How much does a small business website cost? What you pay for and why
Domain, hosting, design and maintenance. What each one is, which costs hide, and what to ask before you hire someone.
Website prices range from nearly free to thousands of dollars, and they’re hard to compare because every provider includes different things. The most useful thing is to break the price into its parts.
The parts
- Domain (yourbusiness.com): paid every year. Some registrars sell domains at cost, with no markup.
- Hosting: the server your site lives on. Paid monthly or yearly.
- Security certificate (the padlock, HTTPS): available for free today, for example from Let’s Encrypt, so you shouldn’t pay extra for it.
- Design and content: the work of building the site, writing the text and preparing the photos. Usually the biggest cost.
- Maintenance: changes to hours, prices, new photos, updates and security.
Hidden costs
- Renewal prices higher than the first year, for the domain or hosting.
- Charges for every small change.
- Your own time, if you pick a template and build it yourself.
- A domain registered in the provider’s name: if you leave, you lose it.
What to ask before you hire
- What does the upfront payment include, and what does the monthly fee include?
- How much does it cost each year after the first?
- In whose name is the domain registered?
- What happens to my site if I decide to leave?
For reference, our plans start at $499 upfront and $49 a month, with hosting, email on your domain and content changes included. The domain is registered in your name and its yearly cost is separate.