Website cost calculator: what a small business website really costs
Pick your site size and features, and compare three honest numbers side by side — a typical agency quote, the true cost of building it yourself (including your hours), and GrowLocal’s flat $29/mo. No email gate, no quote funnel — the numbers are right here.
1. What kind of site do you need?
2. Which features do you want?
3. Your hourly rate
Only used for the DIY “your time” line. Illustrative default — set it to what an hour of your work is actually worth.
Agency build
$4,600–$11,850
one-time, up front
- Custom build, done for you
- Hosting + changes extra, weeks to launch
DIY builder — true cost
$1,166–$1,974
first year, including your time
- Subscriptions + add-ons: $23–$32/mo + $15/yr domain
- Your time: 25–45 hrs = $875–$1,575
- You design, write, and maintain it
GrowLocal — done for you
$29/mo
$348 first year · $0 up front
- Designed + built for you
- Copy written for your trade
- Hosting, SEO, and updates included
- No add-on fees
Free to preview. $29/mo when you launch.
Agency and DIY figures are illustrative industry ranges — the only number we can promise is ours.
How much does a website cost for a small business?
There are really three ways to get a small-business website, and they don’t just differ in price — they differ in who does the work. An agency does everything for a large one-time fee. A DIY builder charges a small subscription and makes you the designer, copywriter, and webmaster. A done-for-you service like GrowLocal does the building and maintaining for a flat monthly price.
Most website price calculators hide that third option because they’re run by agencies collecting leads for their own quote funnel. This one shows all three columns at once, with the assumptions on the table: agency and DIY figures are industry-typical, illustrative ranges (clearly labeled — they are not quotes, and not GrowLocal research), while the GrowLocal figure is our real published price.
Agency vs DIY vs done-for-you — the honest breakdown
$3,000–$10,000+
one-time, up front (typical)
Fully custom and done for you — but you pay it all up front, before seeing anything. Hosting and future changes are usually billed separately, and small projects often wait behind bigger clients.
~$200–$500/yr
cash + 15–40+ hours of your time
The subscription is the visible cost. Basics like forms, email, or a store mean paid apps and tier upgrades — and your hours are the biggest line of all. You design it, write it, and keep it alive.
$29/mo
$0 up front
We design and build the site around how your industry converts, host it, and keep it updated. You see the finished site free before paying anything — preview first, pay only if you love it.
How this website price calculator works
Agency column
Industry-typical ranges for a small-business marketing site, scaled by page count and per major feature (an online store or multi-page service-area build adds real scope). These are illustrative bands, not sourced from a proprietary dataset — treat them as a sanity check before you collect real quotes.
DIY column
Built from public list prices as of 2026 — a business-tier builder plan (roughly $16–$25/mo on platforms like Wix or Squarespace), a ~$15/yr domain, and entry-tier business email — plus the add-on fees builders charge for basics (features you pick above raise the DIY subscription line accordingly) and an estimate of build hours multiplied by your own hourly rate. The hours are the line every “free website” pitch leaves out.
GrowLocal column
Our actual published pricing — business sites at $29/mo (personal sites from $10/mo — see full pricing). No setup fee, and the site is designed, built, and previewed free before you pay.
Website cost questions, answered
How much does a website cost for a small business in 2026?
It depends on who builds it. An agency build for a standard small-business site typically quotes in the $3,000–$10,000+ range up front (industry-typical figures — always get real quotes for your project). Doing it yourself on a site builder looks cheaper — roughly $200–$500 a year in subscriptions — but usually costs 15–40+ hours of your own time to build, plus ongoing upkeep. A done-for-you service like GrowLocal runs $29/mo for a business site, with the finished site shown to you free before you pay anything.
Why does this website price calculator show ranges instead of one number?
Because a single number would be false precision. Agency pricing varies enormously with scope, market, and who you hire, and DIY cost depends mostly on what your own time is worth. This calculator shows honest, industry-typical ranges for the agency and DIY columns — clearly labeled illustrative — and one exact number we can actually promise: GrowLocal's flat monthly price.
What is the true cost of a DIY website builder?
The subscription is the small part — typically around $16–$25/mo for a business-tier plan on builders like Wix or Squarespace, plus about $15/yr for a domain, a few dollars a month for business email, and paid apps or tier upgrades for basics like contact forms, galleries, or extra pages — features with no add-on fee here (typical list prices as of 2026). The real cost is your time: most owners spend 15–40+ hours designing, writing, and wiring up a site, then keep maintaining it. At even $35/hr, 20–40 hours is another $700–$1,400 of cost that never shows up on an invoice.
What's included in GrowLocal's $29/mo plan?
A custom site designed and built for you around how your industry wins customers — pages and copy written for your trade, quote/contact forms, photo galleries, FAQ and service pages — plus fast hosting, SEO fundamentals, and ongoing updates handled by us. Free to preview. $29/mo when you launch.
Do I have to pay to see what my website would cost — or what it would look like?
No. This calculator is free and ungated, and so is seeing the site itself: GrowLocal designs and builds your actual site first, you preview the finished thing, and you only pick a plan (from $10/mo) when you want it live.