Websites · Pricing guide
How Much Does a Website Cost for a Small Business?
Most small businesses pay between $500 and $5,000 for a website. Building it yourself on Wix or Squarespace costs about $200 to $1,200 a year in plan fees. A designer usually charges $500 to $5,000, and agency or custom builds can run $8,000 to $25,000 or more. Ours start at $695, paid once.
No contract. No exit fee. Your domain and Google accounts stay in your name.
Say you run a plumbing company and ask three people to quote you a website. One says $300. One says $2,500. One says $12,000. All three say “a website.” Which one is fair?
That’s normal, because “a website” can mean a one-page card or a site that books jobs and takes payments. The price follows what’s inside.
This guide shows the real price ranges, what makes a site cost more, the bills that keep coming after launch, and how to choose. Our own prices are near the end.
What does a small business website cost?
It depends mostly on who builds it. Here are the usual ranges for a small business site with a few pages.
| Who builds it | Upfront | Every year after | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| You, on a builder like Wix or Squarespace | Your time, often a weekend or more | About $200 to $1,200 in plan fees | Very simple sites, tight budgets |
| A freelancer | About $500 to $5,000 | Hosting, domain and any updates you pay for | A basic site from one person you trust |
| An agency | From a few thousand dollars; custom builds often $8,000 to $25,000 or more | Hosting and care plans, if you take one | A site built to rank and bring calls |
| Online store or custom features | Several thousand dollars and up | Higher, because there is more to look after | Selling online, logins, bookings |
What makes a website cost more?
Two sites can look alike and cost very different amounts. These are the things that move the price.
- How many pages. A page for each service and each area you cover takes more work, but it’s also what gets you found on Google.
- Who writes the words. Writing good pages takes time. If the designer writes them, the price goes up.
- Photos. Your own job photos beat stock photos. A photo shoot adds cost.
- Forms, booking and payments. A contact form is simple. Online booking or card payments take more setup.
- Moving an old site. If your current site ranks on Google, the move has to keep those rankings. That takes care and time.
- An online store. Products, payments and shipping rules add a lot of work.
What does a website cost every year?
A website isn’t paid for once and forgotten. These bills keep coming, whoever builds it.
| Cost | Rough yearly price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | About $20 | Your web address, like yourbusiness.com |
| Hosting | A few dollars to a few hundred dollars | The computer that keeps your site online |
| Builder plan | About $200 to $1,200 | Only if your site runs on Wix, Squarespace or similar |
| Upkeep | Up to $500 or more | Updates, fixes and backups |
What do cheap websites leave out?
A $300 website can look fine. The problems show up later, when nobody can find it.
- One page for everything. Google ranks pages, not businesses. One page can’t rank for ten different services.
- Slow on a phone. Most customers look you up on a phone. A slow site loses them before it loads.
- No basic SEO. Missing page titles, no map listing link, no clear town names. Google has nothing to go on.
- No tracking. You can’t tell which calls came from the site, so you can’t tell if it’s working.
- You don’t own it. Some cheap deals keep the domain or the site in the designer’s name. If you leave, it stays with them.
Should you build it yourself or pay someone?
Build it yourself if you have a very small business, a tight budget and a free weekend. Wix and Squarespace are good tools, and a simple, honest site beats no site.
Pay someone if you want the site to bring in work. The hard part isn’t the design. It’s choosing the pages, writing them so customers and Google understand them, and making the site fast. That’s where most of the value is.
A middle path works well too: start small, then add a page for each service as the money comes in.
What do Visible Owl websites cost?
Our website prices are published and paid once. Basic sites start at $695 for 1 to 2 pages. A site with a page for each main service starts at $1,495. A 14-page business site with full SEO set up is $2,995, and online stores start at $4,495.
Every site is fast on a phone, has basic SEO built in, and is yours. The domain is registered in your name. We build on WordPress, Squarespace or Wix, and we’ll tell you honestly if the site you have is good enough to keep.
See all website packages, read about our small business web design, or, for trades, contractor website design. If you’re also wondering about SEO, read how much SEO costs.
Quick answers about website prices
How much should a small business pay for a website?
Most small businesses pay between $500 and $5,000 for a website, or a few hundred dollars a year to build it themselves on a builder. Pay for what brings work in: a page for each service, a fast mobile site and basic SEO.
Is $500 too cheap for a website?
Not always. $500 can buy a simple one or two page site that does the job for a small business. It usually won’t include writing, a page per service, or SEO, so it’s a start, not a site built to rank.
How much does a website cost per month?
If you build it yourself, about $17 to $100 a month in builder fees. If someone builds it for you, expect a domain at about $20 a year, plus hosting and any upkeep you pay for.
Is Wix or Squarespace cheaper than hiring a web designer?
At the start, yes. Over a few years the gap shrinks, because the plan fees never stop, and your time has a cost too. A builder is great for a simple site. A designer is worth it when you want the site to rank and bring calls.
Do I own my website if someone else builds it?
You should. Ask for the domain to be registered in your name and for your own logins to the site and hosting. With us, the domain and the site are yours.
Abdullah Mahdi
Founder of Visible Owl. Leads SEO, AI search (GEO and AEO) and website development, and has built and ranked websites for small businesses since 2015.
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