How much does a small business website cost?

A small business website can cost anything from about $200 a year to well over $20,000. The range is that wide because "a website" covers everything from a template you fill in yourself over a weekend to a custom site an agency builds and keeps working on. This guide breaks the cost down by how the site gets built, lists the costs that keep coming after launch, and explains how to compare quotes that are priced in different ways.

What a small business website usually costs

• A website builder you set up yourself, such as Wix or Squarespace, runs roughly $16 to $50 a month for the plan, plus your own time.
• A freelancer commonly charges $1,500 to $8,000 up front for the build, with changes and ongoing work quoted separately.
• An agency custom build often costs $10,000 or more up front, with monthly fees on top for hosting, updates or SEO.
• A monthly plan with no build fee spreads the cost of the build into a flat monthly price instead of charging for it up front. That's how we price our work.

These are typical ranges across the industry rather than quotes, and prices vary a lot by region and by how many pages the site needs.

The costs that keep coming after launch

• Domain name: usually $10 to $20 a year.
• Hosting: from a few dollars a month for basic shared hosting to $30 a month or more for managed hosting. A Webflow site plan, which is what we use, costs about $300 a year.
• Updates and maintenance: WordPress sites need plugin, theme and security updates, and many owners pay someone $50 to $200 a month to handle them. Our Webflow vs WordPress comparison covers the difference in upkeep.
• Changes: new pages, new services, new photos and price changes. Some providers include these, and others bill by the hour.
• Extras: business email, stock photos and paid plugins are small on their own but add up over a year.

What drives the price up or down

The number of pages matters most. A five page site with a home page, an about page, a services page, a contact page and a gallery is a small job. A site with a separate page for each service and each town you work in can run to thirty or fifty pages, and those extra pages are usually what gets a local business found on Google. Custom design, online booking, online payments, copywriting and photography all add to the cost as well.

How to compare quotes that are priced differently

One quote might be $6,000 up front and another $300 a month, which makes them hard to compare. The simplest way to compare them is to add up the total cost for the first two years, including hosting, updates and any monthly fees. Then ask each provider the same four questions:

1. Is the domain registered in my name?
2. What happens to the site if I stop paying or want to leave?
3. What will a change cost a year from now?
4. What's included after launch, and what's billed separately?

The answers to those questions often matter more than the price of the build itself.

What a website costs with SiteHike

We don't charge a build fee. Our plans are $247, $347 and $597 a month, and every plan includes a custom website, the Google Business Profile setup and local SEO work. Hosting is about $300 a year, billed by Webflow directly to you, so the Visible plan comes to about $3,260 for the first year including hosting. The domain stays in your name the whole time, and the site is yours to take after the first twelve months. You can see what each plan includes on our pricing page, or read how we build sites on our small business web design page.