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What a small business website should cost.

For a local business with a few pages and no shop: $650 to $3,000 once, or $50 to $100 a month with hosting and changes included. Under a few hundred buys a template. Over $5,000 buys a team.

What each quote is buying

Quotes differ by twenty times because they aren't for the same thing.

Typical US market ranges. These are what you'll commonly be quoted, not a survey.
What you're buying Usual price Right for
Do it yourself $16–$40/mo People with twenty spare hours. It will look like the template, because it is one.
Template fill-in $300–$800 once Almost nobody. You pay for the twenty hours and still look like four other businesses in town.
One person building it properly $650–$3,000 once, or $50–$100/mo Most local businesses. A real design for your trade, from the person you talk to.
An agency $5,000–$25,000+ Businesses that need a team: integrations, a brand system, campaigns. A waste below that size.
What I charge $450 once, or $65/mo Named so you can compare it yourself. The full price list.

Compare the quote plus five years, not the quote.

A $500 site at $79/month costs $5,240 by year five. A $2,000 site with $10/month hosting costs $2,600.

What it costs to run

  • Domain: $12–$20 a year. More than that is a markup.
  • Hosting: $0–$10 a month for a small site.
  • SSL (the padlock): free. Nobody should charge you for it.
  • Email at your own domain: $6–$7 per person a month. Worth it.
  • Changes: included, or billed by the hour. Ask which before you sign.

So the honest floor is about $10–$20 a month, plus whatever you pay for someone's time.

Worth paying for, and not

Worth it

  • Speed on a phone
  • Your Google Business Profile set up properly
  • Real photos of your work
  • Someone who answers when you need a change
  • A contact form that actually delivers

Not worth it

  • Pricing by page count
  • A "custom CMS" for five pages
  • An SEO retainer from month one
  • Discovery workshops for a one-owner business
  • Dashboards you'll never open

Four questions that expose a bad deal

  1. "Whose name is the domain in?" If it isn't yours, walk. Leaving would cost you your web address.
  2. "What happens to the site if I cancel?" A vague answer means it disappears.
  3. "What does a small change cost?" New hours, a new price. This separates a maintained site from a hostage.
  4. "Can I see something before I pay?" Anyone confident in their work can show you first.

The trap is almost never the price. It's the ownership.

Common questions

How much should a small business website cost?

For a local business with a handful of pages and no shop, a fair one-off price sits in the high hundreds to low thousands, or roughly $50–$100 a month on a plan that includes hosting and changes. Below a few hundred you are usually buying a template with your logo on it; above about $5,000 you are paying for a team rather than a website.

What are the ongoing costs of a website?

A domain is roughly $12–$20 a year. Hosting a small static site is $0–$10 a month. An SSL certificate is free and has been for years. Everything beyond that is either somebody's time or a software subscription you agreed to.

Why are website quotes so different from each other?

Because you're not being quoted for the same thing. A $300 quote is usually a template fill-in. A $1,000 quote is usually one person building it. A $6,000 quote usually includes an account manager, a project manager, a designer and a developer — and most of that money pays for the coordination between them rather than for your site.

Is a monthly website plan a rip-off?

Not inherently. It's a rip-off when the domain is registered in the agency's name and the site can't leave with you. Ask two questions before signing: whose name is on the domain, and what happens to the site if you cancel. If the answers are "yours" and "it comes with you", a monthly plan is just instalments with maintenance included.

Do I need to pay for SEO on top?

A local business usually needs its Google Business Profile set up properly, its name and address consistent everywhere, and pages that load fast and say plainly what it does and where. That's part of building the site, not a separate monthly product. Ongoing SEO retainers start making sense once you're competing for terms other businesses are actively spending money on.

Should I just use Wix or Squarespace myself?

If you have the time, genuinely yes — they're capable tools and $16–$40 a month is honest money. The cost is the twenty-odd hours, the result looking like the template, and the fact that in eighteen months you'll be the one troubleshooting it at 10pm. If those don't bother you, save your money.

How long should a small business website take to build?

A five-page site is about a week of actual work, and most of the calendar time is waiting on the owner for photos, copy and decisions. If somebody quotes you three months for a local business site, ask what's happening in months two and three.

Want the number for your business? I'll build the homepage first.

I charge $450 once or $65 a month, whatever the trade. One person, no agency overhead, and the domain in your name from day one. See the work.

  1. Tell me what you do. Two minutes, or by text.
  2. I build your homepage. Two days, free.
  3. Keep it and we launch. Or don't, and keep the mock-up anyway.

Or call or text 618-882-1996 · email [email protected]

Goes straight to me. No mailing list, no cold calls.

Call 618-882-1996 Free mock-up