How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost in 2026?

How much does a small business website cost?

On pricing pages checked on November 7, 2026, the range is wide because "a website" means different products. A builder plan costs from US$4 a month (WordPress.com Personal) to US$39.77 a month (Wix Business), billed yearly. Two UK agencies that publish package prices list £594 to £5,995 for the build, and one of them adds a monthly fee. Custom and e-commerce work is quoted case by case, so we do not give an average: an average of such different jobs would mislead.

Every figure below is the named firm's or platform's own price, not a 1920 Agency price. Most of these firms sell what they price, so read them as asking prices.

What the pages that rank for this question say

We read three of the pages that rank for this question on November 7, 2026. They are useful for the list of cost items, but their numbers are hard to trace.

• Elementor (published February 9, 2026) gives a freelancer range of $2,000 to $8,000 and an agency range of $10,000 to $35,000. None of its prices names a source or a date. Its maintenance figure is $50 to $200 a month in the body and $50 to $150 in the FAQ.
• Hostinger (byline October 22, 2026) sources about six of roughly eighteen price points, does not cover agencies, mixes Canadian and plain dollars, and never adds the items into a first-year total.
• WebFX (byline August 14, 2024, with 2026 in the title) gives a headline of $1,000 to $48,000. Adding its own listed minimums gives about $11,100, not $1,000, and the page does not say how the factors combine.

That is the gap this page fills: figures you can click through to, a first-year budget with the sums shown, and the line items a quote can leave out. For one country's market, see website development cost in Pakistan; for online stores, see what a Shopify store costs to build.

Builder plans: what the platforms charge

If you build the site yourself, the platform's pricing page is the primary source. The currency and tax basis differ because the pages served different regions to us, and we have not converted anything.

Two cautions. Wix's page also shows a Business Elite figure that looks like a display error, so we left it out. And Squarespace's page does not label its annual and monthly columns; we read the lower figure as annual because the page says annual billing saves money.

A builder plan is a subscription, so the cost continues for as long as the site does. It covers the software and hosting, not your copy, photos or time.

Hosting and a domain for a self-managed site

A WordPress site on separate hosting splits the bill. Hostinger's page lists three shared and cloud plans, all priced on a 48-month term paid upfront:

The promotional price applies to the first term. Renewal on the same 48-month term for Premium is $10.99 × 48, which is $527.52, our arithmetic from the page, against $95.52 at sign-up. Hostinger's page also says the domain is free for one year.

Domains rise too. A November 5, 2026 report by Openprovider, a domain reseller, says the wholesale fee for a .com went from $10.26 to $10.97 on November 1, 2026, with a $0.20 ICANN fee on top, so the registrar's floor is $11.17 a year. It does not link to the registry's own notice, so treat the exact figures as secondary. Retail prices vary by seller; Cloudflare's registrar page says its prices are "always at or below what registries and ICANN charge us" and that it adds no markup, but it prints no figures.

What agencies publish

Few agencies list prices. Two UK firms do, and the difference between them shows how much the scope matters.

Webpop's page says copywriting and ongoing maintenance are not in any package, and does not mention hosting. Cahillbrand's page does not say how many monthly payments there are or what renewals cost. If the monthly fee runs for a year on top of the build, Cahillbrand's Growth package is £1,674 + (12 × £150) = £3,474 in year one, our arithmetic and an assumption the page does not confirm. That is why a lower headline price is not the same as a lower cost.

In the US, OneNine of Nashville publishes illustrative tiers of about $2,000 to $5,000, $5,000 to $15,000 and $15,000 or more (June 11, 2026), but it says its own projects are custom and names no source for those tiers. We include it as one agency's view, not a market rate.

What a freelancer costs

We could not find a freelancer rate from a primary source that we could fetch today. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics gives pay for employees, not billing rates: web developers had a median of $92,650 a year and web and digital interface designers $104,000 (May 2025 data, page updated August 27, 2026), with 18% and 13% self-employed. A contractor's rate also has to cover tax, tools and unbilled time, so do not read the wage as a price.

Pages that quote freelancer prices mostly leave them unsourced: Elementor lists $2,000 to $8,000 per project and $75 to $150 an hour without a source, and Hostinger cites arc.dev for $61 to $80 an hour for a freelance developer. Ask for a fixed scope and written deliverables instead of comparing hourly numbers.

A first-year budget by route

These totals are our sums from the figures above, in each source's own currency. They are not quotes, and they leave out your time, copy and photography.

What a quote can leave out

Ask each quote for these, and compare the answers rather than the totals:

1. Content. Who writes the copy and supplies photos? Webpop lists copy as excluded.
2. Revisions. How many rounds are included, and what does another cost? Webpop's three packages allow one, two and three.
3. Renewals. What do hosting and the domain cost in year two? Introductory pricing, like Hostinger's, is the reason.
4. Maintenance. Who applies updates and takes backups, and what is the monthly fee?
5. Tax. Is VAT or sales tax in the figure? The pages above differ.
6. Ownership. Can you take the site, domain and files with you if you leave?
7. Search and tracking. Is analytics set up, and are page titles, redirects and metadata handled? If you are replacing an existing site, how to redesign without losing SEO lists what to protect, and what SEO costs for a small business covers the work after launch.

Which route fits

A builder suits a site you will edit yourself and a business that sells little online. A freelancer or small agency suits a site where design, structure and search matter and you would rather not run it. A custom build is for needs the first two cannot meet, such as integrations or complex workflows. If you are in Pakistan, how to choose a web development company in Islamabad covers the local market.

1920 Agency does not publish website prices. We quote after mapping the job, and the quote states what is included so you can compare it with others. For how we work, see web design and development, and for a worked example see the Progen Aesthetics clinic website, where we rebuilt the site and run its SEO.