Blog · Websites
How much does a website cost for a small business (real prices, in dollars)
Published · 10 min read
A website for a local business in the United States is not bought off a shelf: it is contracted as a setup fee plus a monthly one. In our own catalog the smallest tier is «$650 setup + $150 per month · 3-month minimum» and the largest is «$2,500 setup + $750 per month · 3-month minimum». We publish them in full because almost nobody in this market publishes theirs, and comparing without figures in front of you is not comparing.
The figures on this page are ours, and they come from the same catalog as our pricing page. When we talk about what somebody else charges —a freelancer, a platform, another agency— we describe it without a number: we have no published source to cite for one, and an invented number would have you negotiating against a mirage.
The short answer
Three tiers, each with its full price.
A website price is either said in full or not said at all: setup, monthly and minimum commitment, all three in the same sentence. A setup fee on its own describes delivery day and says nothing about the year that follows; a monthly fee on its own does the reverse. Split apart, the two sound cheaper than the same work said whole — which is exactly why they get split apart so often.
Simple landing page
$650 setup + $150 per month · 3-month minimum
Who it fits. A single-service business with nothing online today, or with an old page that cannot really be used from a phone. One page, your details correct, and a button that calls you in one tap.
What is not in it. No forms, no Google Business Profile, no advertising.
Multi-page website
$1,250 setup + $250 per month · 3-month minimum
Who it fits. The one that fits most local businesses: several pages —services, area, contact— and a form that lands in your WhatsApp or your inbox.
What is not in it. No advanced forms, no Google Business Profile, no advertising.
Full company website
$2,500 setup + $750 per month · 3-month minimum
Who it fits. CRM, several forms, a blog and pages by area. For a business with more than one line of work, more than one location, or a team that needs to see where every enquiry came in.
What is not in it. No advertising. It is the only tier in the whole catalog whose monthly plan does include maintaining your Google Business Profile.
- The setup fee is never discounted. Not on any tier, not for any reason.
- We work with a three-month minimum commitment.
- The domain is yours and stays in your name. If you decide to leave, we migrate everything within 7 business days.
What moves the number
Why two businesses on the same street get two different quotes.
When you ask for three quotes and they come back far apart, it is almost never that one is expensive and another is cheap: they are quoting different work under the same word. These are the six variables that move the number.
01
How many pages have to be written, not how many have to be laid out.
Laying out one more page is cheap. Writing it, deciding what it says and getting the photos is not. A one-page site and an eight-page site differ mostly in content, and that work shows up on the invoice whether or not the person quoting names it.
02
Whether the site only informs or also collects information.
A form stops being decoration the moment it has to arrive somewhere: an inbox, a WhatsApp, a CRM. That is an integration, with its configuration and its testing, and it is exactly the step between our W1 and our W2.
03
Who writes the copy and who supplies the photos.
This is the line item that derails more projects halfway through than any other. If you supply the text and the photos, the site moves. If not, somebody makes them and that is billed. Ask before signing, not in week three.
04
Whether it has to serve two languages.
A site in English and Spanish is not one site with a translation dropped on top: it is two versions maintained side by side, and every change is made twice.
05
How many areas or locations you cover.
A business at one address needs a contact page. One that serves five cities needs a structure that genuinely tells them apart — not the same paragraph five times with the city name swapped out.
06
What happens the day after delivery.
This is where two quotes that looked identical separate. A site is never finished: it gets updated, its certificate gets renewed, things get fixed when the browser changes. A price that only covers delivery day is a price for delivery day.
The three routes
Do it yourself, a freelancer or an agency: what you pay and what each one leaves out.
There is no route that is right for everybody. There is one that fits the time you have, what the site actually has to do, and who will still be around in a year. What somebody else charges is described without a figure on purpose: we have no published source behind a range, and we would rather tell you that than invent one.
Do it yourself, on a platform
What you pay
A platform subscription —the figure that gets advertised— plus your own time, which does not. It buys the tool existing and staying online.
What you do get
Full control and instant changes: if you want to move a button on a Sunday night, you move it and that is that.
What it leaves out
The work. Nobody writes your copy, nobody decides the structure and nobody gets the photos. And the site lives inside that platform: moving it later is not always copy and paste.
When it makes sense
You have the time, you enjoy tinkering, and what you need today is to exist online with your details correct.
A freelancer
What you pay
Almost always a one-off project fee. The spread between one person and the next is the widest of the three, and it tracks their experience more than the size of your site.
What you do get
Direct contact with whoever does the work, and room to step outside the template when your business does not fit one.
What it leaves out
Continuity, unless you contract it separately and in writing. A one-off fee buys the delivery; it does not buy somebody answering eight months from now. And if that person changes jobs, there is nobody to call.
When it makes sense
You know what you want, you can put it in writing, and you have a first-hand recommendation from somebody who actually worked with them.
