Website cost · 2026 figures
How much
does a website
actually cost?
Somewhere between free and a quarter of a million dollars, which is a useless answer, so here is a better one. Below are the real 2026 numbers for every route you could take, what drives the price up, and the ongoing costs that almost never appear in a quote.
Figures from published 2026 web pricing research. Nothing here is a quote.
Most small business builds land at
$3,000 – $15,000
Freelancers typically $3,000–$8,000. Boutique agencies $8,000–$15,000. In the Clutch 2026 survey, 61% of small business buyers spent under $10,000 on their most recent website project and 84% spent under $20,000.
Denver agencies commonly quote
$9,000 – $22,000
For a professional five-page site.
The short version
Five routes, five very different bills
These aren't better and worse versions of the same thing. They're different products, and the right one depends entirely on what the website has to do for you.
| Route | Upfront | Ongoing | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder | $0 | $10–$50 / mo | Brand new, almost no budget |
| Freelancer | $3,000–$8,000 | Usually billed hourly | Custom work, defined scope |
| Small shop | From $99 / mo | Included | Local business needing leads |
| Boutique agency | $8,000–$15,000 | $1,100–$5,000 / yr | Growing company, real budget |
| Full agency | $9,000–$22,000+ | Retainer | Multiple stakeholders, brand work |
Upfront and ongoing ranges from published 2026 pricing research; the small shop row is our own published rate.
Pick a route to see where the money goes
Inside the invoice
Where the money actually goes
On a typical custom project, design accounts for roughly 30–40% of the cost and development 50–60%, with testing and launch making up the rest. So a $10,000 website is around $3,500 of design and $5,500 of build.
Bundling design and development together is usually cheaper than hiring two suppliers, because nothing is lost in the handoff and nobody bills twice for the same conversation.
What pushes the number up
Design originality
A template-led site reuses proven layouts. A genuinely custom design involves 20 to 40 hours of research and visual work. That gap explains most of the difference between a $3,500 site and a $14,000 one.
Page count
Every page needs a layout, content and testing. A five-page site and a thirty-page site are not remotely the same job, even when the design is identical.
Functionality
A contact form is trivial. Booking with real availability, payments, logins or software integrations are software projects sitting inside a website project.
Content and copywriting
Professional copywriting typically runs $50 to $150 an hour. Many quotes assume you'll supply the words, which is also the thing most likely to stall the project.
Photography
A shoot runs roughly $500 to $2,500. Often worth it, because original images build more trust than stock with customers and with search engines alike.
Search optimization
Structure should be part of the build. Ongoing campaigns are a separate retainer. Ask any supplier to split those two clearly, because blurring them is common.
The part that isn't in the quote
Running costs nobody mentions
Published research puts the ongoing costs most owners overlook at $1,100 to $5,000 a year — hosting, security, backups, maintenance and the tools that keep the thing working. One analysis of a representative $28,000 marketing site with a mid-tier maintenance program put the three-year total between $65,000 and $95,000.
| Item | Typical rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | $10–$20 / yr | Should always be in your own name |
| Hosting | $2–$120 / mo | Shared hosting from around $2 covers most small sites |
| SSL certificate | $0–$75 / yr | Often free now — don't pay if you don't have to |
| Maintenance | Hourly or retainer | The one that surprises people most |
| Ecommerce extensions | $100–$300 / yr | Shipping, inventory and tax add-ons stack up |
| Content edits | Per ticket | Or free, if it's included — ask |
This is why the only number worth comparing is the three-year total. We built a calculator for exactly that.
Other things people ask about
Specific prices for specific things
A single landing page
$100–$1,000
template-based
$1,500–$2,500+
custom and conversion-optimized
Custom design work alone
$2,000–$10,000
depending on page count and brand complexity. A pre-built template runs $0 to $200.
Custom ecommerce at scale
$45,000–$250,000
full custom builds on enterprise or headless architecture, driven by catalog size and integrations.
A web application or SaaS
From $50,000
for a focused first version, regularly exceeding $500,000 for production systems with payments, roles and analytics.
Website redesign
$3,000+
for small business sites, running past $250,000 for complex enterprise projects. More on redesigns.
A mobile app
Quoted per project
a different discipline with different economics. What an app costs.
Practical
How not to overpay
Most overspending isn't caused by a dishonest supplier. It's caused by buyers comparing quotes that describe completely different projects.
Write the scope before you ask for quotes
A $5,000 template refresh and a $150,000 rebuild with a dozen integrations both get called "a website redesign." If you request three quotes without defining the project first, you'll be comparing numbers that don't describe the same work. Write down your page count, your must-have features and your deadline, then send the same brief to everyone.
Ask for the three-year figure, not the build price
Build plus hosting plus maintenance plus edits plus every recurring fee. A supplier who can't produce that number hasn't thought about your budget, only about winning the job.
