What a small business website costs, and what you're actually paying for
By Liam Cohen · · 2 min read
When owners ask me what a website costs, they’re usually comparing two very different things without knowing it: renting a website and owning one.
Renting versus owning
Do-it-yourself site builders and agency “website plans” charge you every month. That looks cheap on day one. But the fee never stops, and if you stop paying, the site goes away. You’re renting.
A custom-built site works the other way. You pay once for the build, and the site is yours: the design, the pages, the words, and the domain. There’s no monthly fee to keep it from being switched off.
Neither is wrong for every business. But if you plan to be open for years, it’s worth doing the math over years, not months.
What drives the price
Every site is different, but the same few things decide most of the cost:
- How many pages. A five-page site and a twenty-page site are different jobs. Smith Insurance Agency needed a separate page for every type of coverage, so they could be found for each one.
- What it needs to do. A wine club sign-up, a quote form, resume uploads, or a link into an online store each add work.
- Words and pictures. If you already have good photos and know what you want to say, it goes faster. If not, that work has to happen somewhere.
- Connections. Anything that ties into a system you already use, like an order system or a booking tool, adds time.
- Being found. Titles, descriptions, and the behind-the-scenes markup that helps Google understand your business should be part of every build, not an add-on.
What a website from me costs
A basic site, built from scratch, starts at $1,000 and is usually ready in 72 hours to a week. Most business sites, with more pages and features, run around $3,000 and take about two weeks from our first conversation to launch. You get a written plan with the price before any work starts.
You pay once. After that, you don’t owe me a monthly fee to keep your site online, because you own it. If you want changes or new pages down the road, those are quoted as you need them.
Questions to ask anyone you hire
- Do I own the site and the domain, or am I renting them?
- What do I pay every month, and what happens if I stop?
- How long until it’s live?
- Will it be built for phones first?
- What’s included to help me show up on Google?
If you’d like a straight answer for your business, tell me what you need and I’ll give you a price in writing.
Common questions
- How much does a small business website cost from Titan Strategies?
- A basic site, built from scratch, starts at $1,000 and is usually ready in 72 hours to a week. Most business sites run around $3,000 and take about two weeks from first conversation to launch, with the price in writing before work starts.
- Is a monthly website builder cheaper than a custom site?
- It's cheaper on day one. Over a few years, a monthly fee keeps adding up, and you never own what you're paying for. With a custom site you pay once and own it.
- What makes one website cost more than another?
- Mostly the number of pages, the features (online ordering, booking, member sign-ups, forms with uploads), how much writing and photography is needed, and whether anything has to connect to other systems you use.
