What a small business website costs

A small business website can cost very little or quite a lot, and the gap comes from how much skilled work goes into it, what the site has to do, who supplies the words and photos, and what you keep paying for after launch. Before you compare quotes, work out which pricing model each one uses, because that tells you more about what you'll pay over a few years than the first number on the page.

We won't quote price ranges here. They depend on the job, the region and who you hire, and a range copied from somewhere else won't tell you what your site should cost. What we can do is walk through what moves the price up or down, and the models you'll run into.

What drives the price

Hours of skilled work

Most of what you pay for is someone's time: planning the pages, design, writing, building, testing on phones, and making the changes you ask for. The Bureau of Labor Statistics treats web development and digital design as a professional occupation that typically starts with a bachelor's degree, and it publishes the pay data if you want a sense of what that time is worth. Every extra page, revision round and meeting adds hours, and hours are what you're billed for, one way or another.

How many pages, and who writes them

A one-page site for a food truck and a site for a remodeling company with a page for every service and every town it covers are different jobs. Writing is the part that's easy to forget when you compare quotes. Someone has to explain what a sewer camera inspection is, in plain words, and why a customer would want one. If you write it, the price goes down. If the web company writes it, that's real work and it should be in the quote.

Photos

Your own job photos are often better than stock, and they cost you a phone and a habit of taking pictures before and after each job. A professional shoot of your crew, your storefront or your dishes costs more, but those photos can carry the site for years.

Features that do real work

Each working feature adds time: a quote form that accepts photos, a booking calendar for a salon or a groomer, a menu with online ordering, a price calculator for fences or decks. An online store is a bigger job again, with a product catalog, a cart, online payments and order emails. That's why we price online stores separately, by scope.

A template or a custom design

A template gets you online sooner and costs less upfront, and your site will look like the other sites built on it. A design made for your business takes more hours. Ask which one you're getting, and if it's a template, ask to see the original.

Moving from an old site

Moving the domain, pointing your old page addresses to the new ones so you don't lose what Google already knows about you, and keeping your email working during the switch. It's easy to leave out of a quote and easy to bill for later, so ask about it upfront.

What happens after launch

Hosting, the SSL certificate that puts the padlock in the address bar, domain renewal, software updates, backups, and the small changes you'll want over time: a new service, holiday hours, new photos. Some of these are small yearly bills, some are monthly, and some come bundled in a plan. Read what's included before you assume it is.

The pricing models you'll run into

Do it yourself on a site builder

You pay the platform a monthly or yearly plan and do the work yourself. The cash cost is low. The real cost is your evenings, and the result depends on the time and patience you put in. Your site lives inside that platform, so moving to another one later usually means rebuilding.

A freelancer by the hour

You pay for hours as they're worked. It's flexible and fair for small fixes. For a whole site, the total is hard to know at the start, and every change of mind adds to it. Ask for a written estimate with a cap.

A fixed project price

The studio or agency agrees on the scope and gives you one price before starting. You know the total. The thing to read closely is the scope: what's included, how many rounds of changes, and what counts as extra.

A monthly subscription

Some companies build the site with little or no money upfront and charge a monthly fee for as long as it's online. It's easy on cash flow. Before signing, ask how long the contract runs, whose name the domain is in, and what happens when you stop paying: do you keep the site, or does it come down? Add up the monthly fee over a few years and compare it with a one-time build.

Website bundled with marketing

A website plus SEO or ad management in one monthly retainer. It can make sense if you need the marketing. Ask for the website part to be priced on its own, and ask what you keep if you cancel the marketing.

Questions to ask before you sign

• Whose name is the domain in? It should be yours. ICANN's statement of registrant rights and responsibilities puts the registrant in charge of the domain and responsible for keeping its contact details accurate. If your web company registers it in their own account, you'll need their help to move it.
• Do I own the site if I leave? The text, the photos and the files.
• What does the monthly fee cover? Hosting, SSL, updates, backups and changes, or only some of those.
• How many rounds of changes are included?
• Who writes the text and who supplies the photos?
• When do I see something real, and can I look at it on my phone before I pay in full?
• What happens if I stop paying?

Costs owners forget

• Domain renewal, every year or every few years
• Email at your own domain
• Paid plugins or apps on a site builder
• Booking or ordering tools that charge per month or per order
• Licenses for stock photos
• Changes after launch, if there's no plan that covers them

None of these are large on their own. Together they're the difference between the price you were quoted and the price you paid.

How we price at builtlit

We work on a fixed price, agreed on a 15 minute call before any work starts. On the call we talk about what you do, your prices and how customers reach you, and you leave knowing the price and the timeline. Then we build the first version of your site free, in 2 days, so you see real work before you pay anything. If it's not for you, you owe nothing.

You pay once, and the site is yours, on your own domain with SSL. The care plan is monthly and optional: hosting and SSL, updates and backups, and changes when you need them. Without it the site is still yours and keeps working. There's more on how our pricing works.

The easiest way to compare quotes is to have something real in front of you. Book the 15 minute call, get a fixed price, and look at the first version of your own site two days later. Get your free preview.