Small business website cost in 2026: what moves the price

How much does a small business website cost?

Building it yourself costs a monthly builder plan plus your own hours. Hiring someone costs a one-time build fee, then monthly hosting and care. Which fits depends less on your trade and more on what the site has to do.

Ranges you’ll find online vary widely. The ones we read came from companies selling a builder or a service, and they describe very different jobs. The vendor prices here were read on each vendor’s own page. Our own prices, as of October 4, 2026, are in the last section.

Here are the four common ways to get one, with real numbers:

• Build it yourself on a website builder. You pay a monthly plan and spend your own hours. Squarespace, for example, listed plans from $12 to $25 a month paid yearly, or $19 to $36 paying month to month, when we checked in October 2026.
• WordPress on your own hosting. You can download WordPress and install it yourself. Its download page says that route suits anyone comfortable getting their own hosting and domain (when we checked in October 2026). You pay for hosting and any paid themes or plugins, plus the hours to keep it updated, or someone to do that for you. WordPress, a builder or custom compares the three.
• Hire someone to build a new site. You pay once for the build, then monthly for hosting and care. The build fee moves with the things listed under “What changes the price” below.
• A website and a business system together. Requests from the site become jobs, quotes or orders in a system built for you. That’s a bigger project, priced as one quote.

References: Squarespace: Pricing (opens in a new tab) · WordPress.org: Get WordPress (opens in a new tab)

What you’re paying for when you hire someone

A website quote is mostly a quote for hours. Once you know where the hours go, it’s easier to see why two quotes for what sounds like the same site can be thousands of dollars apart.

A cheap quote often leaves one of these to you, usually the words and photos. That can be fine if you know it going in. Ask each quote to say who does each part.

• Planning. Deciding which pages you need, what each one says and what a visitor should do next.
• Words. Writing or editing each page. If you hand over finished text, this shrinks. If nobody has written anything yet, it grows.
• Photos. Your own job photos, a photographer, or stock images. Real photos of your work and your crew usually say more than stock, and someone has to sort and size them.
• Design. How the pages look on phones and computers, built from a template or drawn for you.
• Building and forms. Turning the design into working pages, and making sure every form reaches the right inbox, calendar or system.
• Testing. Trying every page and form on real phones, including what happens when someone fills in a form wrong. Checking the site works for people using a keyboard or a screen reader.
• Launch. Pointing your domain at the new site, keeping old page addresses working, and showing you how to edit.

What changes the price

These are the things that move a website quote most. None of them is good or bad. Each one is simply more to plan, build and test. Moving an old site is an easy cost to miss.

• Moving an old site. Keeping the pages people already find takes a list of every page and careful checking. Google’s guidance is to send each old page address to its closest new page automatically (a permanent redirect). It also says to update links and the list of pages you give search engines (the sitemap). Google advises against sending lots of old pages to the homepage, so ask whether the quote includes this.
• Kinds of pages, not the number of pages. Ten service pages that share one layout cost far less than ten pages each designed on their own. Count the kinds: home, service, service area, about, contact, menu, gallery.
• Who writes the words. Text you supply costs less than text written from interviews with you. Either way, check every price, license number and claim yourself before launch.
• Forms, and where they go. A form that emails you is simple. One that takes photos from a phone, sends the customer a copy and puts the request in a list your office works from is more work.
• Online booking. Linking to a booking app you already use is quick. Showing real open times, blocking travel time between jobs and sending reminders takes longer.
• Taking payments. A deposit at booking or a “pay your invoice” page means connecting Stripe or Square and testing refunds and declined cards.
• Connections to your other apps. Bookings to Google Calendar, requests to Gmail or Outlook, products from Shopify. Each one needs its own setup and test.
• Custom design or a template. A template is faster. Custom design costs more and suits a business whose look or layout has to stand apart. A template or a custom website helps you decide.
• An online store. A handful of gift cards is small. Hundreds of products with sizes, stock and shipping is a store project of its own.

Reference: Google Search Central: How to move a site (site moves and migrations) (opens in a new tab)

What it looks like in your trade

Here are a few made-up examples to show how those things add up. They aren’t quotes, and your own list of pages and forms decides the price. Watch for the pattern: pages rarely turn a website into a bigger project. The work behind the form does: where each request goes, and what has to happen to it next.

• A landscaper with 4 crews. Home, one service page layout used for mowing, cleanups and hardscape, a service area page, about and contact. A quote request form takes photos from a phone and lands in Gmail. That’s a typical new website. The biggest unknown is usually photos of past work.
• A café. Hours, a menu the staff can update from a phone, and a catering request form with date, headcount and pickup or delivery. If your point-of-sale company already offers online ordering, linking to it usually costs less than building ordering into the site.
• A 6-truck HVAC company. Service pages, the phone number at the top of every page, and online booking for tune-ups that lands on Google Calendar. Booking with real open times makes it one of the bigger website builds.
• A furniture showroom. A few pages on the showroom, delivery and special orders, linked to a Shopify store for what sells online. The store itself is priced on its own.
• A property manager with 40 units. A site for owners and tenants with a maintenance request form. If the form only emails the office, it’s a website. If each request should become a tracked work order with photos and vendor notes, that’s a business system fed by the website, priced as one quote.

What a website costs every month after launch

The build is a one-time bill. These come back every month or year, whoever builds the site. Ask every quote to list them as separate lines, with who you pay for each.

