What a small business website actually costs in 2026

We get this question almost every week, usually phrased the same way: “What does a website cost?”The honest answer is “between zero and a hundred grand, depending on what you mean by website” — which is unhelpful. So here is a useful version.

The four tiers, in plain English

$0 — a templated site you build yourself

Squarespace, Wix, Carrd. You pay for hosting ($15–40/mo) and your own time. The work looks fine. It will probably look like 50,000 other sites in your industry. That is sometimes okay — a dentist's office doesn't need a bespoke design system.

$500–$2,500 — a freelancer on a template

You hire someone to customize a Squarespace or WordPress theme. You get a real human to talk to, copy edited by someone who is not you, and a site that is “yours” in a soft sense. The risk: in six months nobody remembers how to change the phone number on the homepage.

$3,000–$12,000 — a small studio, custom design, modern stack

This is most of our work. Custom visual design (no themes), built on Next.js / Astro / Eleventy, a CMS your team can actually use, analytics + forms + SEO wired up, plus 30 days of post-launch support. You should expect 2–4 weeks. If someone quotes you 6 months at this price, walk away.

$15,000+ — a real product build

Member portals, booking systems, anything with login. The price is mostly about the back-end and the second-order details: auth, billing, roles, observability. The marketing site is usually a small part of the total.

What people underestimate

• Copy. Most projects stall on copy, not design. Budget time for it.
• Photography. Stock photography is free; it also looks free.
• Maintenance. Plan on $50–200/mo for hosting, updates, and small fixes.
• The next version. Sites are not done at launch. They start at launch.

So, what should you actually pay?

If you are a local business with five employees, the right number is probably $3,000–$6,000 plus a small monthly retainer. If you are a 40-person org with a real marketing engine, $8,000– $15,000 is more honest. Anyone quoting you $499 for a “custom site” is selling you a template, which is fine — as long as you both know that's what it is.

If you want a no-pressure ballpark for your specific situation, the quote tooltakes about 90 seconds and we'll respond within a day.