A small business website usually costs between $500 and $8,000 to build, plus about $10 to a few hundred dollars a year to keep online. The biggest difference is not the number of pages. It is who builds it, and whether you pay once or every month for as long as the site exists.
Here is what each option really costs, using prices listed by the companies themselves in November 2026.
The four ways to get a website
1. Build it yourself on a website builder
Wix and Squarespace are the best known. On a yearly plan, Wix's main website plans run from about $17 to $40 a month. Squarespace lists $19 to $49 a month billed yearly, or $25 to $65 billed monthly. Online store features usually need the higher plans.
That sounds cheap, but the fee never stops. Over five years, plan fees alone come to roughly $1,100 to $2,900, and you also pay with your own time: choosing a template, writing, cropping photos and fixing how it looks on phones.
A builder is a good fit if you enjoy doing it yourself and want to change things often.
2. Hire a freelancer
In the US, a freelance designer typically charges $1,500 to $8,000 for a five to ten page site. Prices are often lower in other countries. Quality varies a lot, so look at live sites they have built, not just screenshots.
Ask who will own the domain and the hosting account. If the freelancer owns them, you depend on them for every change.
3. Hire an agency
Agencies usually charge $5,000 to $30,000 or more. You get a team, a process and often strategy work. That is worth it for complex projects such as custom booking systems or large online stores. For a local business that mainly needs to be found and called, it is usually more than you need.
4. A one-time studio build
Some studios build a custom site for a fixed price that you pay once. Stackmane, for example, charges $490 to $1,490 one time and sets the site up so there is no monthly fee. You only renew your domain name each year.
The yearly costs nobody mentions
Whatever you choose, budget for these:
- Domain name: about $10 to $20 a year for a .com. Some endings, like .io or .ai, cost much more.
- Hosting: anywhere from $0 to $30 or more a month. Simple modern sites can run on free hosting tiers from providers like Cloudflare or Netlify.
- Builder subscription: the big one if you use a builder. It replaces hosting.
- Business email: an address like you@yourbusiness.com costs a few dollars per mailbox per month with most providers.
- Changes: some designers charge by the hour for updates, often $50 to $150 an hour in the US.
How to compare quotes fairly
Put every quote side by side and ask the same questions:
- What is the total cost over five years, including monthly fees?
- Will the domain and hosting be in my name?
- Can I change hours, prices and photos myself?
- Is it built for phones first, and does it load fast?
- Is basic Google setup included: page titles, descriptions and a link to my Google Business Profile?
- How many rounds of changes are included?
- What happens to the site if I stop paying you?
The last question tells you the most. With a builder or a hosting plan you do not control, the answer is usually that the site goes offline.
What a fair price looks like in 2026
For a restaurant, salon, barbershop, clinic, studio or trade business, a fair price for a professional, fast, mobile-friendly site is roughly $500 to $2,000 in total, as long as the person building it is skilled. You should not need to pay every month forever for a site that mainly shows who you are, what you offer and how to reach you.
The short version
- Cheapest to start: a website builder, but it costs more every year you keep it.
- Most flexible for complex needs: an agency.
- Best value for most small businesses: a one-time build that you own, with only the domain to renew.
If you would like to see what your site could look like before paying anything, Stackmane builds a free preview first. You only pay if you love it.