What a website costs in 2026, by type of site: the build price, the costs that arrive every year after it, and a first-year total you can plan around. With our own published prices, so the numbers are real rather than ranges.
Key takeaways
- The type of site decides the price more than the design does: a brochure site and an online store are different products.
- A five-page website, designed and built by one team, is $1,599.
- Budget for the costs after launch too: hosting, domain, maintenance and, if you want traffic, SEO.
- A fixed quote in writing, before work starts, is the only number worth comparing.
What a website costs, by type of site
The first question is not how nice the site should look, it is what the site has to do. A five-page site that explains a local service is a small project. A store with a catalogue, payments and shipping rules is a much larger one, and a web application with accounts and a dashboard is software, priced as software.
The table shows where each type usually lands with us. Design and build are listed separately because many clients already have one or the other.
| Type of site | Pages | Design + build | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local service or brochure site | Up to 5 | $1,599 | WordPress or React |
| Business site with a design system | Up to 8 | $1,999 | WordPress or React |
| Content-rich or multi-service site | Up to 30 | $2,999 | WordPress or React / Next.js |
| Web application with accounts | Scoped | From $4,999 | Next.js, priced on scope |
What moves the price up or down
Page count matters, but features matter more. Online booking, payments, a members area, multiple languages, integrations with your CRM or booking system: each adds design states and engineering, and each is worth pricing separately so you can decide whether you need it at launch.
Content is the hidden cost. If you arrive with your text and photos ready, the project moves fast. If the agency has to write the copy, source images and chase approvals, the price and the timeline both grow. Decide early who writes what.
Related: our published pricing.
- Features: booking, payments, accounts, integrations
- Content: who writes the copy and supplies the photos
- Platform: WordPress you edit yourself, or a React build
- Languages and the number of templates
The costs that arrive every year
A website has running costs. The domain renews every year. Hosting is monthly or yearly, and cheap shared hosting is a false saving for a site that has to be fast. Plugins and themes on WordPress often carry yearly licenses, and every site needs updates and backups.
If you want the site to bring in customers rather than just exist, SEO is the largest ongoing line. Our SEO plans start at $1,000 a month; many small businesses start with the site, then add SEO once the pages worth ranking are in place.
- Domain renewal, yearly
- Hosting, monthly or yearly
- Plugin and theme licenses on WordPress
- Updates, backups and security
- SEO, if you want traffic, from $1,000 a month
Planning a first-year budget
Add the build to twelve months of running costs and you have the real first-year number. For a five-page service business on WordPress that is the design and build, plus hosting, domain and maintenance. For a business that needs leads from search, add SEO from the month the site is ready.
Do not spend the whole budget on the launch. Keep something back for the changes you will want after a month of real visitors, because that month always shows something worth fixing.
Related: what a redesign costs instead.
What sites for common industries usually need
A plumber, electrician or contractor usually needs a home page, one page per core service, a service-area page or two and a contact page with a quote form. That fits the five to eight page tiers, and the build is often WordPress so the owner can add projects and photos.
A law firm needs practice area pages and attorney profiles, which pushes most firms to eight pages or more. A clinic needs services, practitioners, insurance information and booking. A restaurant needs a menu that is easy to update, hours, location and online ordering or reservations, often through a service it already uses.
In every case the expensive decision is not the number of pages but the feature with money attached: booking, ordering, payments or a client portal. Price those separately and decide whether you need them on day one.
- Trades: services, service areas, quote form
- Law firms: practice areas and attorney profiles
- Clinics: services, practitioners, booking
- Restaurants: menu, hours, ordering or reservations
When a cheap or DIY site is the right call
A site builder is fine for a new business testing an idea, a one-page event site, or anything temporary. The trade-offs arrive later: limited control over speed and SEO, a design that looks like thousands of others, and a platform you cannot easily leave.
Move to a custom site when the website has a job with money attached, such as booking appointments or selling, and when being found on Google matters. That is the point where the gap between a template and a site built for your business starts to pay.
How to compare quotes
Put every quote on the same basis: the number of pages and templates, the features, who provides the content, the platform, what support is included after launch, and who owns the site. Two quotes that differ by thousands often differ in exactly one of those lines.
Ask for the price fixed in writing. Our terms are the same for every project: a fixed price before work starts, your sign-off at each phase, payment of 30% to start, 40% at review and 30% at launch, and 30 days of fixes after launch.
- Same page count and features
- Same content responsibility
- Same platform and ownership
- Support after launch stated
Five questions to ask before you pay a deposit
Is the price fixed, and what exactly does it cover? How many revision rounds are included? Who writes the content and supplies the images? Who owns the domain, the hosting account, the code and the design files? What happens in the month after launch if something breaks?
A good agency answers all five in writing before you pay anything. If an answer is vague, ask again. Most disappointing website projects can be traced back to one of these five questions nobody asked.
