How much does a small business website cost?
In 2026 a small business website costs roughly $500–$2,000 for a template build, $2,000–$5,000 for a standard custom site, and $5,000–$15,000 for a larger professional build. In India the same tiers run about ₹15,000–₹50,000, ₹15,000–₹60,000 and ₹80,000–₹2,00,000. The build is rarely the expensive part — hosting, maintenance and the work of actually getting found usually cost more over three years than the site did to make.
The honest ranges
Almost every agency answers this question with "it depends" and a contact form. It does depend — but not so much that a range is impossible. These are the ranges the market actually transacts at in 2026.
| What you get | US / UK | India |
|---|---|---|
| Template build, ~5 pages | $500 – $2,000 | ₹15,000 – ₹50,000 |
| Standard business site, 5–15 pages with a CMS | $2,000 – $5,000 | ₹15,000 – ₹60,000 |
| Professional custom build, mobile + SEO ready | $5,000 – $15,000 | ₹80,000 – ₹2,00,000 |
| E-commerce | $5,000 – $30,000 | ₹25,000 – ₹2,00,000+ |
| Freelancer, hourly | $50 – $150/hr | ₹500 – ₹2,000/hr |
The gap between the columns is the single most important fact in this table. Indian agencies charge roughly 60–80% less than US agencies for comparable work. That is not a quality gap; it is a cost-of-living gap, and it is why offshore delivery for Western clients is a durable model rather than a race to the bottom.
What the quote usually leaves out
The build price is the number everyone compares. It is also the number least likely to determine what you actually spend. Over three years, the recurring costs typically exceed the build:
- Hosting — $10–$50/month, more if anyone is monitoring it
- Domain — $10–$60/year, and the renewal price is often not the sign-up price
- Maintenance and security patching — $50–$500/month depending on who is responsible when something breaks
- Content changes — often billed hourly, which is how a £40 text edit happens
- SEO or visibility work — $600–$5,000/month, and this is the line with the widest quality range
A $2,500 build with a $300/month care and marketing arrangement costs $13,300 over three years. The build was 19% of it. If you are choosing a supplier on the build price alone, you are optimising the small number.
Why maintenance plans vary so wildly
Published care-plan pricing in 2026 runs from about $50/month at the low end to $500+/month at the premium end, with most quality small-business plans landing between $199 and $599. The spread is not mostly about quality — it is about what is included. Ask three questions before comparing two plans:
- Is hosting inside the price, or billed separately?
- Are content edits unlimited, or capped at a number of requests or hours?
- Who is responsible at 2am when the site is down — and what does the contract actually say?
What we charge, and why we publish it
We publish our prices because the alternative wastes everyone's time. If $1,200 is out of range, you should be able to discover that in ten seconds rather than after a discovery call.
| Price | |
|---|---|
| Starter site, up to 5 pages | $1,200 one-time |
| Business site, up to 12 pages with a CMS | $2,500 one-time |
| Care — hosting, maintenance, content edits up to 2 hours a month | $99/month |
| Visibility — search and AI-answer work | $600/month |
| Everything bundled, build included free | $699/month, 30-day rolling |
The bundle exists because the upfront build cost is what stops most small businesses from starting. Rolling it into the monthly fee removes that — on 30-day rolling terms, because the going rate in this bracket is rolling and a new agency asking for twelve months is asking for trust it has not earned yet.
The question worth asking instead
"What does a website cost" is the wrong question, because a website nobody finds costs whatever you paid and returns nothing. The better question is what it costs to have a site that is found — and in 2026 that increasingly means being found by AI assistants as well as by Google.
A cheap site that nobody visits is not cheap. It is a slower way of spending the money.