What a Small Business Website Actually Costs
Nobody in this business wants to talk about price until they’ve got you on a call. I’d rather just tell you, so you can decide whether it’s worth a conversation.
A Website Is Not a Design. It’s a Salesperson.
A cheap website is not a bargain. It’s a business card that nobody looks at.
What you’re actually paying for is the part before the pixels. Somebody has to sit down and work out how your business makes money. Who your customer is. What they type into their phone at eleven at night when they need what you sell. Which questions they need answered before they’ll pick up the phone.
Then somebody has to write it. Not fill in placeholder text — actually write the words that make a stranger trust you enough to call.
Then design it, build it, make it fast, make it work on a phone in a parking lot with two bars of signal, get it in front of Google, and be around when something breaks.
That’s the job. The design is the easy part.
When you buy a $400 website, you’re not getting a discount on that work. You’re getting a template with your logo dropped in, and none of it.
Sites Start at $1,500
One total, agreed before I start. No monthly rent.
Pick the Size That Matches the Business
Smaller price means a smaller site — not the same site built worse. Every one of these is fully yours, with no required monthly fee.
$1,500
The business needs to exist online, properly.
Four to six pages. Home, what you do, about, contact, and the one or two pages that actually close a customer. Written, built, mobile-tested, and set up so Google can find you.
Right for a newer business, a single-service shop, or anyone replacing a site that embarrasses them.
$3,500
The full build. This is the one that competes.
Every service gets its own page. Every town you serve gets its own page, written for that town. Industry pages, an FAQ, a blog set up and ready, the whole internal link structure that makes local search work.
This is a real twenty-to-thirty page site. It’s what I’d build if the goal is to outrank the shop down the road.
$5,000+
You’re selling or booking online.
Everything in Growth, plus a store, a booking system, or both. Product setup, payments, shipping or scheduling, and the flows that turn a browser into a paid order.
Priced from five and up depending on catalog size and what it has to connect to.
Cheap Up Front Is Not Cheap
There’s a model going around: a few hundred dollars to build, then a required monthly fee. Do the arithmetic before you sign it.
The “affordable” monthly site
Say it’s $999 to build a six-page site, plus a required $150 a month.
Year one: $2,799
Year three: $6,399
Year five: $9,999
And it never stops. Miss the payments and you find out whose website it really was. Unused monthly time usually doesn’t roll over either — you pay for hours you never used.
A site you own
Say $3,500 for the full Growth build, once.
Year one: $3,500
Year three: $3,500
Year five: $3,500
Hosting is optional and runs a fraction of that. Support is there if you want it and gone if you don’t. The domain, the files, and the words are yours on day one.
By year three you’ve paid nearly twice as much for the cheap one — and you still can’t take it with you. That’s not a website. That’s a subscription with your name on it.
Write One Check, or Spread It Out
Same work. Same site. Same ownership at the end. The only difference is the schedule.
Straight through
A deposit to start, the balance at launch. Simplest option, and the one most people take when the budget is already there.
How project builds workOver time
We agree the total, then split it into set monthly payments over an agreed term. In writing, no interest games, and the site is fully yours once the balance is paid.
A $1,500 site is $150 a month for ten months. A $3,500 build is $350 a month for ten. Then it stops — and you own it.
How pay-over-time worksWhat’s In Every Build
- The words. I write the site unless you’d rather.
- Mobile. Tested on real phones, not just resized in a browser.
- Search setup. Real page titles, headings, and structure so Google can read it.
- Speed. Fast pages, properly sized images.
- SSL and backups. Table stakes. I’m not charging you extra for a lock icon.
- Ownership. Domain, files, and content in your name at handoff.
- A human. My phone number, and I answer it.
The Money Questions
Is there a monthly fee?
Not a required one. Hosting and ongoing support are available and most people take them, because it’s easier than doing it themselves. But the website is yours either way, and you can host it anywhere you like.
What if my project is bigger than $5,000?
Then it costs more, and I’ll tell you in the first conversation rather than after you’ve signed something. Large catalogs, custom integrations, and complex booking systems run higher. You’ll get the number before work starts either way.
Can I start small and add later?
Yes, and plenty of people do. Start with the pages that make you money, add service and location pages as the business grows. Because you own it, adding on later is a decision, not a renegotiation.
What happens if I want to leave?
You take everything and go. Domain, files, content. I’ll hand it over and help the next person get set up. No exit fee, no hostage situation.
