How Much Does a Website Cost in the USA?

The short answer

A small-business website in the USA typically costs $300–$5,000 in 2026. DIY builders (Wix, Squarespace) run $50–$400/year. Freelancers charge $1,500–$5,000. Small agencies charge $3,000–$15,000. Mid-size agencies charge $10,000–$50,000. Enterprise sites run $50,000 and up.

Most small businesses overpay because they compare against agency pricing without realizing that a $500–$1,000 professionally-built site is enough to compete on Google, book leads, and look credible.

DIY website builders: $50–$400 per year

Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify's cheapest plans all fall in this range. You get hosting, a template library, and a drag-and-drop editor. You supply everything else — design taste, copy, SEO knowledge, and the 20–40 hours to actually build the site.

This tier makes sense if you have design skills, patience, and no immediate revenue riding on the site. It's a bad choice if your time is worth more than $25/hour, because you'll spend $1,000+ in your own time to save $500 in build cost.

Cheap professional websites: $299–$999

A newer tier of "cheap professional" web design has emerged in the last few years. Providers like us build one-page to five-page sites for $299–$999 by using proven templates as starting points, working remotely, and skipping the parts of a big-agency engagement that don't matter for small businesses.

You get real design work, real SEO fundamentals, and a build that's ready to rank — without the $5,000 price tag. The trade-off: less customization, tighter revision limits, and no in-person meetings.

Freelance web designers: $1,500–$5,000

A solid freelancer will build a 5–10 page custom site for $1,500–$5,000 depending on scope and their experience level. Timeline is usually 3–6 weeks. You get custom design work, some SEO, and hopefully clean code.

Quality varies wildly. A $3,000 freelancer can deliver something better than a $10,000 agency, or something that dies six months later when their WordPress plugins go out of date. Ask for portfolio links and check page speed on their previous work before you hire.

Small agencies: $3,000–$15,000

A small local agency will run a proper discovery process, design 10–20 pages, handle copywriting, and set up analytics. Timeline is 6–12 weeks. You get more polish and accountability than a freelancer, at 2–3x the price.

Worth it if you have complex requirements — custom integrations, ecommerce over 100 SKUs, membership functionality — or if you want a real team you can call when something breaks.

Mid-size and enterprise agencies: $10,000–$50,000+

Above $10,000, you're paying for headcount: account managers, project managers, dedicated designers, dedicated developers, and a QA process. Timeline is 3–6 months. Worth it for brands doing $1M+ in revenue with real digital marketing budgets.

Below $1M in revenue, this tier is almost always overkill. You'll get a beautiful site that took six months to build for a business that needed to launch in six weeks.

Hidden costs to budget for

Domain registration: $10–$20/year. Hosting: $60–$300/year for small business, more for high-traffic. SSL: usually free with modern hosting. Stock photos: $0–$200. Custom photography: $500–$2,000 if you need it. Copywriting: $500–$3,000 if you don't want to write it yourself. Ongoing maintenance: $50–$300/month.

How to pick the right tier

Under $1M in revenue and just need to look credible + rank locally: cheap professional ($299–$999) is the right answer.

$1M–$5M with real digital marketing plans: freelancer or small agency ($3,000–$10,000).

$5M+ with a marketing team and complex requirements: mid-size agency ($15,000+).

Skip DIY unless you already have design skills and the site isn't tied to revenue.

If you want this done for you at a small-business price, our cheap website design service ships a launch-ready site in 5–7 days from $299.