The cost of web design for a small business
What a small business website really costs: DIY builders vs agencies vs an independent developer, including build, hosting, and ongoing maintenance.
What actually makes up the price
A website is not a single purchase. Every quote you receive is some combination of four things: the design and build itself, the domain name, the hosting that keeps the site online, and the ongoing maintenance that keeps it fast, secure, and current. Compare quotes on all four, not just the headline build fee — a cheap build with an expensive plugin stack and a monthly retainer often costs more over two years than a higher one-time fee with simple hosting.
Three ways to get a website built
DIY website builders
- Upfront
- $0 – $200 of your own time
- Ongoing
- $20 – $60 / month
- Best for
- Testing an idea when time is cheaper than money
- Subscription rises as you add ecommerce, bookings, or extra pages
- Template look, shared with thousands of other businesses
- Performance and accessibility are limited by the platform
- The real cost is the weekends you spend maintaining it
Design agencies
- Upfront
- $5,000 – $30,000+
- Ongoing
- $150 – $800 / month retainer
- Best for
- Larger teams needing brand strategy and multiple stakeholders
- Layers of account management inflate the labour cost
- Timelines commonly run 8 – 16 weeks
- Small changes often go through a ticketing queue
- Excellent work, but priced for budgets most small businesses don't have
Independent developer
- Upfront
- One-time build fee
- Ongoing
- Hosting or care plan
- Best for
- Small businesses that want agency-quality without agency overhead
- You talk directly to the person building the site
- Custom code rather than a template, so speed and SEO are controllable
- Flat, transparent pricing with no surprise line items
- Faster turnaround because there is no account-management layer
What I charge, in plain numbers
I publish my pricing so you can benchmark it against any quote you receive. A full site build — design, development, and launch under your existing domain — is a one-time $650. After launch you choose how much support you want: $30 / month for hosting, SSL, and uptime monitoring, or $60 / month for the Full Website Care plan, which adds up to two hours of updates, performance and security monitoring, and priority support. On the hosting-only plan, one-off work is billed at $70 / hour.
Total cost of ownership over two years
The fairest way to compare options is across 24 months. A DIY builder on a $40 / month plan costs roughly $960 plus every hour you spend building and fixing it. An agency build at the low end of $5,000 with a modest retainer clears $8,000. A build with me on the hosting plan lands at $650 plus $720, or $1,370 across the same period — with a custom, fast, accessible site rather than a template.
Figures for builders and agencies are typical market ranges and vary by region, scope, and provider; treat them as a starting point for your own quotes, not a guarantee.
Questions to ask before you pay
- Who owns the domain, the code, and the content when we part ways?
- What exactly is included in the monthly fee, and what is billed separately?
- How fast does the finished site load on a mobile connection?
- Is the site accessible, and does it pass Core Web Vitals?
- How long do routine content changes take after launch?
Want a number for your business?
See the full breakdown of what a build and ongoing support include, or get in touch for a free look at how your current site performs.