How Much Does a Website Cost for a Small Business in 2026?

You asked three people what a new website would cost and got three answers: a few hundred dollars, $4,000 and $25,000. Odd as it sounds, all three can be honest. They’re pricing different routes, different amounts of work and different bills after launch, and nobody told you which was which.

So how much does a website cost for a small business in 2026? Below are the real numbers, route by route, taken from official pricing pages and published pricing data as of October 2026. You’ll also see the costs that keep coming after launch, what pushes a quote up, and how to compare two quotes that look nothing alike.

One warning before the numbers. Most “average website cost” figures online come from agencies and builders with something to sell. Where we use survey or marketplace data, we say whose it is.

How much does a website cost for a small business?

Short answer: Building it yourself on a website builder costs roughly $200 to $1,900 a year in subscription fees, depending on the plan. Hiring it out is priced by the hour: on Clutch, most reviewed web design projects cost less than $10,000, and U.S. agencies typically bill $100 to $149 an hour.

Those two numbers frame everything else. A builder is a subscription you pay for as long as the site exists. A hired build is mostly an upfront cost, followed by smaller bills for hosting, licences and upkeep.

The hired-work figures come from Clutch’s web design pricing page, which draws on its database of more than 79,000 agencies and their client reviews. The same page reports an average project cost of about $38,105. That average is pulled up by a minority of very large projects, so for a small business the “most projects under $10,000” figure is the more useful one.

What does a DIY website builder cost?

Short answer: Wix’s paid plans run from about $17 to $159 a month on yearly billing, and Squarespace’s from $19 to $99 a month billed annually ($25 to $139 if you pay month to month), before tax. Card processing and add-on apps come on top.

The Wix plans page lists Light, Core, Business and Business Elite, priced as yearly subscriptions paid upfront. Wix notes that prices vary by location and exclude tax. Light doesn’t list accepting payments, so a business that takes deposits or sells online starts at Core ($29). Yearly plans include a voucher for a free domain for the first year.

Squarespace’s pricing page spells out the fees that matter once you sell:

• Basic ($19 a month annually, $25 monthly) charges a 2% fee on online store sales, on top of card processing.
• Core, Plus and Advanced ($29, $49 and $99 a month annually) drop that store fee to 0%.
• Card processing is 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic and Core, falling to 2.5% + $0.30 on Advanced.
• The free domain on annual plans lasts one year, then renews at the standard rate.

The monthly fee isn’t the only cost. You’re renting the platform, and leaving can mean starting over. Wix’s help center says a Wix site can’t be hosted elsewhere because it runs on Wix’s own servers. Squarespace can export some content as a WordPress-format file, but store pages, product blocks, video blocks and your styling don’t come with it.

Our take: A builder is a fair choice for a five-page site whose main job is to look trustworthy and show your phone number. If you expect the site to grow into online booking, a large catalogue or custom integrations, price the move you’ll make in two years, not just this year’s plan.

What does a WordPress website cost if you run it yourself?

Short answer: The WordPress software is free. You pay for a domain, hosting, any premium theme or plugins, and the time to keep it all updated. A lean setup can cost less per year than a builder plan; a site with several paid plugins can cost more.

Here’s what a self-hosted WordPress budget is made of:

1. Domain name. The registry’s wholesale price for a .com is $10.26 a year and rises to $10.97 on November 1, 2026, according to Domain Incite. Registrars add their own markup, so the price you pay is higher, and renewal is where a cheap first-year deal catches up with you.
2. Hosting. Read the renewal line, not the headline. SiteGround’s WordPress hosting page, for example, lists its StartUp plan at $2.99 a month for the first 12 months, prepaid, renewing at $17.99 a month. Introductory pricing like this is common, so compare hosts on the second-year price.
3. SSL certificate. Free. Let’s Encrypt issues trusted certificates at no cost to anyone who owns a domain, and most hosts install one for you.
4. Theme and plugins. Plenty are free. Premium ones usually sell yearly licences for updates and support: GeneratePress Premium is $59 a year, and a store feature such as WooCommerce Subscriptions is $279 a year.
5. Updates and backups. WordPress, the theme and every plugin need regular updates, and someone has to check the site still works afterwards. That’s either your time or a paid plan.

If you’d rather not manage a server at all, WordPress.com hosts it for you for $4 to $45 a month on yearly billing. Its Business plan ($25 a month yearly) adds SFTP, SSH and real-time backups, and Commerce ($45) adds WooCommerce store tools.

How much does it cost to hire a web designer or agency?

Short answer: You’re buying hours. Clutch lists $100 to $149 an hour as the typical rate for U.S. web design agencies, and most projects reviewed on its platform come in under $10,000. Freelancers usually charge less per hour, but you get one person instead of a team.

Rates on Clutch move a lot with location: $100 to $149 an hour in the U.S., Canada and Australia, $50 to $99 in the U.K., $25 to $49 in countries such as Poland, Ukraine and Mexico, and under $25 in India and the Philippines. That spread explains much of the gap between quotes for the same brief.

