Most small business websites cost somewhere between a few hundred dollars and about $15,000. What the site has to do matters more than who builds it. A simple site on a do-it-yourself builder can come in under $700. A professionally built site for a typical small business is reported at roughly $1,500 to $8,000 across the guides we checked. Online stores and custom builds cost more.
Those guides disagree with each other, and that is worth knowing before you compare quotes. Below you will find the ranges, the reasons they differ, the ongoing costs most guides leave out, and a checklist for reading a quote before you pay.
Key takeaways
- A DIY site costs under $700 up front. A professionally built small business site is usually reported at about $1,500 to $8,000. Stores cost more.
- Price follows scope: how many pages, custom or template design, who supplies the content, and whether you sell online.
- The build is only part of the bill. Over three years, hosting, maintenance and domain add up to roughly $400 to $1,900 for DIY, $2,500 to $11,500 for a freelancer and $8,800 to $52,000 for an agency, at the ends of the reported ranges.
- Get pages, design revisions, what you must supply, account ownership, exclusions, post-launch help and timeline in writing before you pay.
- A cheaper quote can cost more later if it leaves out revisions or support.
Why small business website prices vary so much
Ask three builders to quote the same website and you can get three very different numbers. Often they are not pricing the same site.
Start with who builds it. A DIY builder charges a plan fee plus your own time. A freelancer charges for hours. An agency adds a team, project management and overhead, which is why its numbers sit higher. Levitate reports $500 to $5,000 for a freelancer and $5,000 to $15,000 for a typical small business agency project. WebsiteSetup puts agencies at $10,000 to $50,000. Even the guides do not agree.
Then comes scope. UENI breaks the upfront cost down by type of site. Its table and its body text give slightly different figures, so the ranges below cover both.
| Type of site | Typical upfront range reported |
|---|---|
| Website on a DIY builder | $0 to $700 |
| One-page site or landing page | about $300 to $1,800 |
| Small business site with several pages | about $1,500 to $3,500 |
| Online store | about $3,000 to $8,000 |
Content is the other big swing. A site built from a finished logo, photos and written text moves fast. A site where someone has to write the copy and find the images has more work in it, and the price shows it. Features work the same way. Booking forms, payments and links to other software each add build time and testing.
One question sorts most projects before anything else: will people buy on the site, or only find you and get in touch? Selling means product pages, a cart, checkout and payment setup. Levitate puts feature-rich and ecommerce builds from an agency at $15,000 to $60,000 or more.
What a small business website costs over three years
Most cost guides stop at the build price. The bills that follow decide what the site really costs. The table adds up the ranges the guides report for hosting, maintenance and domain names across three years. It adds the low ends together and the high ends together, so read each row as a boundary, not a forecast.
| Route | Build (once) | Plan or hosting, 36 months | Maintenance retainer, 36 months | Domain, 3 years | Three-year total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder | $0 to $700 | $360 to $1,080 (plan includes hosting) | not usually paid | $30 to $150 | $390 to $1,930 |
| Freelancer | $500 to $5,000 | $180 to $900 | $1,800 to $5,400 | $30 to $150 | $2,510 to $11,450 |
| Agency | $5,000 to $15,000 | $180 to $900 | $3,600 to $36,000 | $30 to $150 | $8,810 to $52,050 |
Where the numbers come from: build costs from UENI (DIY) and Levitate (freelancer and agency). DIY hosting and subscriptions at $10 to $30 a month, freelancer maintenance at $50 to $150 a month and agency maintenance at $100 to $1,000 a month, all from Levitate. Shared hosting at $5 to $25 a month and domains at $10 to $50 a year, from UENI. The totals are our own arithmetic.
Two things stand out. At the high end, a monthly maintenance retainer can cost more than the build itself: $5,400 against $5,000 for a freelancer, $36,000 against $15,000 for an agency. And a DIY site is not free after launch, because the plan fee keeps coming.
Not every freelancer charges a retainer. Some bill by the hour when something needs fixing. Ask which one you are getting. Hosting, plan and domain prices change often, so check the provider's own pricing page, and ask for the renewal price as well as the first-year price.
