How much does a website cost in 2026? Search for it and the answers run from a few dollars a month to six figures. Each of them is right for somebody, which is why none of them can tell you much about yours.
The figure comes from a short list of decisions, and most of them are yours to make. Once you know them, you can see roughly where your website sits before you ask anybody for a quote, and whether two quotes describe the same work.
What does the market quote for a website?
The cost guides published this year disagree on the exact numbers, and all of them put the builder at the bottom and the agency at the top. These are the ranges they commonly quote, in US dollars:
- A website builder you set up yourself: about $10 to $21 a month for the subscription, in GoDaddy’s 2026 guide.
- A freelance designer: $500 to $10,000 and more, in WebFX’s cost guide.
- A design agency: $3,000 to $30,000 and more, in the same guide. Clutch, which reviews agencies, says they typically charge $2,000 to $100,000, and that most projects it reviews cost less than $10,000.
The builder figure covers the subscription. The hours you spend writing the pages and arranging them are yours, and they never show on an invoice.
The freelance and agency ranges are wide because a coach’s single page and a law firm with a page for every area of law are both called a website.
What changes the figure for your website?
Every quote, from a freelancer or an agency, is built from the decisions in this table. A quote that leaves any of them out is for a different website from the one you have in mind.
| Keeps the figure lower | Moves the figure up | |
|---|---|---|
| Pages and sections | A single page with a few sections | A page for every service, person or area of law |
| The copy | Final copy you supply | Copy written from scratch |
| Photographs | Your own photographs, already chosen | A shoot, or a large set to edit and place |
| Platform | Few paid plugins or add-ons | Licences and subscriptions that renew every year |
| Functions | An enquiry form or a booking link | A shop, payments, member logins or a full booking system |
| Timing | Everything ready before the build starts | Decisions still open while it is built |
| After launch | Hosting and the domain | Care, licences and paid tools every month |
Pages and sections move the figure first. Each page is planned, written, designed and checked on a phone, so eighteen pages are a different job from a single page with eight sections.
Morrow & Vale, a law firm website I designed, has eighteen pages: legal services, lawyer profiles, fees and briefings, with a page for each area of law because people search for their problem. NAVA Events, an event planner, tells its story on a single page that ends in an enquiry form for the date, venue and guest numbers.
Who writes the copy and finds the photographs?
The copy is easy to leave until last, and a design that waits for a paragraph can wait for days. If you supply the final copy, the designer arranges it. If the copy still has to be written, somebody is paid to interview you, draft and redraft before any design starts.
With my launches you send approved copy: up to 900 words for a landing page, 1,200 for a one-page website and 4,500 for five pages. Copy polish tightens the copy you send, at $175 for a single page and from $400 for a five-page website. New words written from their own brief are quoted separately and agreed before a build is booked.
Photographs work the same way. A landing page takes up to 12 chosen images, a one-page website 15 and a five-page website 40, and they come from you. If the photographs do not exist yet, plan the photographer before the website, because the layout is designed around them.
A quote that leaves any of them out is for a different website from the one you have in mind.
Does the platform or a shop change what you pay?
The platform moves money between the build and the years after it. A website builder costs little to start and charges every month for as long as the site is live. WordPress needs hosting, and any paid plugins renew each year. A static HTML site is light to host and suits a site that rarely changes.
I build on WordPress, static HTML or Canva, chosen in the brief by how you will run the site, and set up in your name so the site is yours. I start from my own tested layout system and never a bought theme, so there is no theme licence to renew.
Shops and bookings add to both figures, the build and the monthly running cost. A tested enquiry form comes with every launch, and a landing page can take a booking link instead. A shop with payments, a calendar that takes bookings or a members’ area has to be built and tested, and usually brings a monthly fee of its own: Shopify’s guide quotes hosted shop platforms at $16 to $300 and more a month, plus payment fees. When a site needs functions like these, I quote it after I have seen what they have to do.
Does a faster website cost more?
Speed costs money when it means doing work twice. A design started before the copy arrives is reworked when they do, and every late decision pushes the rest of the build back.
My launches are quick because the preparation comes first. The structure, final copy, photographs and brand files are agreed before a date is booked, so the booked days go on design and build: 24 to 48 hours for a landing page, 48 to 72 for a one-page website and five working days for five pages. The clock starts once your content, files, access and payment are in, so the sooner you gather the material, the sooner your build can begin.
Extras have to fit inside the booked days, and if one needs more time, you know before your quote is confirmed. An 80% booking payment reserves your dates, and the remaining 20% clears five business days before the build. A short-notice booking is paid in full.
What does a website cost each year after launch?
The build is paid once. Running the site is paid every year, and it belongs in your plan from the first quote:
- The domain, your address on the web. GoDaddy’s guide expects around $20 a year.
- Hosting, the server your site lives on. GoDaddy quotes its own plans at about $6 to $25 a month, before larger servers.
- Licences for any paid plugins, fonts or tools the site uses, most of them renewed yearly.
- Care, the maintenance a site needs: updates with a backup first, and a regular check that your enquiry form still delivers.
When I arrange your hosting and domain, both are quoted yearly and registered in your name, with the first-year and renewal figures shown before you agree.
Ask everyone you are comparing for two figures: the build, and what the site costs to run in its second year with every renewal included. Side by side, the pair tells you more than the first figure alone.
What I ask you to invest in each launch
My Services page shows the investment for every launch in US dollars. I publish them because a figure on the page answers the question a buyer came with.
- Landing page, up to 6 sections: from $500
- One-page website, up to 8 sections: from $700
- Five-page website, up to 5 pages and 30 sections: from $1,350
- Larger website, seven pages or more, built in stages you sign off: from $1,750
- Website Care, after launch: from $129 a month
Website Care is about thirty minutes a month on your site: platform and plugin updates with a backup first, a test message through your form, broken links fixed and a short note on what was done. You can stop with a month’s notice.
Extras carry their own figures, such as $90 for an extra section or $200 for a sixth page. Your written quote confirms the scope, dates and any extras before anything is booked or paid.
Questions people ask about website costs
How much should a small business website cost?
Enough for the pages your visitors need and the words and photographs to fill them, plus a year of running costs. A single offer can start with a landing page from $500, and a business whose services, work and story each need room of their own needs five pages, from $1,350.
How much does a website cost per month?
With a website builder, the monthly cost is the subscription. With a site a designer built, it is hosting, any licences and care, with the domain paid yearly. My Website Care starts from $129 a month.
Is it cheaper to build my own website?
In money, yes. The cost moves to your evenings: writing the copy and checking every page on a phone yourself.
Why do website quotes vary so much?
Each designer quotes for the website they picture from your enquiry. Send everyone the same pages, words and functions, and the quotes become comparable.
Do I own the website once it is paid for?
With me, yes: the site, the hosting and the domain are set up in your name. Ask the same question of anybody you compare, before you sign.
