May 12, 2026
"It depends" is technically true and also useless if you're trying to budget. So here's a real range: a custom-designed small business website with a handful of pages generally lands between $1,500 and $5,000 as a one-time cost, depending on scope. Ongoing care, content, or a monthly retainer model is a separate decision on top of that.
What actually moves the price: how many pages you need, whether you're writing your own copy or need it written for you, whether you need a booking system or e-commerce, and how much custom design versus template-based layout you want.
What shouldn't move the price much: which specific tools an agency uses internally, including whether AI assists the process. If an agency's costs are genuinely lower because AI makes them faster, that savings should show up in your quote — not just their margin. That's the whole reason we publish our AI disclosure page.
Be skeptical of two extremes: a $200 website (usually a barely-customized template with no real strategy behind it) and a $15,000+ website for a five-page local service site (usually paying for agency overhead, not additional value). The right price for most local service businesses sits in the middle, tied to a clear, written scope.
A useful gut-check when comparing quotes: ask exactly what's included in revisions, whether copywriting is part of the price or extra, and who owns the final files and domain once the project's done. Agencies that dodge these questions are usually the ones with the most unpleasant surprises later.
If a quote comes back dramatically lower than everyone else's, ask specifically what's different — cheaper hosting, a template instead of custom design, no copywriting, fewer revisions. There's almost always a real reason, and it's worth knowing it upfront rather than discovering it after the site's live.
Our own pricing is public on our pricing page — a real range, not a 'call for a quote' wall.