How to read a website quote before you pay
Two quotes with the same total can cover very different work. Before you say yes, make sure the quote answers these in writing:
- How many pages are included, and what does each extra page cost?
- How many rounds of design changes are included before extra charges start?
- What do you have to supply (logo, photos, text), and what will the builder supply?
- Which platform is the site built on, and will the account be in your name?
- What is not included, such as apps, extra features or marketing?
- Who fixes bugs after launch, for how long, and what do later changes cost?
- How long will it take, and what could delay it?
Watch for a single lump sum with no scope, no mention of revisions, an account you cannot access, or pressure to sign before you have seen what is included. A quote with gaps is not automatically a bad one. Each gap is something you could end up paying for later.
Three habits lower the bill on almost any project: start with fewer pages, send your logo, photos and text early, and separate your must-haves from your nice-to-haves.
DIY website or hire a professional?
DIY makes sense when the site is small, a template fits what you need and you have the evenings to learn the tool. You pay with time, and the result may look like many other sites built from the same template.
Hiring makes more sense when the site has to sell, when it must match an existing brand, or when your hours are worth more spent running the business. You pay more, and in return you get a finished site and someone to call when something breaks.
There is a middle route: pay a professional for a small, defined scope now, such as three well-built pages, and add to it later. If you decide to hire, our guide on how to hire a web designer covers where to look and what to ask.
What a website project costs at Barry's Software
We quote each project instead of publishing one price, because the pages, features and content you already have change the job. You get a written price before any work starts. A standard project includes a custom design, up to 3 pages, up to 5 design revisions, up to 30 products uploaded for Shopify stores, and help fixing bugs and small mistakes after your site goes live. Most projects take 1 to 3 weeks, depending on how much information you send and how many revisions you ask for. App installation and setup are priced separately.
What changes a quote for us is the product, the complexity and whether you already have your pictures, which is why extras are quoted separately instead of at a fixed price. To keep a project moving, have these ready at the start: your logo, branding and colors, pictures, videos and text, plus a few example websites you like for style. We build websites on Wix and WordPress, and online stores on Shopify.
You can see how the quote works on our pricing page, read about our website design service or look at how Shopify store setup works. If you would rather have a number for your own project, request a quote and tell us what you need.
Request a quoteFrequently asked questions about small business website costs
How much does it cost to have someone design a basic website?
Published guides put a basic site built by a freelancer at roughly $1,000 to $3,000, and a simple site on a DIY builder at under $700. The final price depends on the number of pages, whether the design is custom or template-based, and how much content you already have. Ask for a written quote that lists pages, revisions and what happens after launch.
How much does a small business website cost per month?
Most of the monthly cost is the plan or hosting, plus maintenance if you pay for it. The guides we checked report $10 to $30 a month for hosting and subscriptions on a DIY site, $5 to $25 for shared hosting, and $50 to $150 a month for freelancer maintenance. A builder plan normally includes hosting, so you would not pay for both.
Is it cheaper to build a website myself?
It costs less in cash and more in time. A DIY builder suits a small site that can follow a template. If the site needs to sell products, match a specific brand or go live quickly, hiring a professional can save time and rework.
How much does an online store cost compared with a regular website?
A store usually costs more because it needs product pages, a cart, checkout and payment setup. UENI places professionally built small stores at roughly $3,000 to $8,000, and Levitate reports $15,000 or more for feature-rich agency builds. Monthly platform fees, such as a Shopify plan, are separate from the build price.
What should I ask a web designer before I pay?
Ask how many pages and design revisions are included, what you need to supply, which platform the site uses and whose name the account is in, what is not included, what support you get after launch, and how long the project takes. Get the answers in writing.
Why do website quotes vary so much?
The scope varies. Two projects with the same page count can differ in custom design, content creation, features and support. Compare what each quote includes, not just the total.
How long does it take to build a small business website?
It depends on the scope and how quickly you send your content. At Barry's Software, most projects take 1 to 3 weeks, depending on the information you send and the number of revisions.