How much does a small business website cost?

A simple website for a small business can cost from a couple of hundred dollars a year if you build it yourself, to roughly one to five thousand dollars from a freelancer, to well over ten thousand from an agency. Done-for-you services sit at the low end of that range. On top of the build there are yearly costs for the domain, hosting and email. What you should pay depends on how much of the work you want to do yourself and how much the site has to do.

The four parts of the price

Every website quote, however it is presented, is made of four pieces. Knowing them makes quotes easier to compare.

Making it. Choosing a design, setting up the pages, making it work on phones.
The words and pictures. Writing what you do, where you work and why people should call you; taking or choosing photos. This is often the slowest part, and the one owners underestimate.
Keeping it online. The domain name, hosting or a builder subscription, and usually email.
Changing it later. New hours, a new service, a holiday notice. Either you do it, or you pay someone each time.

A cheap quote often covers only the first piece. A higher one may include writing, photos and a year of changes. Ask which pieces are in.

Rough ranges by who builds it

These are typical ranges for a five to ten page site for a local business. Prices vary by region and by person, so treat them as a sense of scale, not a quote.

Doing it yourself on a builder

Money: a builder plan, usually somewhere between about fifteen and fifty dollars a month on a yearly plan, plus the domain.
Time: expect several evenings to a few weekends for a first site, more if you are writing every page from scratch.
Good for: owners who enjoy this kind of task and want to change things often themselves.

The hidden price here is the result. Builders make it easy to get something online and harder to get something that looks professional on a phone. Wix vs Squarespace vs a done-for-you site compares the popular builders.

A freelancer

Money: often somewhere from under a thousand dollars for a very simple site to a few thousand for a careful one, sometimes with a monthly fee afterwards for hosting and changes.
Time: a few meetings, plus gathering your text and photos.
Good for: owners who want a person to talk to and have a clear idea of what they need.

Ask a freelancer who will own the site and the domain, and what happens if they stop working.

An agency

Money: usually from several thousand dollars upward; ten to twenty thousand is not unusual for a larger site with custom work.
Time: a project with stages, meetings and approvals, often a couple of months.
Good for: businesses with many pages, several locations, or custom features like quote tools or customer logins.

Most local trades, shops and practices do not need what an agency is built to deliver.

A done-for-you service

Money: usually at the low end, sometimes a one-time payment, sometimes a monthly subscription that includes hosting.
Time: little. You give the service your business details, and it builds the site.
Good for: owners who want a professional result quickly and do not need custom features.

The trade-off is choice: you get less design back-and-forth than with a freelancer you sit down with.

Yearly costs after the site is built

Whatever route you choose, budget for these every year:

Domain name: commonly in the range of ten to thirty dollars a year for a .com, more for some endings. Check the renewal price, not just the first year.
Hosting or builder plan: from a few dollars a month for basic hosting to several hundred dollars a year for a builder's business plan.
Business email: usually a few dollars to around a dozen dollars per mailbox per month with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. One mailbox and a couple of free aliases is enough for many small businesses.
Changes: zero if you can edit it yourself; otherwise an hourly rate or a care plan.
Extras: booking tools, review widgets, premium plugins or apps. Each one tends to be a small monthly charge.

Monthly website fees explained goes through each of these line by line.

What pushes a price up

More pages. Each service, each town you serve and each location adds writing and checking.
Writing done for you. Worth it if you hate writing; costly if you already have good words.
Professional photos. A half-day shoot costs money but often makes the biggest visible difference.
Features beyond enquiries. An online store, members area, quote calculator or customer portal multiplies the work.
Rush timing. A site needed by Friday costs more than one needed next month.

What you can safely skip at first

For a first website, most small businesses do well with:

A home page that says what you do and where.
A page for each main service.
An about page with your photo and story.
A contact page with phone, email, form and hours.
Reviews or a few short testimonials, with permission.

You can usually leave out a blog, an online store, chat widgets and animations until there is a clear reason. Simple website ideas for small businesses shows what a lean site can look like.

Questions that save money

Is the price one-time or monthly, and what happens to the site if I stop paying?
Who owns the domain? Is it registered in my name?
Who writes the text and supplies the photos?
Can I change my hours and photos myself, and how?
What do renewals cost after the first year?
Can I see the site working before I pay in full?

A sensible way to decide this week

Write down what the site must do: get calls, get form enquiries, show prices, take bookings.
Pick a monthly amount you are comfortable with over three years, then work backwards to a total budget.
Collect a few photos of your work and a short paragraph about your business. Every option is faster with these in hand.
Get two quotes from different kinds of providers and compare the three-year totals.

If you have no website yet and want to see what one could look like before spending anything, you can see a first website for your business built from your business details.