How much does a website cost for a small business?

Building it yourself on a site builder costs about $200 to $230 a year for an entry plan paid yearly, plus a domain: about $12 a year at a registrar such as Porkbun, or the builder’s own renewal price if you took its free first-year domain. Paying someone else means a one-off project fee to a freelancer or agency plus upkeep, or a monthly subscription where the site is built and kept up for you. This guide covers the four routes, what you pay every year, and real prices checked November 2, 2026.

The four ways to get a website

• Do it yourself on a builder (Wix, Squarespace and the like). The lowest cash cost. You pick a template, write the pages, add photos and make every change yourself.
• Hire a freelancer. One person designs and builds the site for a project fee. Ask who handles hosting and changes afterwards, and what they cost.
• Hire an agency. A team handles design, writing and build for a project fee. The same questions apply: who hosts it, and what changes cost later.
• A done-for-you subscription. One monthly price covers the build, hosting and changes, and you keep paying for as long as you keep the service. Check for a setup fee and a minimum term.

Freelancer and agency prices vary too much by region, size and scope for one honest number, and we didn’t find a recent published survey we’d stand behind. What moves a quote: how many pages, who writes the words, who supplies the photos, and extras like online booking or selling online. Get two or three written quotes for the same list of pages, with those spelled out.

What you pay every year, whichever route

• Domain (yourbusiness.com). Renewed every year, with a domain registrar or through your builder. Register it in your own name, so it stays yours if you change who builds the site.
• Hosting, the service that keeps the site online. A builder plan can include it. Squarespace, for example, says “All Squarespace plans include our fully-managed cloud hosting” (Squarespace pricing). With a freelancer or agency, ask who hosts the site and what it costs per year.
• The builder plan, if you use one. It renews every year or every month.
• Upkeep and changes. New hours, a new service, fresh photos, a price change. On a builder that’s your own time. With a freelancer or agency, ask what a small change costs before you sign.

Real builder and domain prices

From each company’s own pages, checked November 2, 2026, in US dollars. Prices change, and some vary by country, so check before you buy.

Sources: Wix’s plan guide (updated October 20) gives $17 a month billed yearly and $24 billed monthly for Light, and its pricing page says displayed prices “are for yearly subscriptions, paid in full at the time of purchase” and that prices and currency vary by location. Squarespace’s pricing page shows Basic at $25 and $19 a month and says “Pay annually to save up to 36%”. Porkbun’s domain prices.

So the yearly bill for the cheapest route is about $204 on Wix Light or $228 on Squarespace Basic, paid up front. Squarespace includes a year of free domain registration with annual plans, after which the domain renews at its standard rate (Squarespace). Wix says most yearly or multi-year plans come with a one-year free domain voucher (Wix). From year two, add the domain renewal at the builder’s rate, or about $12 a year if the domain is at a registrar such as Porkbun.

What that price doesn’t include is your time. Writing the pages, taking the photos, and keeping hours and services current for years is all on you.

Questions to ask before you hire anyone

1. What’s the total for the build, and what’s due every month or year after it?
2. Who hosts the site, and who pays for it?
3. Whose name is the domain registered in?
4. What does a small change cost, and how fast is it done?
5. If I leave, do I keep the domain and a copy of the site? Is there a minimum term or a fee to leave?

Read the contract or customer terms for the answers, not only the sales page. Our Localkept and Hibu comparison is an example of what those terms can contain.

What Localkept costs

Localkept is the subscription route. These are our prices as they are on our pricing and in our Terms:

• No setup fee. Billed monthly, month to month. Stop whenever you like, with no fee to leave. Prices don’t include any sales tax that applies.
• Your domain is paid separately, to the registrar. Use the one you have, or buy one during setup. You pay the registrar directly, it’s registered in your name, and it stays yours whether or not you stay with us.
• You see it before you pay. We build a preview of your site, and looking at it costs nothing. You only pay if you keep it.
• Or start without a preview on our Get started page. You’re charged today for your first month, and if you’re not happy with your first draft, you can ask within 14 days of signing up for a full refund.

The trade-off

A subscription costs more over the years than doing it yourself. Our Website plan is $1,188 a year, against about $204 to $228 a year for an entry builder plan paid yearly. Over three years that’s $3,564 with us, against roughly $612 to $684 on the builder, plus the domain either way.

The difference pays for the work. Someone else writes and designs the site, keeps it online, and makes your changes when you ask, and you don’t pay a large sum up front. If you like building things and have the evenings for it, a builder is the cheaper way. If you’d rather spend that time on jobs, a subscription or a freelancer with a care plan makes more sense, and the questions above are how to compare them.

We don’t promise rankings, calls or leads with any plan. To see examples for your trade, look at our sample sites.

How this guide was made: drafted with AI from Localkept’s own plans, prices and Terms, and builders’ and registrars’ published prices, then fact-checked against the sources linked in it on November 2, 2026.