Website Cost Calculator
Pick the kind of site, how many pages, the features and who builds it. You get a low, typical and high estimate from published 2026 price ranges, split into one-time and yearly costs.
Your project
Breakdown
| Item | Low | Typical | High | Based on |
|---|
What a website costs in 2026
Most published price guides land in the same place. A landing page costs a few hundred dollars if you build it yourself and a few thousand if an agency does. A 5 to 10 page small business site runs about $1,500 to $5,000 with a freelancer and $5,000 to $15,000 with an agency. Online stores and booking sites cost more because checkout, inventory and calendars take real development time. Custom web apps start around $10,000 and have no real ceiling.
The table below is the base range the calculator starts from, before extra pages and features. It is built from the WPZOOM, WebsiteSetup and WRTeam price tables listed at the end of this page.
| Site type | DIY builder | Freelancer | Agency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landing page | $100 to $500 | $500 to $1,500 | $2,000 to $5,000 |
| Small business site | $300 to $1,000 | $1,500 to $5,000 | $5,000 to $15,000 |
| Blog or content site | $100 to $800 | $2,000 to $6,000 | $5,000 to $15,000 |
| Online store | $1,000 to $5,000 | $3,000 to $10,000 | $10,000 to $25,000 |
| Service site with booking | $500 to $2,000 | $3,000 to $8,000 | $8,000 to $20,000 |
| Custom web app | not applicable | $10,000 to $25,000 | $25,000 to $100,000 |
How this calculator works
Each site type has a published range per builder. A template build uses the lower half of that range and a custom design the upper half, because the design is what moves a quote the most. Pages beyond what the range covers are added at a per-page price taken from the gap between the one-page and the 5 to 10 page ranges in the WPZOOM table.
Features a freelancer or agency adds are priced as setup hours times an hourly rate. Freelancer rates are $50 to $95 an hour (WebsiteSetup). Agency rates are $25 to $49 an hour worldwide and $100 to $149 in the US, Canada and Australia (Clutch), so the agency range is wide on purpose. The hour counts are the ones I use when I scope a project:
| Feature | Setup hours | Not included |
|---|---|---|
| Second language | 6 to 16 | The translation itself |
| Online booking | 8 to 24 | The booking app subscription (yearly line) |
| Online payments | 6 to 16 | Transaction fees, for example Stripe's 2.9% + 30 cents per card payment in the US |
| Blog or CMS setup | 4 to 12 | Writing the articles |
| SEO setup | 4 to 12 | Ongoing SEO work and content |
Copywriting uses NEWMEDIA's $300 to $1,000 per page ($750 to $3,000 for a landing page), and logo design uses ManyPixels' ranges per provider type. "Typical" is the midpoint of each line, added up.
DIY builder, freelancer or agency
A builder like Wix or Squarespace is the cheapest way to get online and the right call for a simple site you will update yourself. You pay in time instead of money, and a monthly plan for as long as the site exists. A freelancer costs more up front and gets you a site that someone with experience has set up properly: speed, mobile layout, forms that work, tracking. An agency adds strategy, a designer and a project manager, which matters when several people on your side need to sign off. For a 5 to 10 page business site, a good freelancer is usually the best value. For a store with hundreds of products or a site with integrations, the extra people at an agency start to pay for themselves.
The costs that come back every year
The build is only the first bill. A domain costs $10 to $25 a year, and hosting $40 to $250 a year for a normal business site (WebsiteSetup). Builder plans replace hosting and run $204 to $1,440 a year. Premium plugins and apps add $50 to $500 a year each (WRTeam). Paid maintenance, meaning updates, backups and small fixes, costs $50 to $200 a month from a freelancer (FormGrid) and up to $300 a month from an agency for security monitoring and updates (WRTeam). Online stores also pay a fee on every sale. Tick the yearly items in the calculator to see the first-year total, not just the build price.
What pushes a quote up
- Custom design. A designer drawing every page from scratch takes longer than adapting a good template, and it shows in the price.
- Content that does not exist yet. Missing text and photos are the most common reason a project runs late. Writing and photography are usually not in a web quote.
- Integrations. Connecting a CRM, a booking system, a payment provider or an inventory feed adds testing as well as building.
- Rounds of revisions and a short deadline. Both cost hours someone has to bill.
- Migration. Moving an old site while keeping its search traffic means redirect mapping and checks, which is work most cheap quotes leave out.
Where these numbers come from
I did not make these prices up and they are not what I charge. Every range is from a price list, survey or pricing page published online, checked in October 2026. Vendor-written guides can lean toward their own services, so treat every figure as a planning estimate.
- WPZOOM, Business website cost. Table by site type and builder: one-page site $100-500 DIY, $500-1,500 freelancer, $2,000-5,000 agency; small business site (5-10 pages) $300-1,000 / $1,500-5,000 / $5,000-15,000; service site with custom features $500-2,000 / $3,000-8,000 / $8,000-20,000+; ecommerce $1,000-5,000 / $3,000-10,000 / $10,000-25,000+; custom web app $10,000-25,000+ freelancer, $25,000-100,000+ agency. Domain $10-20/yr, hosting $10-30/month.
- WebsiteSetup, Small business website costs (2026). Freelance WordPress developers $50-95/hour, 40-80 hours, $2,000-7,600 for a small business site; full-service agency $5,000-15,000. Website builder plans $17-120/month ($204-1,440/yr). DIY WordPress maintenance $60-150/yr. Domain $12-25/yr, hosting $40-250/yr.
- WRTeam, How much does a website really cost in 2026. Business website with CMS: $2,000-6,000 freelancer, $5,000-15,000 small agency. Ecommerce $3,000-12,000 freelancer, $8,000-25,000 small agency. Plugin or theme licenses $50-500+/yr. Security monitoring and updates $50-300/month. Hosting $10-500+/month.
- FormGrid via DEV Community, Small business website cost in 2026. Freelance web designer $500-5,000; small local agency $3,000-8,000. Plugin or software updates $50-200/month. Hosting $10-50/month, domain renewal $10-20/yr. Copy and photography add $500-2,000 to most projects.
- Clutch, Web development pricing guide (updated Sept 2026). Average web development company rate $25-49/hour worldwide; $100-149/hour in the United States, Canada and Australia.
- NEWMEDIA, Copywriting rates (updated Aug 2026). A simple website page costs $300-1,000 to write; a strategic landing page $750-3,000+. Freelance copywriters $50-150/hour.
- ManyPixels, Logo design cost guide 2026. Logo design: DIY or AI tools $0-50 (logo makers $20-200), freelancers $300-2,000, agencies $3,000-10,000+.
- WPML pricing. Multilingual plugin for WordPress: EUR 39, 99 or 199 per year including updates.
- Stripe pricing. US domestic cards: 2.9% + 30 cents per successful transaction.
How to get an accurate quote
Send any developer the same short brief and the quotes become comparable: what the site is for, a list of pages, the features you need, two or three sites you like, who writes the content, and when you need it live. Ask for the price in writing with the number of revisions and what happens after launch. If you want a quote from me, the contact page takes two minutes.