TL;DR: A small business website costs anywhere from $0 to $15,000+ depending on who builds it. Agencies charge $4,000–$10,000 upfront. Freelancers run $1,500–$5,000. DIY builders cost $10–$40/month. AI website builders like WebZum generate a complete site for $19/month with no upfront cost. The real question isn’t “how much?”—it’s “what are you actually getting?”

Why This Question Is So Hard to Answer

Google “how much does a website cost” and you’ll get answers ranging from “free” to “$100,000.” That’s not helpful.

The problem is that a “website” can mean wildly different things. A one-page landing page isn’t the same as a 20-page site with booking, e-commerce, and a blog. And the person building it matters just as much as what’s being built.

So let’s break it down honestly.

The 4 Ways to Get a Small Business Website

Option 1: Hire a Web Design Agency

Cost: $4,000–$10,000+ upfront, plus $100–$300/month ongoing

This is the traditional route. You hire a design agency, go through a discovery process, review mockups, and wait 4–8 weeks for a finished product.

What you get:

• Custom design tailored to your brand
• Professional copywriting (sometimes)
• SEO setup (basic on-page)
• Responsive design
• 1–2 rounds of revisions

What you don’t get told:

• Hosting is extra ($20–$100/month)
• Content updates cost $75–$150/hour
• Redesigns every 3–4 years ($3,000–$8,000)
• You probably don’t own the design files
• If the agency goes under, you might lose everything

Total 3-year cost: $8,000–$20,000+

Option 2: Hire a Freelancer

Cost: $1,500–$5,000 upfront, plus $50–$150/month ongoing

Freelancers are cheaper than agencies but come with more risk. Quality varies wildly. A talented freelancer on Upwork might deliver agency-quality work for half the price. Or you might get a template with your logo slapped on it.

What you get:

• More personal attention
• Lower cost
• Faster turnaround (2–4 weeks typically)

The risks:

• No backup if they disappear
• Communication can be inconsistent
• Limited to one person’s skill set
• Finding a good one is its own project

Total 3-year cost: $4,500–$12,000

Option 3: DIY Website Builder (Wix, Squarespace, etc.)

Cost: $17–$40/month, plus your time

Builders like Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy let you drag-and-drop your way to a website. Sounds great until you realize you’re now a part-time web designer.

What you get:

• Full control over design
• Hundreds of templates
• Built-in hosting
• No coding required

The hidden cost—your time:

• Learning the platform: 5–10 hours
• Choosing and customizing a template: 8–15 hours
• Writing all the content yourself: 10–20 hours
• Picking and editing photos: 5–10 hours
• Setting up SEO, forms, analytics: 3–5 hours
• Total: 30–60 hours of your time

If your time is worth $50/hour (conservative for a business owner), that’s $1,500–$3,000 in opportunity cost before you pay a dime in subscription fees.

Total 3-year cost: $2,100–$4,500 (plus 30–60 hours of your time)

Option 4: AI Website Builder

Cost: $10–$34/month, no upfront cost

This is the newest category. AI website builders use artificial intelligence to generate your website automatically—content, design, and all.

But not all AI builders are the same. Most still require you to answer dozens of questions and manually tweak everything. The best ones, like WebZum, research your business automatically from Google, Facebook, and Yelp, then generate a complete website with real content about your actual business.

What you get with WebZum:

• Complete website generated in ~5 minutes
• Content written from your real business information
• Mobile-responsive design
• SSL security included
• Custom domain support ($34/month plan)
• No content writing, no template picking, no design decisions

Total 3-year cost: $684–$1,224

The Cost Breakdown Nobody Talks About

Here’s what most cost guides skip—the ongoing costs that add up fast.

Expense	Agency	Freelancer	DIY Builder	AI Builder
Domain name	$12–$20/yr	$12–$20/yr	$12–$20/yr (or included)	Included (Pro plan)
SSL certificate	$0–$100/yr	$0–$100/yr	Included	Included
Hosting	$120–$600/yr	$60–$300/yr	Included	Included
Email setup	$50–$72/yr	$50–$72/yr	$72–$120/yr	—
Content updates	$900–$1,800/yr	$600–$1,200/yr	Your time	Included
Security/backups	$100–$300/yr	$100–$300/yr	Included	Included
Redesign (every 3 yrs)	$3,000–$8,000	$1,500–$4,000	Your time	Included

The “cheap” options aren’t always cheap. The “expensive” options aren’t always expensive. It depends on how you value your time.

So What Should You Actually Do?

Here’s our honest take:

Hire an agency if:

• You have a complex business with custom needs (e-commerce, booking systems, membership areas)
• Budget isn’t a constraint
• You want someone to handle everything, including ongoing marketing

Hire a freelancer if:

• You want custom work at a lower price
• You’ve found someone with proven work and good reviews
• You’re comfortable managing the relationship

Use a DIY builder if:

• You enjoy the design process
• You have 30–60 hours to spare
• You want total creative control

Use an AI website builder if:

• You need a professional website fast
• You’d rather focus on running your business than building a website
• You want to save thousands of dollars
• Your business already has an online presence (Google Maps, Facebook, Yelp) that can be leveraged

The Real Cost of NOT Having a Website

Here’s the number nobody calculates: what it costs you to not have a website at all.

• 97% of consumers search online for local businesses
• 75% of people judge a business’s credibility based on its website
• Businesses without websites lose an estimated 70–80% of potential customers to competitors who do

If you’re a plumber charging $200 per service call and you lose just 2 customers per week because you don’t have a website, that’s $20,800/year in lost revenue.

Suddenly, every option on this list looks like a bargain.

Bottom Line

The “right” cost for a small business website depends on your situation. But for most small businesses—contractors, restaurants, salons, dentists, law firms—the math points clearly toward AI-powered builders that do the work for you.

You didn’t start your business to become a web designer. You started it to serve customers. Get a website up, get found online, and get back to work.

Try WebZum free for 3 days →