Short answer: a website costs anything from about $150 a year, if you build it yourself on a website builder, to $45,000 or more for a large custom build. By our estimate of the hours involved, a professionally built small business site typically lands between $2,000 and $18,000. Running costs add roughly $15 to $150 a month for hosting and software, plus any ongoing help you pay for.
The range is wide because "a website" covers everything from a five-page brochure site to an online store with thousands of products. This guide shows where the money goes, using the hours each type of site takes, so you can sense-check any quote you receive.
Website costs at a glance
| Option | Upfront cost | Ongoing cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY website builder | Your time | About $150 to $450 a year | Very small businesses, side projects, testing an idea |
| Template site built for you | $1,000 to $6,000 | Hosting plus occasional updates | Small businesses that need something professional quickly |
| Custom-designed site | $2,000 to $18,000 | Hosting, maintenance, content | Businesses where the website drives leads or sales |
| Large custom site | $7,500 to $45,000+ | Ongoing development | Many pages, integrations, several teams editing |
| Online store | $5,000 to $45,000+ | Platform fees, apps, payments | Selling products online |
What you are actually paying for
Building a website is mostly paid by the hour, even when the quote is a fixed price. So the cleanest way to understand a price is hours multiplied by rate.
For a reference point on rates, the median wage for web developers and digital designers in the US was $47.85 an hour in May 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is what employees earn. Freelancers and agencies charge more, typically $50 to $150 an hour, because the rate also covers their overheads, project management, tools and the time spent finding work.
Here is how that plays out. The hours are our estimates of what each type of site takes to design, build, test and launch properly:
| Type of site | Typical hours | At $50 an hour | At $150 an hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5-page site on a template | 20 to 40 | $1,000 | $6,000 |
| 5 to 10 page custom-designed site | 40 to 120 | $2,000 | $18,000 |
| 20+ page site with a CMS and integrations | 150 to 300 | $7,500 | $45,000 |
| Online store with a custom theme | 100 to 300 | $5,000 | $45,000 |
| Web app or customer portal | 300+ | $15,000+ | $45,000+ |
If a quote is far outside these ranges, ask how many hours it assumes and what they are spent on. A very low quote usually means a template with your logo dropped in. A very high one may include strategy, copywriting, photography or integrations you had not asked about.
What makes a website cost more or less
Custom design or a template
A template gives you a layout someone else designed; you fill it in. Custom design starts from your brand and your customers, and every page is designed for its job. It costs more, but it is usually the difference between a site that looks fine and one that turns visitors into enquiries.
Number of page types, not pages
Fifty blog posts built on one template cost little more than five. What adds cost is the number of different page designs: a home page, service pages, a pricing page, case studies, a blog and a contact page are six templates to design and build.
Content
Copywriting, photography and video are often left out of quotes and then delay the launch. If you need them written or shot for you, budget for it separately. Ready content is also the fastest way to cut the timeline. If you also need a logo, brand guidelines or product graphics, our graphic design services cover those.
Integrations
Connecting the site to a CRM, booking system, payment provider, inventory system or customer login adds hours for setup, testing and handling what happens when something fails. When the integrations are the heart of the project, it is closer to custom software development than a website.
Migrating an existing site
Rebuilding a site that already gets search traffic needs care: every old URL redirected, content carried over, and rankings protected. Our technical SEO audit checklist covers what to check before and after a migration.
Speed and quality standards
Making a site load fast on phones, work for people using screen readers and hold up under traffic takes extra build and testing time. It is worth it: slow sites lose visitors before they see anything.
How much does an ecommerce website cost?
An online store on a hosted platform with a ready-made theme can be set up for a few thousand dollars. A store with a custom theme, product filtering, subscriptions or connections to warehouse and accounting systems usually costs $5,000 to $45,000 or more, depending on the hours involved.
Running costs are higher than for a brochure site. As of October 2026, Shopify's plans start at $19 a month billed yearly, or $25 billed monthly, and go up to $299 to $399 a month for the Advanced plan, before app subscriptions and payment processing fees. Check the current Shopify pricing before you budget, as it changes.
How much does it cost to run a website each month?
- Domain name: usually around $10 to $25 a year for a .com.
- Hosting or platform: website builders such as Squarespace charged $12 to $36 a month for their website plans as of October 2026. Hosting for a custom site ranges from a few dollars to a few hundred a month, depending on traffic and setup.
- SSL certificate: often free through your host. You should not have to pay extra for HTTPS.
- Software and plugins: forms, booking, email marketing and premium plugins can add $10 to $100+ a month.
- Maintenance: updates, backups, security patches and small changes. Either your time or a maintenance plan.
- Marketing: SEO, content and ads are separate budgets. Our guide to how much SEO costs covers that side.
Can you run a website for free?
Technically, yes. Most website builders have a free plan. The catch is that free plans usually put the builder's branding on your site and use their subdomain rather than your own domain, which looks unprofessional for a business. Budget at least for your own domain and a paid plan.
Is $1,500 a good price for a website?
It can be, for the right site. $1,500 is a fair price for a few pages built on a good template by a freelancer, with your content supplied. It is not enough for a custom design, copywriting, integrations or an online store. At $50 an hour it buys about 30 hours of work, and at $100 an hour about 15. Ask what those hours will be spent on.
What a website costs with Orbital
We publish our website prices, so you can compare them with other quotes before we talk:
- Launchpad, $2,500 one-time: a 5-page marketing site with custom design from a brand brief, a CMS for your blog and landing pages, 14-day delivery and 30 days of support after launch.
- Growth Site, $6,500 one-time: a custom 10 to 20 page site with its own design system, CRM and analytics connected, 21-day delivery and 90 days of changes after launch.
- Always-on retainer, $3,400 a month: a dedicated engineer, designer and project manager shipping every week, including hosting, monitoring and updates.
Web apps and online stores are quoted per project after a scoping call. You can see what's included in each package on our web development services page.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Who owns the site, the code and the domain? You should. Make sure the domain is registered in your name and that you can move the site to another host or developer.
- What exactly is included? Number of page designs, rounds of revisions, content, integrations, and whether launch tasks such as redirects and analytics are covered.
- Can my team edit it? Ask for a demo of the editing tools, not just the finished design.
- What happens after launch? How long bugs are fixed for free, what support costs afterwards, and who updates the software.
- How fast will it be? Ask for a speed target in writing, measured on a phone.