For freelancers, wages are a useful reference point. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median wage for web developers and digital designers at $47.85 an hour (May 2025). That’s what employees earn. A freelancer’s rate also has to cover their own taxes, software, insurance and the hours they can’t bill, so expect quotes above that.

What the rate buys differs too. An agency usually gives you a project manager, a designer, a developer and someone who tests. That costs more hours but spreads the risk. A good freelancer can be quicker and cheaper for a clear, small brief; the risk is that everything depends on one person’s calendar.

Example: Picture a three-truck HVAC company in Columbus that needs eight pages, a quote form and a service-area map. If the work takes 60 hours, that’s $6,000 at $100 an hour and $2,400 at $40 an hour. The hours drive the price, not the page count, so ask every bidder how many hours they expect and where those hours go.

What are the ongoing costs of a website?

Short answer: At minimum, a domain renewal and hosting every year. Most sites also carry licence renewals, someone’s time for updates and fixes, and, if you want to be found on Google, content and SEO work.

Website maintenance cost is the line people forget. Before you agree to a plan, get in writing how often updates run, where backups are stored, whether anyone has tested restoring one, how fast someone responds when the site is down, and how many content edits a month are included.

SEO is optional, but a site nobody finds is an expensive brochure. For reference, our own SEO plans are $199, $249 or $349 a month for up to 20, 35 or 50 keywords.

What makes a website cost more?

Short answer: The amount of unique design and functionality, far more than the number of pages. Ten service pages built from one template cost much less than ten pages that each need their own layout.

The things that move a quote the most:

• Unique templates. Count the different page layouts, not the pages. A home page, a service page template, a location page template and a contact page are four templates, however many service pages you add.
• Custom design. A look designed from scratch takes more hours than adapting a good theme.
• Content. If the developer writes the copy, sources photos or shoots video, that’s real work and should be its own line.
• Ecommerce. Product count, variants, shipping rules, tax and payment setup all add hours. Our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison covers the platform costs.
• Integrations. Booking systems, CRMs, inventory and quote calculators each need setup and testing.
• Accessibility. Building to WCAG 2.2 AA is cheaper than fixing it later. Our website accessibility checklist shows what that involves.
• Speed. A site that loads quickly on a phone needs careful work on images and scripts; here’s how we got our own site to 100 in Lighthouse.
• Migration. Replacing an old site means redirecting old URLs so you keep the search traffic they earned.

How do you read a website quote?

Short answer: Check that it lists the scope page by page or template by template, says who supplies the content, names the platform and who owns each account, and spells out what happens after launch. Two quotes are only comparable when those match.

Line by line, look for:

1. Scope. The pages or templates, features and integrations, in writing. “Up to 10 pages” means little without saying what’s on them.
2. Content. Who writes the copy and supplies the photos. If it’s you, the timeline depends on you.
3. Revisions. How many rounds of design changes are included, and what an extra round costs.
4. Platform and ownership. WordPress, Shopify, a builder or custom code, and whose name the domain, hosting and licences are under.
5. Running costs. Hosting, licences and maintenance after launch, with renewal prices.
6. Payment schedule. Payments tied to milestones you can see, such as an approved design and the launch.
7. Exclusions. Copywriting, SEO, photography, ongoing edits. What’s left out matters as much as what’s in.

Watch out: Make sure the domain is registered to your business, in an account you control. If a former developer or agency holds it, getting it back can take weeks, usually at the moment you can least afford it.

Questions to ask before you hire someone

• Can I see two or three live sites you built on the platform you’re recommending?
• How many hours do you estimate, and how do they split between design, build, content and testing?
• Who will I deal with day to day, and who actually builds the site?
• What does a change cost after launch, and how quickly do you respond?
• Will I have admin access to everything, and can I move the site to another developer later?
• How do you handle page speed, accessibility and basic SEO such as page titles and redirects?
• What do you need from me, and by when, to hit the timeline?

A provider who answers these plainly, in writing, is usually one who has done this many times.

Should you build it yourself or hire someone?

Short answer: Build it yourself if the site is simple, a builder template fits and you have the time. Hire someone when the site has a job to do, like bringing in quote requests, selling products or ranking for competitive searches, and your hours are worth more running the business.

The cost of DIY is your time and the leads a rushed site doesn’t win. There’s a middle path, too: pay a professional to set up the structure, design and SEO basics, then make routine edits yourself. That keeps the build cost down without leaving you stuck with a site that looks unfinished.

What to do this week

1. Write down the three jobs your site must do, such as getting quote requests, showing your service area and answering common questions, and the pages that serve each.
2. Check who owns your domain today and when it renews.
3. Pick the route from the table above that fits your budget and time, and price the second year, not just the first.
4. Ask two or three providers for a written quote with hours, scope and running costs, and compare them line by line.
5. Budget for upkeep from day one: hosting, licences and an hour or two a month of someone’s time.

If you’d like a quote, we price each website after a short call, on WordPress, Shopify or custom code; our web development page explains how that works, and our hosting plans are on the web hosting page.