How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost? What You Get at Each Budget

Ask five web designers for a price and you can get five answers that differ by ten times. That is not always because someone is overcharging. "A website" can mean a one-page brochure built from a template, or a fifty-page site with custom design, booking and integrations. This guide explains what actually drives the cost, so you can compare quotes like for like.

The short answer

Most small business websites fall into one of three levels: a template site you build yourself, a professionally built business website, or a custom site with features such as booking, ordering or customer logins. The middle option, a professionally designed site with your own pages, forms and SEO basics, is what most service businesses, contractors, manufacturers and clinics need. Our business website service shows current DevGlim prices.

What drives the price

• Number of pages and templates. Ten pages built from two templates cost less than ten pages that each need a unique layout.
• Design. Adapting a well-made theme is quicker than designing every page from scratch.
• Content. If you provide finished text and photos, the project is faster. Copywriting and photography add cost.
• Features. Online booking, payments, product catalogues, customer logins and multi-language content each add work.
• Integrations. Sending forms to a CRM, syncing with a booking calendar or connecting to accounting takes setup and testing.
• Migration. Moving an old site means redirecting old URLs so you keep the search visibility you already have.

What a professionally built business website should include

• A page plan built around what your buyers look for, with one page per main service
• Responsive design that works properly on phones
• Contact and quote forms that are tested and delivered to the right inbox
• A content management system so you can edit pages yourself
• Titles, descriptions, headings, a sitemap and basic schema for search engines
• Fast loading: compressed images, caching and no unnecessary plugins
• Analytics with form tracking, so you know where enquiries come from
• SSL, hosting setup and a walkthrough at handover

If a quote leaves out several of these, it is not cheaper, it is smaller.

Ongoing costs to plan for

• Domain name, renewed yearly.
• Hosting, monthly or yearly depending on the provider and traffic.
• Maintenance: updates, backups and security monitoring, either done by you or on a support plan.
• Content: new pages, projects and news keep the site useful and visible.

How to compare quotes

1. Ask for the page list and which pages get a unique design.
2. Check who writes the content and who supplies photos.
3. Confirm forms, analytics, SEO basics and speed optimisation are included.
4. Ask who owns the domain, hosting account and site files. It should be you.
5. Ask what happens after launch: edits, support and response times.

Template builder or professional site?

A website builder is a reasonable start for a brand-new business with a tight budget and time to spare. It becomes a false economy when the site has to win business on its own: when buyers compare you with competitors, when you need a page for each service and area, or when nobody has time to maintain it. Not sure where your current site stands? Run the free website health check.