Don't buy functionality you can't name a use for
Booking systems, portals and integrations are where budgets disappear. If you can't describe the specific weekly task it removes, you don't need it yet. Building the simple version and adding later is almost always cheaper than the reverse.
Separate structure from campaigns
Technical search structure belongs in the build. Ongoing content and link campaigns are a separate service. Suppliers who quote "SEO included" without splitting those are usually including the first and letting you assume the second.
Check what a small change costs
You'll need dozens of small edits over the years. If each one is a ticket, an estimate and a two-week wait, the real cost of the site is much higher than the quote suggests — or you simply stop updating it, which is worse.
Run PageSpeed on their own website
Free, thirty seconds, and they can't argue with it. A supplier whose own site is slow on mobile is showing you their standard before you've paid anything.
Download the free 12-question checklist — no email required. Take it into every meeting.
For the record
What we charge
Since this page is about transparency, here's ours rather than making you hunt for it. Custom-coded sites start at $99 a month with no setup fee, including hosting, updates, security and search structure. Drag-and-drop builder plans start at $5.99 a month if you'd rather build it yourself.
The monthly plan is a lease with a buyout option at 24 to 36 months, priced on what the site is worth at that point. Rates rise with size, complexity and how much optimization is involved — a fifteen-page site with a booking system is not $99.
Ecommerce stores and apps are quoted per project, because pretending a package fits every store would be its own form of dishonesty.
Three-year total, our monthly plan
$3,564
At $99 a month for 36 months, with hosting, updates, security and edits included. Compare that against a $9,000 build plus $1,100–$5,000 a year in running costs, and note that the agency route includes outright ownership while ours is a lease until buyout.
We'd rather point that difference out than let you find it later.
Straight answers
Website cost questions
How much does a website cost in 2026?
Most professional small business websites land between $3,000 and $15,000, with freelancers typically $3,000 to $8,000 and boutique agencies $8,000 to $15,000. DIY builders run $10 to $50 a month. Custom ecommerce at scale runs $45,000 to $250,000, and web applications start around $50,000. Our custom-coded sites start at $99 a month.
Why is there such a huge range?
Because "a website" describes wildly different products. A five-page brochure site and a platform with payments, logins and integrations are different disciplines. Within the small business band, the gap comes down to design originality, content work and how much technical structure is included.
What is the cheapest way to get a website?
A DIY builder, roughly $10 to $50 a month, or around $5.99 on the plans we resell. You do the work and it will look like a template. That's genuinely fine if the site is a placeholder. It's a poor choice if the website is supposed to bring in customers, because you can't control the code underneath.
Is a more expensive website better?
Not reliably. Price correlates with design originality and scope, not with whether the thing gets you customers. Plenty of expensive sites are slow, poorly structured and invisible in search. The test is whether it loads fast, gets found and makes contacting you obvious — and you can check all three for free.
How much should ongoing costs be?
Research puts the commonly overlooked running costs at $1,100 to $5,000 a year across hosting, security, backups, maintenance and tools. Hosting alone can be as little as $2 a month for a small site. If a supplier's ongoing fees sit far above that band, ask specifically what the money buys.
Should I pay monthly or one lump sum?
Both are legitimate. A lump sum means you own the site outright and can walk away. Monthly removes the upfront barrier and usually bundles hosting and maintenance, but you need to check what happens at the end and whether you eventually own it. Ask that question before signing either way.
Does the price include content and photos?
Frequently not, and it's the most common gap in a quote. Copywriting runs $50 to $150 an hour and a photo shoot $500 to $2,500. Ask explicitly who is writing the words, because "client to supply content" is what stalls most website projects.
How much does a website cost per month to run?
On a builder, $10 to $50. For a custom site, hosting from a few dollars plus whatever maintenance arrangement you have. Published guidance puts ongoing costs for custom sites at roughly $50 to $200 a month once maintenance is included. Ours is $99 with everything bundled.
What does a website cost in Denver specifically?
Denver agencies commonly quote $9,000 to $22,000 for a professional five-page site, which sits at the upper end of national ranges. Our Denver pricing is published and starts at $99 a month.
Can I build a website myself and save the money?
Yes, and for some businesses it's the right call. Budget a weekend or two, accept that it will look like a template, and be aware that search performance is limited by the platform. If the site is a formality, that's a fine trade. If it's meant to generate work, you're trading money for a much slower result.
Keep going
Or start from the top: everything we do in Denver web design, in one page.
Free, no obligation
Want a real number for your project?
Describe what you need and we'll give you an actual figure rather than a range, plus an honest view on whether a cheaper route would serve you better. Plenty of people get told to start with a builder.
Rather just talk?
1-800-481-8638
Denver, Colorado · Answered within one business day