What a small business website costs in 2026.
Published prices from budget studios and freelancers, alongside a wider industry study. Use these ranges to compare quotes and understand what each price includes.
Price research: August 2026. Methodology and text updated September 27, 2026. Written by Affan Jangda.
The short answer
Most small-business brochure sites: $500 – $2,500, one time.
These are the prices listed by the smaller studios in our survey. Starter pages begin around $300; larger sites, stores and booking systems can cost more than $3,500. Packages differ, so check the page count, design work, revisions and account ownership rather than comparing the headline prices alone.
The budget studios we checked listed fixed prices for their website packages. In the wider survey, 82% of designers offered fixed-price packages. Ask which work the price covers and how changes to that scope will be charged.
Building a single page? See what a one-page website costs. Wondering how a fixed quote actually works? Read how fixed pricing works. Worried about what you own at the end? Check who holds your domain.
What budget studios actually charge
| Tier | Published price | What that tier includes |
|---|---|---|
| One-page or starter site | $300–$500 | 1–5 pages, responsive, basic SEO; the cheapest tiers budget studios publish |
| Growing business site | $750–$1,000 | Multi-page builds, typically up to 8–15 pages |
| Full small-business package | $950–$2,500 | Flat-fee 5–8 page builds; some bundles add logo, print pack, Google Business setup |
| Custom tier (budget studios) | $1,500–$4,000 | Custom work from studios that otherwise publish fixed tiers |
These ranges come from eleven studios and freelancers whose pricing pages we checked in August 2026. We have grouped their prices rather than naming individual businesses. Ask if you want to discuss the source list.
The wider market, for context
The table above covers smaller, lower-cost providers. Our wider study collected 109 sources, including agency surveys and freelancer reports. Those figures give you a broader comparison, but the packages are not necessarily equivalent.
| What you're buying | Wider market | What that usually means |
|---|---|---|
| One-page / landing page | $500–$3,000 | Freelancer-built $500–$2,000; agency-built $2,000–$10,000 |
| 5-page small-business site | $2,000–$4,500 | The most cross-checked band in the study — buyers, sellers and agencies converge here |
| 10-page site with SEO & lead gen | $5,000–$8,000 | Service-area pages, copywriting, analytics included |
| 20-page corporate site | $8,000–$30,000 | Design systems, CMS, multiple stakeholders |
| Online store | $5,000–$25,000+ | Professional small-store builds; custom work climbs past $25k |
| Hourly, if billed that way | $50–$149/hr | US freelancers $50–$150; agencies $100–$149; offshore $10–$25 |
The wider ranges come from our 109-source study, including agency pricing surveys, website-platform data and reports from practitioners. A higher quote may include more research, content or project management. You need the scope from both providers to make a fair comparison.
How we put these numbers together
It would be easy to publish a price table and call it research. This section is here so you can check our work, and so that if we change a figure later you can see what it replaced.
What we looked at
The bands above come from two different collections, kept separate on purpose because they answer different questions.
| Collection | What it covers | What it cannot tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Published studio pricing | Packages smaller studios and freelancers publish as starting prices or fixed tiers. | Published prices are entry prices. A studio quoting from this table will usually exceed it once your scope is known. |
| Wider market study | 109 published sources: agency pricing surveys, practitioner rate reports, platform cost data and buyer surveys from 2025 and 2026. | These describe the market, not us. None of these sources has seen our work, and we are not in any of them. |
How a figure gets into a band
- A number appears in a band only if at least three independent sources put it in that range. One outlier does not move a band.
- Where the sources disagree, we publish the wider range rather than the average. An average hides the fact that the same line item can cost $2,000 or $20,000.
- Hourly rates and project prices are never mixed. An hourly rate is only comparable to another hourly rate, and a project price already includes the hours.
- Currency is US dollars. Nothing here is converted, so exchange rates cannot quietly change a number after publication.
What this study is not
It is not a quote from us, and it is not a price list. Every project is quoted individually after we know what you need. Nobody who publishes a fixed price list for custom work is quoting honestly, because the same feature costs very different amounts depending on what it has to connect to.
