How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost in 2026?

DIY Website Builders: $0 to $500 per year

Platforms like Wix, Squarespace, or Hostinger let you build your own site using templates. You're doing all the work yourself — choosing the design, writing the content, figuring out the layout. The platform charges you monthly (usually $10-$40/month depending on features), and that covers your hosting and basic support.

This works well if you're comfortable with technology, you have time to learn the platform, and your needs are straightforward. A yoga instructor showcasing classes, a photographer displaying a portfolio, or a consultant who just needs a basic online presence can do great with this approach.

The trade-off? It takes time. Expect to spend 10-20 hours building your first site if you've never done it before. And if something breaks or you need a custom feature, you're on your own to figure it out.

Template-Based Professional Sites: $500 to $2,500

This is where you hire someone like me to build your site for you using a template or website builder, but we handle all the setup, design, content formatting, and technical details. You tell us what you need, we build it, and you get a finished site without spending your own time learning the platform.

This is the sweet spot for most small businesses. You get a professional-looking site that works well, loads fast, and looks good on phones, without the $10,000 price tag. It's not custom-coded from scratch, but honestly, most small businesses don't need that level of customization anyway.

What you're really paying for here is expertise and time savings. Someone who knows what they're doing can build a solid site in a few hours that would take you a few weekends to figure out yourself.

Custom-Built Websites: $2,500 to $10,000+

This is where developers write custom code specifically for your site. Every element is designed and programmed from scratch to match exactly what you want. This makes sense if you have specific functionality

needs that templates can't handle — maybe you need a custom booking system, a unique e-commerce setup, or integrations with specialized software your business uses.

Most small businesses don't actually need this level of customization, but if you do, this is the range you're looking at. The cost varies widely depending on complexity. A custom site with basic features might be$2,500-$5,000. Something with advanced functionality, custom databases, or complex integrations can easily hit $10,000 or more.

Enterprise Websites: $10,000 to $50,000+

These are the big, complex sites built by agencies for larger companies. We're talking dozens of pages, advanced functionality, custom animations, full e-commerce platforms, multiple user types with different permissions, CRM integrations, and ongoing development support.

If you're a small business owner reading this, you almost certainly don't need to spend this much. But it's worth knowing this level exists so you understand why some quotes seem so high — they're built for a different scale of business.

The Hidden Costs Nobody Tells You About

Here's where things get tricky. The website build itself is just one piece of the puzzle. There are ongoing costs most people don't think about until after they've already committed.

Domain name:

This is your website address (like yourbusiness.com). It costs about $10-$20 per year. Not a big deal, but it's a recurring cost.

Hosting:

If you're not using a website builder that includes hosting, you'll need to pay for server space where your site lives. This ranges from $5-$50 per month depending on your needs. Shared hosting (where your site shares server space with others) is cheaper. Dedicated hosting (where you have your own server) costs more but performs better.

SSL certificate:

This is what makes your site secure (the little padlock in the browser). It used to cost money, but most hosting providers include it free now. Just make sure whoever builds your site sets this up — Google penalizes sites without it.

Maintenance and updates:

Websites need ongoing care. Software updates, security patches, plugin updates, broken link fixes, content changes. If you built it yourself, you handle this. If someone built it for you, you either learn to maintain it yourself or pay for ongoing support.

Some designers charge hourly for maintenance ($50-$150/hour as needed). Others offer monthly maintenance packages ($50-$200/month depending on how much support you need). At Adapt Digital Partners, we include basic maintenance in our website management packages because we've found that small businesses just want one monthly bill and someone they can call when something goes wrong.

SEO and content creation:

A website that nobody can find isn't worth much. SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of making your site show up when people search Google for what you offer. This

can be DIY if you're willing to learn, or you can hire someone. Ongoing SEO typically costs $300-$2,000/month depending on how competitive your industry is and how much support you need.

What Actually Affects the Price?

Once you understand the ranges, the next question is: why does one person charge $800 and another charge $8,000 for what looks like the same thing?

Here's what drives the cost:

Number of pages:

A simple five-page site (Home, About, Services, Contact, Blog) takes a few hours to build. A 30-page site with subpages, dropdown menus, and multiple service offerings takes significantly longer. More pages = more time = higher cost.