An agency
What you pay
Setup plus monthly, or a high one-off fee depending on the shop. Many do not publish their price and quote it in a meeting: the first figure you see comes after you hand over your details.
What you do get
The site still being there after delivery: hosting, certificate, updates, and somebody to write to when something stops working.
What it leaves out
Instant changes: moving that button on a Sunday goes through a process, not your keyboard. And there is usually a minimum commitment, worth reading before you sign.
When it makes sense
You would rather hand off the maintenance, and you want to know before you start what you will be paying next month.
All three routes end in a site that exists. They differ in who does the work and who keeps it standing afterwards. Whoever compares well can read this and hire a freelancer: the comparison was a good one either way.
What the quote does not show
Five costs that exist whether or not anybody names them.
None is a trick or fine print: they are real line items a site has simply by being online. What changes from one quote to the next is not whether they exist, but who pays them and whether they were said out loud before signing.
The domain
Paid every year, to a registrar, and it is the only thing on this list that is genuinely yours. Having it in your name —not in the name of whoever built the site— is the difference between moving on a Tuesday and moving with a lawyer.
Hosting
The site lives on somebody's server. On a platform it sits inside the subscription. On a custom-built site it is a separate bill, unless your provider's monthly plan already covers it. Ask which your case is.
The security certificate
It is the padlock in the browser. It usually comes included and renews itself, but the day it expires everyone who arrives sees a red warning. Who pays for it matters less than whether somebody is watching the date.
Email on your domain
The inbox that ends in your business name does not come with the site: it is another service and another small bill. It almost always turns up afterwards, once the quote is already closed.
Maintenance
The big line item, and the one left out most often. A three-year-old site nobody has touched does not break all at once: it falls behind. Forms that quietly stop arriving, things that no longer load on the new phone, text that no longer describes what you do. Nobody notices until somebody says so.
That is why a platform subscription and an agency monthly fee are not the same line in your books, even though both are charged every month. The first buys the tool; the second buys somebody's work on your site. Comparing them flat is comparing the rent on a unit with the wage of the person who staffs it.
Before you sign
Ten questions that change the quote you are given.
Take them written down to all three meetings and note the answers. They compare far better than the figures do, and they usually explain why two quotes that looked identical were not.
- 01Is the domain in my name, and can I see it from my own account?
- 02What exactly does the setup fee include, and what starts being billed after that?
- 03Is there a monthly fee? What does it cover and what does it not?
- 04Is there a minimum commitment? How many months, and what happens if I leave sooner?
- 05How many changes a month are included, and what counts as a change?
- 06Who writes the copy and who gets the photos?
- 07If I leave, what exactly do I take with me, and how soon?
- 08Are hosting and the certificate included, or billed separately?
- 09Who answers when something breaks on a Saturday, and through which channel?
- 10Can I see a published price, or is it only quoted in a meeting?
Frequently asked
What people ask us before hiring.
How much does a small business website cost, in a single number?
There is no honest single number: a website price has two halves, what it costs to build and what it costs to keep standing afterwards. What can be done is publishing the whole ladder, which is what this page does: three tiers with setup, monthly and minimum commitment.
Why is there a monthly fee if the site is already built?
Because a site is not finished on the day it is delivered. It stays hosted somewhere, it keeps needing updates and its certificate, and it keeps having changes: hours, services, photos. The monthly fee is that work, not a charge for letting you use something you already paid for.
Can I just build it myself on a platform?
Yes, and for some businesses that is the right call. What is worth being clear about is what the subscription buys: the tool. Writing the copy, deciding the structure and getting the photos is still work, and on that route you are the one doing it.
Is there a minimum commitment?
In our case, yes: we work with a three-month minimum commitment. It is stated in the price of every tier and on the pricing page, not in a clause at the end. Ask whoever quotes you as well.
Is the setup fee discounted if I take the monthly plan?
No — not on any tier and not for any reason. We say it that bluntly because it is the other half of publishing a price: a published price that gets negotiated below the line was never a published price.
If I already have a Google Business Profile, do I also need a website?
They are different things and they answer different moments. The profile is what shows on the map and in search, with your hours and your phone number. The website is where somebody reads more slowly and writes to you. If your profile is not showing at all, that is a separate problem, and we cover it in another article.
Further reading
If you already know what you need and want the detail.
The three website tiers, with what is in and what is out
This page compares routes. That one explains ours: what goes into each tier, the five rules in writing, and what we do not do there.
See the website tiers →The whole catalog, with published prices
Websites, Google Business Profile and an answered phone, each with its price and with what it does not include. No meeting first, and no details handed over to see it.
See all prices →Why your business does not appear on Google Maps
The other side of the problem. If your profile is not showing, a new website does not change that: they are two different jobs, and that article orders the causes of the first one.
Read the article →