In 2026, a small business website usually costs somewhere between about $12 and $40 a month if you build it yourself on a website builder, plus your own time. If you hire a web designer or agency, expect a one-off build fee that is often in the thousands, plus ongoing hosting and maintenance. Online stores, bookings and memberships push the cost up through higher plans, apps and payment fees.
The honest answer to “how much does a website cost” is that the monthly plan is only one line. The real total is the sum of six things: your domain, your plan or hosting, design, apps and plugins, payment and transaction fees, and maintenance. This guide walks through each one using prices published on the vendors’ own pricing pages, checked in October 2026, so you can build a realistic budget before you pick a route.
1. Domain name: small, but it renews
Your domain (yourbusiness.com) is a yearly cost. Many builders bundle the first year free. Wix’s plans page says its paid plans include a “free domain for 1 year”, with a voucher that must be redeemed within 60 days of buying a premium plan and that only applies to a new domain. Squarespace says all its website plans bought for an annual term include one year of free domain registration.
After that first year you pay the renewal price, so that is the number to check. If you register the domain yourself, Cloudflare Registrar states that it “does not mark up domain prices at all” and that registration, transfer and renewal prices are at or below what registries and ICANN charge it. We could not load Namecheap’s domain page and Squarespace Domains did not list a .com price on the pages we checked, so we are not quoting a specific figure here. Treat the domain as a small yearly line item and always compare renewal, not first-year, pricing.
2. The plan or hosting: the biggest recurring cost
For most small businesses on a builder, the plan is the bulk of the monthly cost of a website. It covers hosting, security certificates, templates and the built-in tools.
Squarespace’s pricing page lists three website plans: Basic at $12 a month billed annually ($19 billed monthly), Core at $17 ($27 monthly) and Advanced at $25 ($36 monthly). Wix’s plans page lists Light, Core, Business and Business Elite, starting at about $17 a month and rising to about $159 a month for Business Elite. When we loaded it, the page showed figures that included local sales tax and stated that “displayed prices are for yearly subscriptions, paid in full at the time of purchase”, so check the exact price for your country at checkout. Shopify, which is built for online stores, lists Basic at $19 a month billed yearly ($25 monthly), Grow at $49 ($65 monthly) and Advanced at $299 ($399 monthly), with an introductory offer of three days free and then $1 a month for three months.
We tried to check GoDaddy’s website builder pricing, but the page would not load for us, so we have left its numbers out rather than guess. The pattern across the pages we could read is clear: yearly billing is cheaper per month but paid up front, and the plan you need depends on whether you sell online.
3. Design: your time or someone else’s fee
This is where “website builder vs web designer cost” really splits. On a builder, design costs you hours: picking a template, writing every page, sourcing photos, setting up contact forms and making it look right on a phone. For a simple five-page site that is often a few evenings to a few weekends, and the hours rarely stop at launch.
With a freelancer or agency, you swap your time for money. The usual structure is a one-off build fee (scoped by number of pages, custom design work, copywriting and features like booking or a store), then a separate charge for hosting, and often a monthly or hourly arrangement for updates. Quotes vary widely by region, experience and scope, so we are not quoting a “typical” rate here. Ask any designer to break the quote into build, hosting and ongoing support, and to say who owns the domain and the site files when the project ends.
4. Apps, plugins and add-ons
Builders cover the basics, but many businesses add paid apps for things like advanced booking, email marketing, reviews, live chat or a CRM. Each one is usually its own subscription, and they add up quietly. If you are on a self-hosted platform such as WordPress, premium themes and plugins work the same way, often with yearly renewals.
Before you choose a plan, list the features you actually need on day one (forms, bookings, payments, a contact list) and check whether they are included or cost extra. A cheaper plan plus three apps can end up costing more than a higher plan that includes them.
5. Payments and transaction fees
If you take money online, there are two different charges to understand. A platform transaction fee is a cut the website platform takes on each sale. A card processing fee is what the payment provider charges to move the money, and you pay it almost everywhere.
Squarespace’s pricing page is a good example of how platform fees vary by plan: online store sales carry a 2% fee on Basic and 0% on Core and Advanced, while digital content and memberships carry 7% on Basic, 5% on Core and 0% on Advanced. Shopify’s pricing page says card rates vary by plan and that third-party transaction fees may apply when you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments. On a business doing steady online sales, a 2% platform fee can matter more than the difference between two monthly plans.
6. Maintenance: the cost nobody budgets for
A website is never really finished. Hours change, prices change, new services launch, and search engines reward pages that stay accurate. On a builder, the platform handles hosting and security updates, but content updates and SEO are on you. On a self-hosted site, you or your developer also handle software updates, backups and fixes when a plugin breaks.
Budget for maintenance either as your own time each month or as a paid retainer. It is also worth asking how fast you get help when something goes wrong: a support queue and a named person who already knows your site are very different experiences.
Side-by-side: what each route really costs
DIY on a website builder: the lowest cash cost. Expect roughly $12 to $40 a month for the plan on a yearly subscription (higher if billed monthly), a domain that is free for the first year on Wix and Squarespace yearly plans and then renews, plus any apps and payment fees. The hidden cost is your time for design, writing, setup and ongoing updates.
E-commerce platform: built for selling. Shopify starts at $19 a month billed yearly and rises steeply on higher plans, plus card processing and possible third-party transaction fees. Worth it when the store is the business; often more than a service business needs.
Freelancer or agency: the highest up-front cost. A one-off build fee, then hosting and a maintenance arrangement. You save time and get a custom result, but you need a clear contract on ownership, revisions and who handles updates after launch.
Done-for-you subscription: a middle route where a team builds the site with you and keeps looking after it for a flat monthly price. You avoid the large build invoice and most of the DIY hours, in exchange for an ongoing subscription. Check exactly what is included, especially domain setup, SEO, support and whether you can cancel.
How to choose the right budget
Start with what the site has to do. A brochure site with a contact form needs far less than a store with hundreds of products. Then decide what is scarcer for you right now: cash or time. If you have more time than money, a builder plan is the cheapest way to get online. If you would rather spend your hours running the business, paying someone to build and maintain the site is usually the better trade.
Whatever you choose, add up the full first-year cost, not the headline monthly price: plan, domain renewal, apps, expected payment fees and maintenance. Then compare year two, because that is when free domains and introductory offers end.
Where OneSol Max fits
If the done-for-you route sounds right, this is what we offer. OneSol Max is a done-for-you small business website: we build it with you from a simple prompt, connect your own domain for you, set up your CRM, handle your SEO, and give you priority support from the same developer who built your site. Forms, bookings and payments are included, and payments go straight into your own Stripe or PayPal with 0% commission from us.
It costs $1 for the first month, then $29 a month, or $295.80 a year, and you can cancel any time. Whichever option you choose, use the breakdown above to compare the full cost, not just the price on the plans page.