Custom functionality:

Do you just need a basic informational site, or do you need online booking, e-commerce, member logins, payment processing, or custom calculators? Every special feature adds development time and complexity.

Design complexity:

A clean, simple design using a template is fast to implement. A highly customized design with unique layouts, animations, and branding requires more time and skill. This is where the cost can jump quickly.

Mobile optimization:

Every site should be mobile-friendly in 2026 — most web traffic comes from phones now. But making a site look great on desktop, tablet, and phone takes extra attention. Good developers include this automatically. Cheap ones sometimes don't, and you end up with a site that looks broken on mobile.

Content creation:

If you provide all the text, images, and content ready to go, the designer just has to format it. If they're writing your copy, sourcing images, and creating the content from scratch, that's additional work that costs more.

Ongoing support:

Are you paying just for the initial build, or does the price include ongoing updates, troubleshooting, and support? Some designers hand you the keys and disappear. Others (like us) include ongoing support because websites aren't "set it and forget it" — they need care over time.

How to Choose What's Right for Your Business

So with all these options, how do you actually decide what to spend?

Start by being honest about your technical skills and available time. If you're comfortable with technology and you have 10-20 hours to invest in learning a website builder, DIY is a legitimate option. But if the idea of building a website yourself sounds overwhelming, or if you'd rather spend that time working in your business instead of on your website, hire someone.

Consider your timeline. Need a site live in two weeks? You're either doing it yourself with a template or paying for rush service. Most professional web designers need 2-4 weeks to build a quality site, sometimes longer if revisions or custom work is involved.

Think about what you actually need. A restaurant needs online ordering and a menu. A consultant needs a clean portfolio and a way to book calls. A retail shop needs e-commerce. Don't pay for features you won't use, but also don't cheap out on the features that actually matter for your business.

Ask about ongoing costs upfront. A $500 website that requires $200/month in maintenance and updates might end up costing more than a $1,500 website that includes support. Make sure you understand the total cost of ownership, not just the build price.

And honestly, check the portfolio. Before you hire anyone, look at the actual sites they've built. Do they look professional? Do they load fast? Do they work well on your phone? If their previous work doesn't impress you, their work for you probably won't either.

What We Do Differently

At Adapt Digital Partners, we built our business specifically for small businesses in Oklahoma City and the surrounding area who need a real website without the agency price tag.

We use professional templates and website builders to keep costs down, but we customize them to fit your brand and handle all the technical setup so you don't have to. Our sites are mobile-optimized, fast-loading, and SEO-friendly from day one. And we include ongoing maintenance and support in our packages because we know small business owners don't have time to troubleshoot website issues at 9 PM when something breaks.

Our typical small business website costs $500-$1,200 for the initial build, with optional ongoing support packages starting at $50/month if you want us to handle updates, backups, security, and content changes for you.

We're not the cheapest option — you can definitely find someone on Fiverr who'll build you a site for $200. But we're also not $5,000, and we're local, responsive, and actually invested in your success because we're building our own business in this community too.

If you're trying to figure out what a website should cost for your business, let's just talk. No high-pressure sales pitch, no obligation. We'll look at what you need, give you an honest recommendation, and if we're not the right fit, we'll point you toward someone who is.

You can reach us at

adaptdigitalpartners@gmail.com

or call 405-996-7456.

The bottom line:

Most small businesses should expect to spend somewhere between $500 and $2,500 for a professional website build, plus ongoing costs for hosting, maintenance, and updates. Anything significantly cheaper usually means you're doing the work yourself or sacrificing quality. Anything significantly more expensive usually means custom development that most small businesses don't actually need.

Your website is an investment in your business, but it doesn't have to be a complicated or scary one. Just find someone who's transparent about pricing, shows you examples of their work, and treats you like a person instead of a transaction.

That's how we try to do business, and we think that matters.

How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost in 2026?

If you're a small business owner trying to figure out what a website should cost, you've probably already discovered one frustrating truth: nobody wants to give you a straight answer.

You'll see agencies quoting $10,000 for a five-page site, your nephew offering to build one for $200, and website builders advertising "free" options that somehow end up costing more than you expected. It's confusing, and honestly, it should be simpler.

So here's the real breakdown — what websites actually cost, what you're paying for at each price point, and how to figure out what makes sense for your business.

The Honest Price Ranges

Let's start with the numbers, because that's probably why you're here.