BuildersHubHow much does a small business website cost in 2026?
A real breakdown of what a small business website costs in 2026, covering builder plans, domain, email and design, with example budgets for doing it yourself or hiring help.
A simple small business website costs about $200–$350 a year if you build it yourself with a template and a website builder. Hiring a freelancer adds a one-off $500–$5,000, and an agency usually charges $5,000–$30,000. Most of the yearly cost is your builder plan, domain name and email. The build itself is the one-off cost, and it's the part you can do for free.
Prices below were checked in October 2026 and are in US dollars. They vary by country and change often, so check each provider's pricing page before you buy.
The short answer
How you build it | One-off cost | Yearly cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
Yourself, with a free template | $0 | $200–$350 | Service businesses with their words and photos ready |
With a freelancer | $500–$5,000 | $200–$350 + any support fees | Owners short on time who want it done for them |
With an agency | $5,000–$30,000+ | $200–$350 + retainer | Online stores, bookings, custom features |
Whichever route you pick, you still pay the yearly running costs. A designer builds the site; you keep paying for the plan, domain and email.
What you pay every year
1. A website builder plan
This is your hosting and the tool you edit the site with. Here are the cheapest plans that let you use your own domain:
Builder | Cheapest plan with your own domain | Billed yearly | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
Framer | Basic | $10/month | $120 |
Wix | Light | about $17/month | about $204 |
Squarespace | Basic | about $16–$19/month | about $192–$228 |
Two things to know:
- Pay yearly if you can. Monthly billing costs more on all three builders.
- Free plans can't use your own domain. Framer's free plan, for example, publishes to a Framer web address and is meant for non-commercial use. Fine for testing, not for a real business.
2. A domain name
Your address, like yourbusiness.com. A .com usually costs $10–$20 a year. Some builders include a domain free for the first year on yearly plans; Framer does.
Check the renewal price, not just the first-year price. Cheap first years often renew at double. Registrars like Cloudflare sell domains at cost, so the price doesn't jump at renewal.
3. Business email (optional at first)
An address like [email protected] looks more trustworthy than a Gmail address. Google Workspace Business Starter costs $7 per user per month on a yearly plan, so $84 a year for one person.
On a tight budget, you can skip it at the start: free email forwarding (Cloudflare Email Routing, for example) sends mail for your domain to your existing inbox.
Your note: what you use for email and what it costs you.
What you pay once
Design
- Free template: $0. You get a finished design and swap in your own words, photos and colours. This is the biggest saving available.
- Paid template: a one-off fee for a premium design.
- Freelancer: $500–$5,000. Most charge $40–$150 an hour. A simple five-page site sits at the lower end.
- Agency: $5,000–$30,000. Agencies charge around $100–$300 an hour, and include strategy, copywriting and project management.
Your content
Your words and photos take longer than the design. Budget a weekend to write:
- What you do and who it's for
- Your services, with prices or "from" prices if you can
- A short story about you or the team
- How to contact or book you
Photos can come from your phone. Clear, real photos of your work beat polished stock photos. For gaps, free stock libraries like Unsplash are fine.
AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude can turn your notes into clean website copy. Our step-by-step guide includes ready-to-copy prompts for this.
Your note: how long the content took you, or a client, in practice.
Hidden costs to watch for
- Monthly billing. The price on the pricing page is often the yearly rate shown per month.
- Domain renewals. See above.
- Extra editors. Builders usually charge for each extra person who can edit the site.
- Selling online. Online stores need a higher plan, and some plans add transaction fees on top of card processing. Squarespace's Basic plan, for example, charges 2% on physical product sales.
- Add-ons. Booking tools, email marketing and apps often have their own monthly fees.
- Maintenance. If a freelancer built your site, ask what changes cost after launch before you sign.
Example budget: a service business, built yourself
A consultant, cleaner or photographer with a five-page site, built from a free template on Framer:
Item | Year 1 | Year 2 onwards |
|---|---|---|
Template | $0 | $0 |
Framer Basic (yearly) | $120 | $120 |
Domain (.com) | $0 (included first year) | about $10–$20 |
Google Workspace, 1 user | $84 | $84 |
Total | about $204 | about $214–$224 |
That's under $20 a month, with no design fee. Skip business email at the start and it drops to about $10 a month.
Which option should you choose?
Build it yourself if:
- You run a service business and need a few clear pages, not a store
- You have your words and photos, or can write them
- You can spare a weekend
Hire a freelancer if:
- You'd rather spend the time running your business
- You want a design nobody else has
- You need help with copy or photos too
Hire an agency if:
- You need an online store, bookings or integrations with other systems
- You want ongoing marketing and SEO handled for you
You can also mix them: start with a template yourself, then pay someone for the tricky parts, like connecting your domain or polishing the copy.
How to keep your costs low
- Start with a free template instead of a custom design.
- Pay yearly, not monthly.
- Launch with the pages you need now: home, services, about and contact. Add a blog later.
- Use free email forwarding until you need full business email.
- Write your own copy with AI prompts, then edit it in your own voice.
Next step
Browse our free website templates for small businesses, then follow the step-by-step guide to go from template to live site. If you get stuck or short on time, email us and we can set it up with you.
Sources
Prices checked October 2026: