How much should a small business website cost in 2026?

It's the first question every business owner asks, and most websites bury the answer. So here it is plainly: a professional small business website in 2026 generally costs between $0 and $500 per month, or $2,000 to $10,000 as a one-time build — and the range is that wide because you're not all buying the same thing.

The three ways to pay for a website

• DIY builders (Wix, Squarespace): $15–$50/mo. Cheap, but you build and maintain it yourself, and it looks like a template because it is one.
• Agencies: $5,000–$25,000 upfront. Great work, but you often deal with account managers instead of the person building your site, and small changes take weeks.
• Done-for-you monthly plans: $50–$300/mo. A custom site with no big upfront cost, built and maintained for you. This is where most local service businesses land.

For reference, Senft Web Studio builds custom sites from $100/mo with no setup fee, or $50/mo with a one-time $750 development fee. You can see the full breakdown on our pricing page — the point of showing it publicly is that you should never have to guess.

What actually drives the price

The number of pages matters less than you'd think. What moves the price is whether the site is custom or templated, whether it's built to rank on Google, whether it captures leads, and whether someone maintains it after launch. A five-page site that ranks and converts is worth more than a fifty-page site nobody finds.

What you shouldn't pay for

Surprise invoices, scope creep, and 'SEO packages' with no deliverables. Good pricing is transparent and fixed before you start. If a quote can't tell you what you're getting and what it costs, that's your answer.