# How much does a small business website cost in 2026?

*Updated August 29, 2026 — Lukáš Březina, WebSmoothly*

Short answer: **between about $100 and $30,000** — and the number depends almost entirely on who does the work. A do-it-yourself builder runs roughly **$120–$360 a year**. A freelancer usually quotes **$1,500–$8,000** once. An agency starts around **$5,000** and climbs. Here's the whole picture, with the fees that don't show up in the headline price.

## What each route costs

| Route | What you pay | What you actually get |
|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy) | $120 – $360/year (domain often free year one only) | A subscription and an editor. The building, the writing and the photo-wrangling are yours. |
| **WebSmoothly** | **$99/year** (domain + hosting included) | You describe the business, we build the site and put it live on your own .com. Cheapest finished website here, and done for you. |
| Do it yourself on WordPress | $200 – $800/year (+ your own hours) | Total control and a real skill ceiling. Hosting, theme, plugins, updates and security are on you. |
| Freelancer | $1,500 – $8,000 once (+ ~$150 – $400/year running) | A person who designs it, advises on photos and copy, and shows you how to use it. Changes later are billed. |
| Agency | $5,000 – $30,000+ (+ monthly retainer) | A team: brand, design, copywriting, SEO strategy and analytics. Sized for businesses expecting the site to earn. |

Build your website: https://www.websmoothly.com/get-started — previewing it is free, you pay when you decide to go live.

## 1. DIY builders — you rent the tool and do the work

As of August 2026, **Wix** lists its entry Light plan at just under **$20 a month billed annually** — around **$240 a year** — with the Core plan closer to $30 a month. **Squarespace** starts at about **$16 a month billed annually** (roughly $190 a year) on Basic, more like $23 a month on Core, and raised prices across the lineup in mid-2026. **GoDaddy** advertises its Websites + Marketing Basic plan at **$9.99 a month**, which is the number most comparisons quote — but that is an introductory rate, and third-party price trackers put the renewal closer to **$17 a month**, or about $204 a year.

Two things to watch. First, **paying monthly instead of annually costs meaningfully more** on all three — often 30–50% more. Second, the free domain is a **first-year promotion**: from year two you pay for it, and moving a finished site elsewhere is enough work that most people just pay.

What you get for that money is a good editor and a lot of templates. What you don't get is a finished website. Even with the AI generators these builders now ship, the draft is a starting point — you still write the copy, pick and crop the photos, and nudge the layout until it stops looking like a template. Budget a few evenings.

## 2. WebSmoothly — $99 a year, and we do the building

This is us, so treat it as the biased entry and check the rest yourself. **$99 a year covers everything** — your own .com domain, hosting, and the edits you ask for. There is no editor to learn and no template to pick. You tell us what your business does, send a link or a photo of your flyer if you have one, and a working site comes back in about ten minutes. Want the opening hours changed six months later? You email us a sentence.

The honest limit: what we build is **a simple, professional site** — who you are, what you offer, prices, gallery, hours, contact. If you need a real online store, a blog with hundreds of posts, or a custom booking engine, we're the wrong tool and one of the options below is the right one.

## 3. Doing it yourself on WordPress

WordPress itself is free; running it is not. Shared hosting advertises at **$2–$7 a month** — but that is the introductory rate, and renewal typically lands somewhere between **$10 and $30 a month**. Add a premium theme, a couple of paid plugins and the domain, and a realistic all-in figure is **$300–$800 a year**. You also inherit the maintenance: updates, backups, and the fact that unpatched WordPress sites get found and exploited by bots automatically. Worth it if you enjoy this. Expensive in evenings if you don't.

## 4. Freelancer — a person who builds it for you

For a straightforward small business site — about us, services, pricing, contact — US freelancers commonly quote **$1,500 to $8,000**, at hourly rates in the **$50–$150** range. On top of that you pay for hosting and the domain yourself, and later changes are billed by the hour or the job. Expect two to six weeks. What you're really buying is judgement: someone who tells you your photos are too dark, that your homepage buries the phone number, and who trains you on the result.

## 5. Agency — the whole package

Agency quotes for a small business site typically run **$5,000 to $30,000**, often with a monthly retainer after launch. An agency is not just an expensive freelancer — you're paying for a team: brand identity, copywriting, SEO strategy, analytics, and someone accountable for whether the site actually brings in work. That makes sense for a business where the website is a revenue channel. For a two-person landscaping company it's a mismatch; you'd be buying capacity you can't use.

## The costs nobody quotes you

- **The domain, from year two** — A .com runs **$10–$22 a year** depending on the registrar. Nobody can go much below about $10.50, because that's roughly what Verisign and ICANN charge wholesale — and that wholesale fee rises again on November 1, 2026. Registrars that advertise $1 first-year domains make it back on renewal.
- **Hosting, from year two** — The same trick. The $2.99 intro rate becomes $10.99 or more when the term rolls over, and the renewal price is usually the one you'll pay for years.
- **Plugins and add-ons** — Bookings, forms, a decent SEO plugin, an image optimiser — each is $50–$100 a year and each is billed separately. Three of them and you've doubled your hosting bill.
- **Your own hours** — The biggest one, and the only one that never appears on an invoice. If a builder eats fifteen evenings and your time is worth $50 an hour, that's about $750 of your life spent on something you didn't want to do.
- **Changes after launch** — With a freelancer or agency, the quote covers version one. New photos next spring, a price update, a seasonal banner — each is an email and either an invoice or a wait.

## How we checked these numbers

Prices were checked in August 2026. Wix figures come from Wix's own plans page. Squarespace and GoDaddy publish their pricing behind JavaScript we couldn't read directly, so those numbers come from independent price trackers that agreed with each other — treat them as close, not exact, and check the renewal rate on the vendor's own checkout before you sign up. Freelancer and agency ranges are directional: they're drawn from several 2026 industry surveys that broadly agree, not from one authoritative dataset. If you find one of these numbers is out of date, email hello@websmoothly.com and we'll fix the page.

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If your website is a serious revenue channel, hire a freelancer or an agency — that money buys judgement you can't get any other way. If you mostly need people who search for you to find a real, professional site with your hours and your phone number on it, **$99 a year and ten minutes** is a better trade than a subscription and fifteen evenings.

Build your website: https://www.websmoothly.com/get-started

Related: [What is a done-for-you website?](https://www.websmoothly.com/done-for-you-website) · [Wix and Squarespace alternative](https://www.websmoothly.com/wix-squarespace-alternative)