Website · Costs
How much does a small business website cost, and why there is no one price for everyone
A small business website can cost little or a lot, and that is not a figure of speech: it depends on what you need. More than the starting price, it pays to understand what makes it change, and which costs come back every year, because those are the ones almost nobody explains.
Why there is no price list
A custom website is built around whoever uses it: a garage and an architecture practice need different things. Whoever shows you a fixed price, the same for everyone, is usually selling you a ready-made template with your logo on it. That is not necessarily wrong, but it is a different thing, and you should know. That is why we do not publish prices: we quote once we understand what you need.
What pushes the price up
- The number of pages, and above all how different they are from each other.
- The text: whether it exists already, or needs writing.
- The photos: whether you have them, or they need taking.
- Languages: every extra language means more text, more checks, more pages.
- Features: bookings, forms, a catalogue, a private area.
- The design: an identity designed from scratch or an existing structure.
What brings it down
Being clear about what you want the site to do: get you calls, take bookings, show your work. Having text and photos ready. And choosing a few pages that say a lot, instead of many pages repeating the same thing: they cost less and work better, on Google too.
The yearly costs
After launch, a site has three costs that come back: the domain, the server it runs on and maintenance, the updates that keep it safe. They are the least visible in quotes, and they weigh most over the years. Always get them in writing. What maintenance covers, and what you risk without it, is in Website maintenance.
Why you should not pick the server on your own
Just open a few providers' offers: how much RAM, how many CPUs, how much bandwidth, how much storage, disks of this or that kind, at prices that change after the first year. Comparing them is hard for people who work in the field, let alone for those who do not. That is why we manage domain, server and maintenance ourselves: we pick the server for the site it has to run, not from the price list. The logins stay with you anyway.
Why one year
We offer server and domain for one year. A year is a sensible investment: the right amount of time to see whether the site brings in customers. Doing it for a few months makes no sense: Google takes weeks just to get to know a new site properly, and anyone expecting to double their customers in a month is disappointed just as the site starts to work. If after a year the site is not useful to you, you simply do not renew.
How to compare two quotes
- What is included, page by page and feature by feature?
- Who writes the text and who provides the photos?
- How much does it cost each year after the first, and what does that include?
- Whose name are the domain and the logins in?
- If I switch supplier, what do I take with me?
More useful questions are in Who builds your website: the questions to ask. If you would like a quote, tell us what you need.