How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost in 2026?

If you Google "how much does a website cost," you'll get answers ranging from "free" to "$50,000." Neither extreme is useful when you're a small business owner trying to make a smart investment. Here's the real breakdown.

The DIY Route: $0-$300/year

Website builders like Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress.com let you build something yourself for roughly $12-40/month. The "free" tiers exist but come with the builder's branding and ads on your site — which screams "I didn't invest in my business."

The real cost of DIY isn't the subscription. It's the 20-40 hours you'll spend wrestling with a drag-and-drop editor instead of running your business. If your time is worth $50/hour, that "free" website just cost you $1,000-2,000 in opportunity cost.

Best for: Hobby projects, personal blogs, or businesses with genuinely zero budget.

Freelance Developers: $1,000-$5,000

Hiring a freelancer from platforms like Upwork or Fiverr gets you a step up from DIY. You'll find developers charging anywhere from $500 to $5,000 depending on their experience and location.

The risk with freelancers is consistency. A $500 developer might deliver something unusable. A $5,000 developer might deliver something brilliant but take 3 months. Vetting takes time, and if the relationship doesn't work out, you're starting over.

Best for: Businesses with specific custom needs and the patience to manage a freelancer.

Web Development Companies: $3,000-$15,000

This is the traditional agency model. You get a project manager, a designer, a developer, and probably several meetings before anyone writes a line of code. The process is thorough but slow — 6-12 weeks is standard.

Most of what you're paying for at this level isn't the website itself. It's the overhead: the office, the account manager, the project management tools, the revision cycles. The actual development work is a fraction of the total cost.

Best for: Large businesses with complex requirements (e-commerce, custom integrations, multi-language).

The Sweet Spot: $999

Here's where we fit in. Foundersites charges $999 flat for a complete, professionally designed website. No hourly billing, no scope creep, no meetings about meetings.

We can charge less than agencies because we don't carry their overhead. No office lease, no account executives, no 12-step discovery process. We've also built websites for 25+ industries, so we know exactly what works for your type of business.

What you get for $999: custom design (not a template), mobile responsive, SEO optimized, contact forms, Google Analytics, SSL, and delivery in under a week.

What Drives the Price Up

Several factors push website costs higher:

• E-commerce: Online stores with product catalogs, shopping carts, and payment processing add complexity. Expect $2,000-$10,000+ depending on the number of products.
• Custom features: Booking systems, client portals, membership areas, and API integrations require development time beyond standard websites.
• Ongoing content: If you need someone to write blog posts, create graphics, and manage updates, that's a separate ongoing cost.
• Premium photography: Custom photoshoots for your business can run $500-2,000 but make a massive difference in how your site looks.

What You Should Actually Care About

Price matters, but it's not the only factor. Here's what actually determines whether your website investment pays off:

1. Does it load fast? Slow websites lose customers. Period.
2. Does it look professional on mobile? Over 60% of web traffic is mobile.
3. Is it built for SEO? If Google can't find you, the website doesn't matter.
4. Does it convert visitors? Pretty is pointless without clear calls-to-action.
5. Do you own it? Avoid platforms that hold your website hostage.

The Bottom Line

A good small business website costs between $999 and $3,000. Below that, you're compromising on quality. Above that, you're paying for overhead, not value. The best investment is a professionally built site at a fair price that starts generating leads from day one.