How much does a small-business website cost?

“It depends” is the honest answer, and the most frustrating one. A small-business website can cost anything from nothing to a serious investment, and the difference rarely shows on the home page. We don’t publish price lists, and we won’t make up numbers here. What we can do is explain what drives the cost, so you can compare quotes properly and spot the ones that hide something.

What actually drives the price

Scope. The number of pages matters least. What matters is what each page has to do: show a menu, take a booking, sell a product, rank in search. A five-page presentation site and a five-page site with online booking are very different jobs.

Design. A custom design built around your brand takes more time than adapting a ready-made template, and it looks different for a reason. Ask which one you are being quoted, and whether you can see the design before anything is built.

Content. Texts, photos and translations take time too, whether you write them, we do, or a copywriter does. A quote that assumes you will deliver everything on day one often grows later.

Languages. Every language needs translated texts, its own address and ongoing upkeep. Choose languages by your customers; each extra language adds work. We wrote about doing multilingual sites right.

Features and integrations. Online booking, payments, a customer account area, a link to your calendar or stock system: each one means extra design, development and testing.

One-off and recurring costs

A website has a build cost and running costs, and both belong on the quote:

• the domain name, renewed every year;
• hosting, which depends on the size and traffic of the site;
• business email, if you want addresses at your own domain;
• care: updates, backups, security fixes and the changes you ask for;
• for shops, the fees your payment provider charges per transaction, separate from the agency’s price.

Also check whether the price includes sales tax or VAT, and at which country’s rate. Rates differ by country (for example 21% for Spain’s IVA and 20% for UK VAT), so a quote that doesn’t say can end up noticeably higher than it looks.

What changes for a shop or an app

An online shop adds products, variants, stock, payments, delivery rules and legal information, so it takes longer to build and test than a presentation site. A bakery with an order cut-off before each bake day needs different logic from a boutique with sizes, so good scoping starts from how you sell today. Our online shop service page shows what we set up.

A mobile app is a bigger step: native apps for iPhone and Android, store reviews, subscriptions and updates for every new version of the operating systems. For many small businesses a good website is the better first step, and an honest developer will tell you so. The mobile app service page explains how we approach it.

What a good written quote includes

• Exactly what is included: pages, features, languages and rounds of changes.
• A timeline with the stages: design, build, testing, launch.
• What you need to supply (texts, photos, logo) and by when.
• Who owns the website, the design and the code once it is paid for.
• What happens after launch and what it costs: hosting, care, changes.
• How and when you pay, and anything charged separately.

Red flags

• No written quote, or a price that changes once work has started.
• A “free” or very cheap site you rent monthly, which you cannot take with you if you leave.
• A domain registered in the agency’s name instead of yours.
• No mention of mobile speed, search or what happens after launch.
• No live examples you can visit and judge for yourself.

How we quote

We don’t sell packages. After a free first conversation we send a clear written proposal with scope, timeline and a fixed price, usually within a day or two, and you only pay for what you actually need. You own the design, content and code we build for you. If you’d like a second opinion on another quote, tell us about your project and we’ll go through it honestly, including whether you need everything that’s in it. The website design service page has the details.