How much a small business website costs

A website has two kinds of cost: making it once, and keeping it online every year. Here’s what each usually looks like for a restaurant, salon or shop.

Making it yourself

Website builders charge a monthly fee, and you do the work: picking a template, writing the words, adding photos and setting up your Google listing. The fee is low. The real cost is your time, often a few weekends, and sites made this way often leave out the details that help people find you, like your hours and prices written as text.

Hiring a freelancer or an agency

Freelancers often charge from a few hundred dollars for a one-page site to a few thousand for a bigger one. Agencies usually start in the thousands. Prices are often given only after a call or two, and changes after launch may be billed by the hour.

What you keep paying for

Your domain, the name like yourshop.com. Usually about $10 to $20 a year, paid to your domain company.
Hosting, which keeps the site online. Anywhere from free to around $30 a month, depending on who hosts it.
Changes, like new prices, hours or photos. Free if you can make them yourself, otherwise whatever your designer charges.

Questions to ask before you pay anyone

Is the price fixed, and what does it include?
Who owns the domain, and is it in my name?
What does hosting cost after the first year?
Can I change my own hours and prices?
If I leave, can I take a copy of my site with me?

What we charge

Our prices are fixed and on our site. A one-page site is $350, a small site of up to 5 pages is $750, and a full site is $2,500. Hosting and the site editor are free for the first year, then $19 a month, and you can download your site and leave any time.