Here’s what that can add up to on a builder. Squarespace’s Basic plan paid yearly is $144. One Google Workspace Business Starter mailbox is $7 a month on an annual plan, or $84 a year. Together that’s about $228 a year at the prices we saw in October 2026, before tax, card and transaction fees, and add-ons. The domain is free for the first year on Squarespace’s annual billing, then renews at its own price. Each bill is explained below.

• Domain. Your web address renews every year. Register it in your business’s name, with an email you control. Builders sometimes include it for the first year: Squarespace’s pricing page listed a free custom domain for one year on annual billing when we checked in October 2026.
• Hosting. The rented computer your site runs on. It’s part of a builder’s plan, or its own monthly line when someone builds the site for you.
• Business email. An address at your own domain is a separate bill. Google Workspace, for example, listed Business Starter at $7 per user a month on an annual plan when we checked in October 2026. New customers pay less in the first year.
• Card fees. If customers pay deposits online, the payment company takes a cut. Stripe lists 2.9% + 30¢ per successful payment on US cards, with no monthly fee (when we checked in October 2026). Some builder plans add their own fee on top: Squarespace’s Basic plan listed a 2% transaction fee on online sales of products and services.
• Care. Updates, backups, fixes and small changes like new hours or prices. Some owners do this themselves on a builder; others pay a monthly plan. What website maintenance costs breaks down what a plan should cover.
• Paid add-ons. Themes, plugins, booking apps and form tools can each carry their own monthly or yearly fee. Ask for the full list before you sign.

References: Squarespace: Pricing (opens in a new tab) · Google Workspace: Pricing (opens in a new tab) · Stripe: Pricing (opens in a new tab)

Is it cheaper to build the website yourself?

In cash, usually. Building it yourself is a fair choice, and often the right first step. Some builders let you start for free. Wix’s plans page said creating a site is free when we checked in October 2026, and its paid plans let you connect your own domain and remove Wix branding.

Hiring someone tends to pay off when the website is where most new customers find you. It also pays off when the site must book jobs, take deposits or feed other apps, or your current site brings in calls you can’t lose. It also helps when nobody on the team has the hours.

Count your own time honestly. A builder plan costs little in cash. Planning pages, writing them, sorting photos and testing forms still takes real hours, and those hours come out of running the business. If you go the do-it-yourself way, how to get a website made for your business lays out the steps, including which ones are worth handing off.

Doing it yourself tends to fit when:

• You’re new, and most work comes from referrals while you find your feet.
• You need a few pages: what you do, where you work and how to reach you.
• You can write plainly about your work and you have some good photos.
• You’d rather spend evenings than cash, and you’ll keep the site up to date.

Reference: Wix: Plans and pricing (opens in a new tab)

Why two quotes for the same website can be thousands apart

Usually because they price different jobs. One includes writing, redirects from your old site and a booking page. Another leaves all three out, or marks them “to be decided.” One is a fixed price; another is an hourly estimate that can grow. One lists hosting and care; another leaves monthly costs off the page.

Business website packages and web design packages work the same way. A package names a page count and a few features at a set price. Check what it leaves out: the words, the photos, redirects from your old site, and where form requests go.

Some quotes also bundle monthly marketing, ads or search work. Those are separate services, so price the website on its own first and compare like with like.

The way through is to give everyone the same list. The website brief that gets you a useful quote shows what to put on it. Then ask each one:

• Is this a fixed price, and what would change it?
• Who writes the words and supplies the photos?
• Where does each form send its requests, and what does the customer see after sending?
• Do old page addresses lead to the new pages, and is that in the price?
• What do I pay every month or year after launch, and to whom?
• Whose name is the domain in, do I own the code and design once I’ve paid, and can I move the hosting?
• What gets fixed for free after launch, and for how long?
• How is payment split: a deposit, then the rest at milestones or launch?

Warning signs in a website quote

A low price isn’t a warning sign by itself. If ownership terms matter to the deal, have a lawyer read the contract before you sign; this isn’t legal advice. These are the real warning signs:

• The domain would be registered in the builder’s name or account, not yours.
• No monthly or yearly costs appear anywhere, so you find them on your first bill.
• You can’t move the site, or get a copy of it, if you part ways.
• “Unlimited changes” with no list of what’s actually being built.
• No mention of testing forms on phones, or of where requests go.
• You can’t change hours, prices or photos without paying for each edit.

How we price a small business website

After a short first call, which is free, you get a fixed price in writing within 48 hours. A new website with us is typically $2,500–$6,000 and goes live in 3–⁠6 weeks. That covers 5 to 8 pages, a request or booking form that reaches you right away, and pages you can edit yourself. It also includes help with the words and the basics search engines need, like clear page titles and fast pages.

Already have a site and need one thing fixed or added, like a new form or a booking page? That’s a focused fix: $750–$3,000 over 1–⁠2 weeks. If you’re replacing a whole site, what a website redesign costs covers the extra work of keeping what already brings in customers.

Requests can go to Gmail or Outlook, bookings to Google Calendar, and deposits through Stripe or Square, and a Shopify store can link in. For anything else, we check it can connect before it goes in your quote. If you want requests to become jobs in a system built for you, the website and the system come as one quote. For scale, one business system on its own is typically $6,000–$18,000 over 6–⁠10 weeks.

Hosting is its own monthly line in your quote. It runs on our account. Once the project is paid in full, the code and designs we create are yours, and you can move the hosting to your own account. Your domain stays in your name. Every launch includes 30 days of fixes, and a care plan can pick up from there, priced in your quote. Calls run Monday to Friday, 7 am to noon Pacific.

See how our website design and development works. Our prices here are as of October 4, 2026. If a builder plan turns out to fit you better, we’ll say so.