A small business website costs what its pages, content, and features cost to produce. A few pages built from text and photos you supply fits the lowest budget band, under $5,000. Sites with many service and city pages, written content, a migration, or custom features move into higher bands. Every project is quoted on its own scope.
We have built a 72 page site for a handyman, a 108 page site for an AC and electrical contractor, and a 305 page site for a solo attorney. They are not the same size of project, and the difference has very little to do with how they look.
We do not publish a price list, because a price without a scope is a guess. What we can do is explain what moves the number, so you can read any quote, ours or someone else's, and understand what you are paying for.
What decides the cost of a small business website?
The cost of a small business website is decided by four things: how many distinct pages it needs, who produces the words and photos, what the site must do beyond showing information, and whether an existing site has to be moved. Visual design matters less than most owners expect.
In the order they usually affect a quote:
- Content. Someone has to write every page. If you hand over finished text and good photos, the project is smaller. If the developer researches, writes, and edits, that work is most of the bill.
- Page types, not page count. A site with five kinds of page (home, service, city, article, contact) needs five designs and templates, whether it ends up with twenty pages or three hundred.
- Features. A contact form is simple. Booking, payments, customer logins, or a connection to your scheduling software are each a small software project.
- Migration. If you already have a site with pages that rank, moving them without losing their addresses is careful work. We wrote about that in how to migrate off WordPress without losing URLs.
- Upkeep. Some platforms need regular updates forever. Others need almost none. That is a cost too, it just arrives later.
What kind of website fits each budget?
Our contact form asks for a budget in four broad bands, and each band tends to fit a different kind of project. These bands are wide on purpose, the edges overlap, and every project is quoted on its own scope rather than read off a table like this one.
| Budget band | What typically fits |
|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | A small brochure site: a handful of pages, your own text and photos, a contact form, one round of design |
| $5,000 to $15,000 | A full local service site: a page per service, pages for the areas you serve, content written or edited for you, structured data, a careful launch |
| $15,000 to $50,000 | A large site with hundreds of generated pages, a migration from an older platform, or a site with real features such as accounts, payments, or integrations |
| Over $50,000 | Software rather than a website: a customer portal, a marketplace, or a product people log in to and work inside |
If your project sits between two rows, that is normal. The table is for orientation, not for ordering.
Why do more pages not always cost more?
More pages do not always cost more because pages built from a template and a data file are produced by a script, not by hand. The expensive part is gathering true, specific information for each page. Once that exists, the hundredth page takes the same effort as the tenth.
The Gayer Law site has 305 static pages, including 170 city and offense combinations. Nobody typed 170 pages. A generator built them from structured data, and one rule in that data keeps the build from ever marketing defense work in the three counties where the attorney also prosecutes.
The Vortech site has 108 pages covering each service in each city the crew actually drives to. What made those pages worth building was the specifics: real job photos and license numbers anyone can verify. We explain the method, and where we refuse to use it, in programmatic SEO for local service businesses.
When is a cheaper website the right choice?
A cheaper website is the right choice when the site only has to prove the business exists and show how to reach it. A new business with one service, one location, and customers who arrive by referral does not need a hundred pages, and should not pay for them yet.
A hosted website builder handles that job well. We compare the two honestly in website builder or custom website.
The cheap site goes wrong in a different way. Charme and Sons came to us with a one page site whose menu links went nowhere, and nobody had the source code. One page was not the problem. Not being able to change it was. Whatever you spend, make sure you hold the keys, which we cover in who owns your website.
What ongoing costs should you plan for?
Plan for three ongoing costs after launch: the domain name, which renews every year; hosting, which is billed monthly or yearly; and maintenance, which depends on the platform. A site with a database and plugins needs regular updates. A static site needs very little.
Ask about these before you sign. A low build price paired with a monthly fee you cannot leave is a different deal from a higher build price on hosting you control. Our post on what website maintenance includes lists the tasks so you can judge a maintenance plan line by line.
How do you get an accurate quote?
You get an accurate quote by giving the developer a scope they can count: the services you offer, the places you serve, what content exists already, what the site must do, and your deadline. A few clear sentences on each is enough to turn a guess into a number.
It also helps to say your budget band out loud. A good developer will tell you what fits inside it and what does not, which is more useful than three quotes for three different imagined projects.
Frequently asked questions
Why do quotes for the same website vary so much?
Because the quotes are rarely for the same website. One developer assumes you will supply every word and photo. Another includes writing, a migration, and a year of upkeep. Ask each one to list what is included, then compare the lists rather than the totals.
Is a website a one-time cost or a monthly cost?
Both. The build is a one-time cost. The domain, hosting, and any maintenance recur. Some providers fold the build into a monthly fee, which lowers the upfront price but usually means you stop having a site when you stop paying.
Does a more expensive website rank better on Google?
No. Search engines do not know what you paid. They respond to useful, specific pages that load quickly and answer what people searched for. Money helps only when it buys more of that: better content, more real pages, a faster build.
Can I start small and add pages later?
Yes, and it is often the sensible route. The condition is that the first version is built so it can grow: templates rather than one-off pages, and code and accounts in your name. Growing a site you control is easy. Growing one you cannot edit means starting over.
Should I write the content myself to save money?
If you can write plainly about your own work, yes. You know details no writer will guess. A developer can then edit and structure it, which costs less than writing from nothing.
If you want a number for your own project, tell us what you need and which band you are working in. We will reply with a scope and a quote.