What a custom website actually costs in 2026
Real numbers, no "it depends." Here is what small-business websites actually cost this year — DIY, template, and custom — and where each one is genuinely the right call.
Nobody asks "what does a website cost?" hoping for a range from $0 to $50,000. They are asking whether the thing they need lands closer to a weekend project or a real investment — and whether the person quoting them is about to disappear halfway through. So let me put actual numbers on the page.
Three honest tiers exist, and they do not compete with each other so much as suit different moments in a business’s life.
Do-it-yourself: $0–500 a year
A Squarespace or Wix subscription runs roughly $200–500 a year once you add a custom domain and a commerce plan. The software is genuinely good now. If you have taste, a Saturday, and a business that is still finding its shape, a stock template is the right answer — and I will happily tell you so on a call rather than sell you something bigger.
What you are really paying with is time, and the ceiling: templates look like templates, and the moment you want something the builder did not anticipate, you hit a wall.
"The right budget is not the biggest one you can justify — it is the one that matches what the site actually has to do."
A polished template setup: $600–2,000
This is the sweet spot most people do not know exists. You (or I) start from a strong template, then spend real effort on the parts that matter: type, spacing, custom CSS, copy that sounds like you, and the handful of tweaks that stop it reading as off-the-shelf. A polished template setup like this is often the best-value thing I sell, and it is the honest answer for a lot of businesses that think they need a full rebuild. (A full Tune-Up Week, a week of hands-on fixes to an existing site, is a separate service at $1,500 to $2,500.)
A custom build: $1,800–12,000+
This is bespoke — designed and built around your business rather than around a template’s assumptions. Roughly where things land in 2026:
What actually moves the number: how many unique page templates you need, whether there is e-commerce or booking logic, how much copywriting is on me versus you, integrations, and how finished the brand already is. A five-page service site is not a fifty-product shop, and pricing them the same would be silly.
The part everyone forgets: ongoing cost
Hosting, domain, and any premium plugins run somewhere from $200 to $1,500 a year depending on platform. Optional care retainers start around $400/mo if you would rather not touch it yourself. Budget for this up front — a site is a garden, not a statue.
And the one rule I hold to regardless of tier: you get a written fixed price before we start. The number you approve is the number you pay. No creep, no surprise invoice, no “that is out of scope” after the fact.