How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost in 2026?
By Brooks Conkle · · 6 min read
A basic small business website costs anywhere from about $200 a year (a do-it-yourself builder) to several thousand dollars (an agency). Most service businesses land somewhere in the middle. The real difference isn’t the sticker price. It’s who does the work, who writes the words, and what you pay every year after.
Below are the five common ways to get a site, what each one costs as of September 2026, and the costs that don’t show up on the pricing page.
How much does a website cost for a small business?
Here’s the quick comparison. Prices are from each company’s own pricing page.
| Option | Upfront | Ongoing | Who writes the copy | Your time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace) | $0 | About $17–$160/mo | You | High |
| AI builder (Durable and similar) | $0 | About $22–$49/mo on paid plans | AI, then you edit | Medium |
| Freelancer or marketplace | A few hundred to $15,000+ | Varies | Usually you | Medium to high (you manage the project) |
| Flat-rate done-for-you | About $500, one time | Varies (hosting, domain renewal) | Depends on the service | Low |
| Monthly done-for-you | $0 to a setup fee | About $45–$300/mo, often with a minimum term | Usually them | Low |
| Agency | Several thousand dollars and up | Often a retainer | Them | Medium (meetings, reviews) |
DIY website builders: $200 to $500 a year for most plans
Wix (opens in new tab) lists plans from $17.77 to $159.77 a month. Squarespace (opens in new tab) runs $25 to $139 a month, or $19 to $99 a month if you pay for the year. A basic plan for a service business usually comes to a few hundred dollars a year.
The catch is that you’re the designer, the writer, and the tech support. Builders are easy to start and slow to finish. Many owners get a homepage half done and stall on the words. You also rent the site: stop paying, and it goes offline. Moving a builder site to another host usually means rebuilding it.
We break down that trade-off in our Wix comparison.
AI website builders: cheap to start, still yours to fix
AI builders generate a draft site in seconds. Durable (opens in new tab), for example, has a free plan, then $25 or $49 a month ($22 or $41 billed yearly).
The draft is a starting point, not a finished site. The copy is generic until you rewrite it with your real services, service area, and prices. And like any hosted platform, the company can change terms or close. Hocoos, an AI builder, stopped operating (opens in new tab) and deleted customer sites after April 23, 2026. Owners who didn’t export in time lost them.
More on this in AI website builder vs. done-for-you.
Freelancers and marketplaces: the widest range
On a marketplace like Fiverr you’ll find website gigs for almost nothing. On the other end, Upwork’s own cost guide (opens in new tab) puts freelancer custom builds at $300 to $15,000.
A good freelancer is great value. The risk is variance. You’re hiring one person, so quality, speed, and communication depend entirely on who you pick. Get these in writing before you pay: the number of pages, who writes the copy, how many revisions, when it will be done, and whose name the domain and hosting accounts are in.
Flat-rate done-for-you: one price, fixed scope
A handful of services build a small site for a flat fee, usually around $500. You fill out a form, they build it, you review it. The price stays low because the scope is fixed: a set number of pages, a set number of revisions, and no custom features.
What’s included varies a lot at this price. Some services cover one page only. Many don’t write your copy, so you still have to supply every word. Some take payment before you’ve told them anything about your business. Read what a flat-rate website actually includes before you buy one.
Monthly done-for-you plans: low upfront, high total
Monthly plans build and host your site for a subscription. Prices we’ve seen range from about $45 a month plus a setup fee to $299 a month. The low upfront cost is appealing, but do the math over the full term. One trade-focused service charges $199 a month on a 24-month agreement. That’s $4,776 before the rate drops.
Also check the exit terms. Some plans have a minimum term, charge an export fee to take your site with you, or take the site offline when you cancel.
Agencies: the most help, the biggest bill
An agency brings strategy, custom design, and ongoing marketing. For a local service business that needs a few pages and a phone number people can tap, it’s often more than you need. Quotes typically start in the thousands and climb from there. An agency makes sense when you need custom features, many locations, or an ongoing ad and SEO program.
Hidden costs of a small business website
These are the costs most pricing pages leave out.
- Domain name. A .com usually runs about $10 to $25 a year, depending on the registrar. Builders often include it free for the first year, then it renews at the regular rate.
- Hosting. Builders include it in the monthly fee. A freelancer-built site needs a host, and that’s a separate bill. Ask who pays it and whose account it’s in.
- Business email. An address like you@yourbusiness.com is usually a separate subscription, such as Google Workspace (opens in new tab), billed per user per month.
- Lock-in and export fees. Some monthly services charge hundreds of dollars to hand over your files, or keep the design when you leave. Builders generally can’t be exported to another host at all.
- Copywriting. If the price doesn’t include writing, you’re either writing it yourself or paying someone else.
- Your time. This is the biggest one for DIY. Every evening spent dragging boxes around a builder is an evening you’re not quoting jobs.
How much should a small service business spend?
It depends on what you need the site to do.
- You enjoy building things and have the time: a DIY builder is fine. Budget a few hundred dollars a year and a few weekends.
- You need a solid, simple site that brings in calls: a flat-rate done-for-you service or a trusted freelancer. Expect roughly $500 to a couple thousand dollars.
- You need online booking, a store, customer logins, or many locations: get quotes from agencies or experienced freelancers.
Not sure which camp you’re in? Our guide to building vs. hiring walks through it.
Questions to ask before you pay anyone
- Is the domain registered in my name?
- Do I get my site files, and is there a fee to leave?
- Who writes the copy?
- How many pages and how many rounds of revisions?
- What will I pay in year two?
- What happens if you can’t deliver?
Where we fit
FlatRateSite is a flat-rate option. It’s $497, one time, for up to 3 pages. We write the copy from your intake form, you get 2 rounds of revisions, and your domain is registered in your name. Hosting for the first year is included. If we review your intake and can’t build it, you get a full refund. See what’s included on the pricing page.