We also did not pay for placement, and we did not include any studio that advertises a price we could not find published. If a studio keeps its pricing private, it is not in the first table, and we think that is a reasonable thing for a studio to do.
Methodology section added September 27, 2026. The price bands above are unchanged. If a band moves, this section moves with it.
What makes the price go up
If you want the short version of why two quotes for the same site can differ by four times, the custom build versus website builder comparison covers where the money actually goes. And if you are still deciding whether a builder is the right call at all, the plain answers page covers ownership and what happens after launch, which is where most of the regret comes from. The one-paragraph versions: how much a website actually costs and whether you own what you paid for.
- Pages. Extra service pages, location pages and galleries take time to write, design and check. Ask whether the quoted page count includes those pages and whether each needs a different layout.
- Systems. Booking, payments, online shops and client portals need more work than a brochure site. Our research found quoted add-ons of $500–$2,000 for reservation integrations and $1,500–$5,000 for client portals. Complexity and existing software can change those prices substantially.
- Copywriting and photography. Some packages assume you will supply both. The study included professional copywriting quotes around $1,000 a page and business photography at $500–$2,500. Ask for a separate price if you need help producing the content.
- Ongoing SEO. Launch setup and monthly SEO work are different services. Ask which technical checks, content work and reporting are included, and whether anything renews after an introductory period.
- Rush timelines. A shorter deadline may mean a rush fee. The research included surcharges of 25–50%. Ask for the deadline and any surcharge together, before accepting the quote.
How studios take payment
None of the budget studios we checked ask for the full amount upfront. The common patterns:
- Half now, half at launch.
- Milestones tied to demos — splits like 40/30/30, each payment due when a working demo goes up.
- Other arrangements. Some providers offer a preview before you commit or take a smaller initial deposit. Check the conditions of any refund or performance promise before relying on it.
Before paying, check what you will receive, when you can review it, and what happens if either side ends the project.
Questions to ask before you accept a quote
- Is the price final? "Starting from" is marketing, not a quote. Ask for the total in writing, covering everything you've discussed.
- Who owns the domain and the code? A few studios build sites you effectively rent: stop paying and the site comes down. You want the domain, hosting, and code in your name from day one.
- What happens after launch? Optional maintenance plans in our survey run $49–$149 a month. Some are worth it; some cover very little. Either way, the site should keep working if you decline.
- How does hosting work? A common setup is a few months free, then $20–$40 a month. That's fine if leaving is clean and free. Ask exactly how you'd take the site elsewhere.
- How many revisions are included? One or two rounds is normal, and edits beyond scope are billed hourly ($75–$125 an hour across our survey). Get the revision count written into the quote.
Frequently asked questions
Is a very cheap website a bad idea?
A $300–$500 site can be enough if you need a few pages with clear information and a way to contact you. Check the limits on revisions, design changes and extra pages. A low price tells you little without that detail.
How long does a small business website take?
The studios we checked often listed a few days to a week for a simple site and one to two weeks for a larger package. More involved builds can take several weeks. Content delays and revisions affect the schedule, so get an expected delivery date in your quote.
Do web designers charge by the hour?
Both pricing models exist. In the survey cited here, 82% of designers offered fixed-price packages. Hourly work appeared more often for edits or work outside the original scope. The reported US ranges were about $50–$150 an hour for freelancers and $100–$149 for agencies.
How much does Firmitas charge?
We give you a fixed quote for the agreed work before you commit. Send us the pages, features and any reference sites you have in mind. The quote sets out what is included, the revision allowance and the handover. You own the finished site and its accounts.
Will you match a cheaper quote?
Send us the written quote and its scope. We will compare the work and tell you what we can offer. The comparison needs to cover the design, features, revisions and ownership, not just the price.
What extra costs should I expect after launch?
Ask about hosting, domain renewal, paid services and future edits. Our research found maintenance packages around $50–$500 a month and ongoing SEO around $400–$2,000 a month. You may not need either. Have the provider separate required running costs from optional services.
Checking a quote right now? Send us the number and what it covers. We'll tell you straight whether it's fair, whether or not you hire us.
Ask us