What a small business website should cost in 2026
I buy websites and I sell them, so here is the straight version. Prices below are typical ranges I see in the U.S. market. Your market can differ.
Three ways to get a site
Build it yourself
Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy and similar builders run about $15 to $50 a month. The software is cheap. The cost is your weekends. A lot of owners start one, get it most of the way done, and leave it there. If you enjoy this kind of work, do it. If you do not, your time is worth more on a job site.
Hire a freelancer
A one-page to five-page site from a freelancer usually runs $500 to $3,000 up front, then $20 to $100 a month for hosting if they offer it. Quality varies a lot. Ask to see three sites they built for businesses like yours and call one of those owners.
Hire an agency
Agencies typically start around $3,000 and go to $15,000 or more for a small business site, plus $100 to $500 a month for maintenance. You get a project manager and a process. You also pay for the project manager and the process.
What the monthly fee is for
Every site has ongoing costs: the hosting, the SSL certificate, the domain, security updates and the time it takes to make changes. A monthly fee of $49 to $100 is fair if it includes edits and a human who answers email. It is not fair if it is only hosting, because hosting alone costs the provider a few dollars.
Ask exactly what the monthly fee covers. If the answer is vague, the fee is profit.
Four things that should make you walk away
- A fake discount. "Was $2,000, now $500." If nobody ever paid $2,000, that is not a discount, and in California it is against the law to advertise a former price that was not the real price in the last three months.
- They register the domain in their name. Your domain should be in your name, in your account. If they leave, or you leave, you keep it.
- No cancellation in writing. You should be able to read, before you pay, exactly how long the term is and how to cancel. If you cannot find it, there is a reason.
- A guaranteed ranking. Nobody can guarantee a position on Google. Anyone who promises page one is either lying or planning to buy ads with your money and call it SEO.
What I charge, for comparison
Free design and $49 a month with a 12-month term for a one-page site. $499 plus $49 a month, month to month, for up to five pages. The numbers are on the pricing section, the terms are on the terms page, and you can cancel from your own billing page. That is how it should work everywhere.