decisions, and its own review pass.
Ask for the price per page beyond the base scope before you sign.
Who writes the copy
Writing is most of the work on a small site. Quotes that assume you supply finished text are cheaper and frequently stall for months.
Settle who writes each page in the scope, not after the build starts.
Template or custom build
A theme configured for you is fast and cheap. A custom build controls markup, performance, and how the site behaves as it grows.
Ask which one you are buying. The answer changes the price by thousands.
Whether search is included
A site that nobody finds costs the same to build as one that ranks. Technical SEO, schema, and content work are separate labor and usually a separate line item.
Ask what happens after launch to make the site get found, and what that costs.
Ownership and hosting
Some monthly plans stop working the day you stop paying, because you were renting the site rather than buying it.
Ask what you keep if you leave, in writing, before the first payment.
Ongoing changes
Launch is the beginning. Hours, prices, staff, and services change, and every edit is either included or billed.
Get the post-launch rate in the same document as the build price.
Our Pricing
What we charge
Three ways to buy, stated in full. Every engagement is scoped on a free call first, and nothing here is a starting-from number that quietly triples.
Starter site
$750 one time
A single-page site, built custom and quickly. Enough to be findable, credible, and reachable. Scope is agreed per client rather than fixed.
Get a quoteCustom site
$2,500 one time
A full five-page build with a fixed scope and timeline. Custom React and Next.js, schema markup, and Core Web Vitals handled during the build rather than patched afterward.
Get a quoteWebsite included
$529 per month
The build is included and the ongoing SEO runs every month. This is the option most new businesses take, because the site is not the hard part. Being found is.
See how it worksThe terms, in plain language
- •Standalone SEO and lead capture are month to month with no long-term contract.
- •Plans that include a website build carry a six-month minimum, which is roughly how long SEO takes to compound.
- •A one-time setup fee applies and is quoted before any work begins.
- •Cancelling a bundled plan early costs 50 percent of the remaining contract value.
- •The site is yours. It does not switch off if you leave.
Remote-first, nationwide
We build websites and run technical SEO for clients anywhere in the US. On-the-ground local SEO in these markets:
FAQ
Website cost questions
How much does a small business website cost?
Between $0 and $35,000, which is why the question needs a scope attached. A DIY builder runs $10 to $99 a month, a freelancer $500 to $5,000 one time, and an agency build $3,000 to $15,000 or more. We charge $750 for a single-page starter, $2,500 for a five-page custom build, or $529 a month for a plan that includes the build and ongoing SEO.
Is a free website builder good enough to start?
Sometimes, and we will tell you when. If your budget is genuinely zero, a builder gets you online this week and that beats waiting six months for a budget. What you give up is speed, control of the markup, and most of the technical groundwork that makes a site rank. Start there if you must, and move when the site needs to earn.
Why is your monthly plan $529 when other agencies advertise $99?
Because they are selling a different thing. A $99 plan is a site and its hosting. Ours includes the build plus the SEO work every month: technical fixes, content, schema, local search, and reporting. If all you need is a page that exists, the $99 plans are honest value and you should take one. If you need the phone to ring, the site alone will not do it.
What is the cheapest way to get a real website?
Build it yourself on a subscription builder and write your own copy. That is the floor, and it is a legitimate answer for a business with no cash. The next step up is our $750 starter, which is a custom single-page build rather than a template.
Do I own the website?
Yes, on every option including the monthly plan. Some pay monthly providers rent you a site that stops working when you stop paying. Ask any provider this question before the first payment, including us.
How long does a small business website take?
A single-page starter is usually days. A five-page custom build is usually weeks, and the schedule depends far more on how fast copy and photos come back than on the build itself. We agree the timeline in the scope.
Get Started
Get a real number for your site
Tell us what the business does and what the site has to accomplish. We will scope it on a free call and give you a fixed price. If a subscription builder is the right answer for where you are, we will say so.
Send a message
Knowing the number is the first step, not the whole decision. What the site has to accomplish decides which of these you actually need. Part of our digital marketing services. See all services.