The honest answer: it depends who builds it and what it does
“A website” covers everything from a one-page template to a custom online store. That’s why the prices are all over the map. The useful way to think about cost isn’t one number. It’s the tier of builder you choose—plus the ongoing costs each tier hides.
Here’s the breakdown, straight. Including the options where I don’t make a dime.
DIY builders: cheap monthly, expensive in time
Squarespace, Wix, and their cousins run somewhere in the tens of dollars a month once the teaser pricing wears off, plus a domain. Got more time than budget? Simple needs? This is a legitimate option. I tell people that plainly.
What the pricing page doesn’t show: your evenings and weekends learning the editor. A template that looks like every other business in town. Pages that are rarely fast. SEO that tops out at “okay.” A builder site is a starting point. It’s not an asset. Most owners who start here either stay small on purpose or migrate within a couple of years.
Freelancers: the widest price range in the industry
A freelance designer or developer charges anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand for a small business site. Depends on experience. Depends on scope. Great freelancers exist, and some do excellent work at fair prices.
The risk isn’t quality on day one. It’s continuity on day four hundred. Quality varies enormously—and so does availability a year later when something breaks. Going this route? Ask three questions. Who hosts it. Who maintains it. What happens when you need changes. The answers usually reveal the real long-term cost: another vendor, another bill, another person to chase.
Agencies: capable, and priced accordingly
Traditional agencies quote small-business sites in the thousands to tens of thousands. E-commerce and custom functionality run higher. You’re paying for a team—strategy, design, development, someone managing the project. For good agencies, that’s worth it.
Two things to watch. First, many agencies build on WordPress with premium themes. That means you inherit the plugin-update treadmill and everything that can go wrong with it. Second, the quote usually covers the launch, not the life. Hosting, maintenance, and changes get billed separately. Those line items compound.
The ongoing costs nobody puts in the quote
Whatever the build costs, the site also costs money to keep running. Budget for these or be surprised by them:
- Hosting. A few dollars monthly for shared-and-slow, up to serious money for managed platforms.
- Domain renewal. Modest. But miss it and your site vanishes.
- SSL certificate. Often free now. Some hosts still charge for it.
- Plugin and theme licenses. WordPress sites accumulate these quietly.
- Maintenance and security. Either your time or someone’s invoice.
- Changes and updates. The hourly fees that make owners afraid to touch their own sites.
The monthly model: what I do and why
I price it differently. A build cost, then one predictable monthly plan covering hosting, security, backups, monitoring, and routine updates. No plugin licenses—my sites don’t use plugins. No hourly fear. No surprise invoices. And the site is yours outright the whole time.
I’m upfront: this model is what I sell. Judge it on the logic. A website isn’t a purchase. It’s an operation. Pricing it as an operation puts my incentives where yours are—the site has to stay fast, secure, and current, or you leave.
How to actually decide
Skip “what does a website cost.” Ask “what does this website need to do.” A portfolio that just needs to exist can live on a DIY builder. A business that needs to be found on Google and turn visitors into customers needs speed, structure, and content done properly. That’s worth paying for once—from someone accountable for it staying good.
Whatever you choose, compare the total cost over three years, not the sticker price. That one comparison changes most decisions. And whichever way you go, make sure you’d own the site outright if you ever walked away.
Red flags in any quote
- No mention of who hosts the site or what that costs. The answer is you, later, more than you think.
- Speed never comes up. Ask for a mobile PageSpeed commitment and watch the reaction.
- “Unlimited pages” or “unlimited revisions.” Unlimited anything means the real limit is buried somewhere else.
- You can’t get a straight answer on what you own if you leave.
- SEO promised as “included” with no explanation of what that means in actual work.
None of these kill a deal by themselves. Each one deserves a direct question before you sign. A builder who answers plainly is worth more than one who quotes lower.
What to have ready before you ask for quotes
Quotes vary wildly partly because businesses show up undefined. You’ll get tighter, more comparable numbers if you can answer five things. What the site must do—get found, take bookings, sell products. Roughly how many pages of real content you have. Who’s writing that content. Which towns or areas you serve. And what deadline actually matters.
Send the same brief to everyone you ask. The spread in the answers—and in the questions they ask you back—tells you as much as the prices do.