What a small‑business website costs to build in the US

Who can build your website, and what each charges

You can build it yourself on a builder, or hire a freelancer, a small agency or an established agency. Each published price covers different things. One package includes a year of hosting and care. Another leaves out the words and the web address. Read the table for what each price buys before you compare totals. Marketplace sellers on Fiverr and Upwork can be anywhere in the world, as the marketplaces' own pages say.

Prices in US dollars as each seller published them, before sales tax unless the seller says otherwise. We did not check where each freelancer and small agency is based. Prices are not converted, rounded or averaged.

Why big agencies show no price for a small site

The established agencies we read publish a floor in place of a package price. On Clutch, Lounge Lizard in New York lists a minimum project size of $25,000 and up. Clay in San Francisco and GLIDE in Austin list $50,000 and up, and GLIDE writes, "Projects typically start at $50,000." WebFX publishes a redesign minimum of $8,000 per site. A minimum tells you the smallest job an agency takes. If your budget sits below it, you know before the first call that it is not worth making, and your time goes to sellers who build sites your size.

What your quote leaves out

A quote can look low because parts of your site sit outside it. Copywriting is $900 extra at Succeeding Small. One Upwork seller adds $50 for each extra page. Stock photos are a separate bill. One marketplace gig and two freelancers we read leave out the hosting and the web address. Ask each seller to say in writing which of these your price covers, so nothing lands on a later bill.

What your first year costs, all in

These first years are our own arithmetic, before sales tax. Do it yourself: Squarespace Basic paid yearly ($228) plus one Google Workspace Business Starter email seat on the yearly plan ($84) comes to $312, web address included. Georgia Web Development's $1,995 package covers year one of hosting, the address, the certificate, email and care. Year two adds care at $948 paid annually, the certificate at "typically $99 per year" and the address renewal. At Succeeding Small, the $2,500 site, $900 of copywriting and 12 months of hosting and management ($900) come to $4,300. Ask what year two costs before you sign, and see our upkeep guide for the yearly bill.

How to get quotes you can compare

Quotes differ because each seller prices a different list. When you send every seller the same short brief, they all price the same list. The gaps between your quotes then show real differences in price. You can choose on what each one includes, and you know what you are paying for.

1. Write one short brief and send the same one to everyone: the pages you need by name, what your site must do (a contact form, booking, a shop, a second language), who writes the words and supplies the photos, and that your web address must be registered in your name
2. Have each seller price that list line by line and name what is not included
3. Get the year-two cost in writing: hosting, the address, the certificate, email, care and licences
4. Find out what a change costs after launch, and whether there is a care plan
5. Check the deposit, any minimum term and what it costs to leave with your files
6. Ask whether sales tax is in the price

Is website design taxed, and why Washington differs

There is no federal sales tax in the US. Each state decides. In Washington, from 1 October 2025, custom website development carries retail sales tax. Web hosting and domain registration are not included, so in Washington your build is taxed and your hosting is not. Texas taxes website creation and web hosting as data processing, on 80 percent of the charge. Oregon has no general sales tax. This is general guidance, not tax advice, and an accountant can tell you what applies in your state.

What moves the price of your site

• The kind of builder: a builder plan is a monthly fee, while established agencies publish minimums from $8,000 for a redesign, so this sets your range
• Your page count: starter packages stop at five pages and gigs price by the page, so each page you add can add to the bill
• Who writes the words: copywriting is $900 extra at Succeeding Small
• Booking, a second language or a shop: each adds a monthly fee, such as Acuity Scheduling Starter at $16 a month paid yearly
• What the package bundles: one includes a year of hosting and care, another leaves it out, so two prices buy different things

Traps to check before you sign

• A web address in the builder's name: Chroma Marketing warns it "may legally belong to your web developer", so ask whose name it goes in
• A year-one bundle: Georgia Web Development includes hosting, the address and care for the first year only, then care is "$79.00 Per Month"
• A deposit you cannot get back: tomthedesigner asks for "a non-refundable 50% deposit"
• A site that cannot move: GoDaddy builds on Airo, and Wix's own help page says you cannot host a Wix site anywhere else
• A long contract in place of a build fee: Cindaro in Dallas charges from $99 a month on a 36-month term, with all remaining fees due if you end early and a $1,000 fee for a copy of your site's files

Keeping old page addresses when you replace a site

A new site often gives some pages new addresses, and anyone following an old link, from a search result or a bookmark, then lands on an error page. Google's own guide to moving a site says to list each old address beside its new one, and recommends "server side permanent redirects from the old URLs to the new URLs". It also says to expect search rankings to move for a while as it reads the new site. Ask for that list and the redirects as a line in your quote, so people who arrive at an old address still reach you.

When to keep your current site

If your current site shows the right hours and prices, and your web address is in your name, a new build may change little for you. Spend on the fixes it needs instead. If you need a few pages and have the time, building it yourself on Squarespace Basic is $19 a month paid yearly, or Wix Light $17, with the web address included in year one. Run the free site check first to see who your address is registered with and when it expires.

Where InkySites fits among your options

InkySites builds a fresh version of your site from its public pages, or a first one from your public listings, free, by email within 48 hours, no card. If you like it, it is $29 a month for hosting and unlimited reasonable changes, asked for by email: new text, photos, prices or pages, short of a ground-up redesign or a new store. There is no build fee, setup fee or annual contract, and billing stops when you cancel. We do not sell web addresses or email, or build stores with a cart. Your web address stays yours at your own registrar, and your code comes back whenever you ask, at no cost.

Questions people ask

How we got these prices

We read 140 price, plan, help and tax pages on 8 November 2026, from a US location. Prices are in US dollars as published, never converted or averaged, and the first-year sums are our own arithmetic. Marketplace sellers can be anywhere in the world, and we did not check where each freelancer and small agency is based. A price we did not find may still exist. We re-read and update this page when prices move.

Set a free preview beside your quotes

Get a fresh version of your site, free, by email within 48 hours, no card, and set it beside the quotes you collect. Or run the free site check to see who your web address is registered with and when it expires.

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