- There are four ways to buy a website. The published prices we checked in October 2026 ran from $17 a month for a do-it-yourself builder to $30,000 or more for an agency build.
- Compare the three-year cost, not the sticker price, and count your own time.
- Running costs are small but real: a .com domain is roughly $11 to $20 a year, and a security certificate can be free.
- Before you sign anything, ask what's included, what costs extra, and what you keep if you leave.
Ask five people what a website costs and you'll hear everything from "free" to "thirty thousand dollars." They're all right, because they're describing different things. Here are the four ways a small business buys a website, what each one costs using published prices we checked in October 2026, and how to choose between them.
The short answer
| Route | Published price | Who does the work |
|---|---|---|
| Do-it-yourself builder | $17 to $49 a month for standard plans, billed annually | You |
| Monthly plan, done for you | $79 to $349 a month, usually with a 12-month minimum | The provider |
| Freelancer, one-off build | $500 to $10,000 or more | The freelancer builds it. You maintain it. |
| Agency, one-off build | $3,000 to $30,000 or more | The agency builds it. Upkeep is extra. |
Where each of those numbers comes from is below.
1. Build it yourself
The big website builders publish their prices. On annual billing, Wix lists its Light, Core, and Business plans at $17, $29, and $39 a month. Squarespace lists its first three plans at $19, $29, and $49, or $25, $39, and $65 if you pay month to month. Both also sell higher tiers. For an online store, Shopify's Basic plan is $29 a month billed yearly, or $39 monthly.
The real cost is your time. You write the words, choose the photos, build the pages, and keep it current. For a simple site and an owner with spare evenings, this is a sensible choice. Many of these sites never get finished, and that's the risk.
2. A monthly plan
A company designs, writes, hosts, and looks after the site for a flat monthly fee, with little or nothing upfront. We read the published prices of four US companies that sell this way. They ran from $79 to $349 a month. The mid-range plans sat between $169 and $199, with no money down and a 12-month minimum.
We don't sell websites this way. We quote the build once, then charge a monthly fee for hosting, security, backups, and updates.
Plans differ in what happens when you leave. One company whose terms we read keeps ownership of the website. Another hands it over after the first year. Neither is wrong, but you should know which you're buying.
3. A freelancer
WebFX, an agency that publishes pricing research, puts freelance web design at $500 to $10,000 or more. Thumbtack's figures for local professionals are lower: an average of $1,057, with a typical range of $614 to $1,817. The spread tells you how much "a website" can mean.
With a one-off build you usually arrange hosting, updates, and fixes yourself afterward, or pay for them as you go.
4. An agency
WebFX puts agency design at $3,000 to $30,000 or more. On Clutch, a directory of agencies, most reviewed web design projects cost less than $10,000, and agencies there charge around $100 to $149 an hour. An agency makes sense for larger sites, online stores, and anything with custom features.
Running costs people forget
- The domain. A .com costs roughly $11 to $20 a year. One registrar we checked charges $11.08 to register or renew. Another advertises one cent for the first year, then $19.99 a year. Always read the renewal price.
- Hosting. It's included with builders and monthly plans. If you buy it separately, look at the renewal price there too.
- The security certificate. The padlock in the address bar can be free. Let's Encrypt issues trusted certificates at zero cost.
- Card fees, if you sell online. Shopify's Basic plan lists 2.9% plus 30 cents per online card payment. Squarespace's Basic plan adds a 2% store transaction fee.
- Changes. New hours, new prices, new photos. Someone has to make them, and it's either included or billed.
Compare three years, not the sticker price
A website lasts years, so add it up that way. Using published prices as examples:
- A $29-a-month builder comes to $1,044 over three years, plus your time.
- One company whose prices we read offers the same site two ways. At $175 a month with nothing down, three years costs $6,300, with changes and support included. At $3,800 upfront plus $25 a month for hosting, three years costs $4,700.
The monthly plan costs more over time. What you're paying for is no large bill at the start and ongoing changes being someone else's job. Whether that's worth it depends on how often your site will change and whether you'd sooner keep the cash.
What pushes the price up
- More pages. Every service and every location you want a page for.
- Selling online. WebFX puts e-commerce features at $3,000 to $10,000 for a smaller site.
- Custom features. Booking, customer logins, or connections to the software you already use.
- Words and photos. Ask whether copywriting is included or whether you're expected to supply it.
Six questions to ask before you sign
- What's included, and what costs extra: pages, changes, copywriting, photos?
- Is there a minimum term, and what does it cost to leave early?
- If I cancel, what do I keep?
- Whose name is the domain registered in? It should be yours.
- Who makes changes after launch, and how do I ask for one?
- How will it work on a phone? In September 2026, 49.1% of US web traffic came from mobile devices.
Is a website still worth it?
Most of your competitors think so. Clutch reported in 2025 that 83% of small businesses have a website, up from 64% in 2018. And reviews send people to it: in BrightLocal's 2026 survey, 54% of consumers checked the business's website after reading a positive review.
Sources
- Wix, plan prices on annual billing, updated September 2026
- Squarespace pricing page, read October 5, 2026
- Shopify pricing page, read October 5, 2026
- WebFX, website cost guide, 2026
- Thumbtack, website developer cost data, February 2025
- Clutch, web design pricing, updated September 2026
- Published pricing pages of four monthly-plan web design companies (Oak Harbor Web Designs, Northwoods Web Designs, Redefine Web, Green Cove Digital), read October 5, 2026
- Porkbun and Hostinger, .com domain prices, read October 5, 2026
- Let's Encrypt, "About Let's Encrypt"
- StatCounter, platform market share, United States, September 2026
- Clutch, small business website report, August 2025
- BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (1,002 US adults)
