How Much Does a Website Cost? Prices by Type of Site
What a website costs depends on who builds it. Here are the figures we could confirm, a worked quote and how to explain one.
Robbert Veer, Founder
7 min read
How much does a website cost? A site you build yourself costs a monthly subscription and your own time. A site built for you costs hours times an hourly rate. US web design companies listed on Clutch, a directory of agencies, charge around $100 to $149 an hour, and most projects reviewed there cost less than $10,000.
How much does a website cost, by type?
It depends on who builds it. There are four types of new website, and each is priced in a different way.
| Type | How it is priced | When you pay | What we could confirm |
|---|---|---|---|
| A site you build on a website builder | A subscription, plus your own hours | Every month or year | Shopify, which sells a store builder, says its plans start at $39 a month, or $29 a month paid annually, on a page updated September 4, 2026 |
| A template site set up by a freelancer | Hours times the freelancer's rate | Once, plus hosting | No current US rate that we could read at its source |
| A custom site from an agency | Hours times the agency's rate | Once, plus hosting and care | $100 to $149 an hour at US companies listed on Clutch, in its pricing guide updated September 21, 2026 |
| An online store | A platform fee, setup hours and payment fees | Once and every month | The Shopify and Clutch figures above |
One cell has no dollar figure, and that is on purpose. Most pages on this topic print a range for every line. Two of the five we read named no source for any figure. We left a cell empty where we could not read a figure at its source.
If you already have a site, the sum is different. Our guide to website redesign cost covers it.
What decides the cost of a website?
Two numbers decide the cost of a website. One is the hours the job takes, and the other is the hourly rate of whoever does it. On a builder the hours are yours. With a freelancer or an agency you pay for theirs.
Four things add hours.
- Pages and templates. Eight pages on two layouts is a small job. Sixty pages on nine layouts is a large one.
- Content. Copy and photos you supply cost less than copy and photos made for you.
- Features. A contact form is quick. Booking, payments and customer logins are slow.
- Decisions. One person who signs off saves hours. A committee adds them.
The rate starts from a wage. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median wage of web developers and digital designers at $47.85 an hour in May 2025, which is $99,520 a year. That is what an employed designer earns. An agency charges more than the wage, because its rate also pays for hours nobody can bill, software, sales and management. Clutch's $100 to $149 an hour is 2.1 to 3.1 times that wage.
What does a worked quote look like?
A quote is a list of jobs with hours against each one. This one is for Canal Street Plumbing at canalstreetplumbing.example, a made-up plumber who needs a new 8-page site. The hours are our own estimates.
| Job | Hours |
|---|---|
| Goals and page list | 5 |
| Copy, edited from the owner's notes | 8 |
| Design, 2 templates | 16 |
| Build, 8 pages | 22 |
| Forms, tracking and booking link | 5 |
| Testing and launch | 6 |
| Project management | 6 |
| Total | 68 |
At $100 an hour, 68 hours is $6,800. At $149 it is $10,132. The low end sits under Clutch's line that most projects cost less than $10,000, and the high end sits just over it. Clutch does not split that project figure by country.
The builder version of the same site uses a different sum. Take the plan price times 12, then add your own hours. If the plan were $30 a month and the site took you 40 hours, the first year would cost $360 and a full working week. Both of those numbers are made up to show the sum.
What does a website cost each year after launch?
A website has running costs every year, whoever built it. Ask for each one as a yearly figure on the quote.
- The domain name, which renews every year.
- Hosting, or the builder subscription that includes it.
- Paid software, such as a booking tool or plugins.
- Care, meaning updates, backups and fixes.
- Content changes, such as new prices, staff and photos.
We give no ranges for these five, because we could not read any at a source that publishes its data. A quote that leaves them out is unfinished. Our guide to website maintenance plans covers what care should include.
Which type of website does a business need?
The type depends on how customers find the business and what one new customer is worth.
| Your situation | Type that fits |
|---|---|
| You are starting out and customers come by word of mouth | Build it yourself |
| Customers search before they call, and the site has to bring leads | A freelancer or an agency |
| You sell products online | An online store |
| Your site exists and loses you customers | A redesign |
Then run one sum with your own numbers. Suppose a new customer is worth $2,000 and a better site brings one more each month. A $6,800 site has paid for itself in the fourth month. All three numbers are made up. Put yours in before you decide.
How should an agency explain a quote?
Show the owner the hours, split one-time costs from yearly ones and offer three sizes. This section is for the agency or freelancer on the other side of the question.
- Start from what they read. An owner who searched this question has seen ranges too wide to use. Give them a sum they can check.
- Put hours against every job. A table of jobs and hours answers "why so much?" before it is asked.
- Split once from yearly. The build is paid once. Hosting and care come back every year.
- Say what is left out. Photos, copywriting and paid software are easy to forget.
- Offer three sizes. Our guide to web design packages shows how to set them.
- Use their numbers. Ask what a customer is worth and do the payback sum together.
Who you quote matters as much as how you quote. An owner comparing prices has no reason to pay more than the lowest bid. An owner whose site hides the phone number on a phone has a problem you can point at. We scored 20,000 company websites and sent 3,570 cold emails. Businesses with the weakest 20% of sites replied positively about 3.2 times as often as a random sample of the rest. The test covered Dutch companies and email only, and the method is in our write-up.
Leadodo is software for web design and marketing agencies. It finds businesses, scores their websites and runs outreach to the ones with the weakest sites. Your Outbound Machine sends that outreach under your agency's name.
To set your own rate, read how much to charge for a website. The quote itself belongs in a web design proposal.
Questions
How much does a website cost for a small business?
It depends on who builds it. A builder site costs a monthly subscription and your own time. Clutch reports rates of around $100 to $149 an hour at US agencies and says most projects it reviews cost less than $10,000. Our made-up 8-page example came to 68 hours.
How much does it cost to build a website yourself?
You pay the builder's subscription, a domain name and your own hours. Multiply the monthly plan price by 12 for the yearly cost. Then count the hours, because a week spent on the site is a week away from customers.
How much does a website cost per month?
After launch, the monthly cost is the hosting or builder subscription, plus any care plan and paid software. Ask for these as yearly figures on the quote and divide by 12.
Why do web designers charge so much?
The price is mostly time. The median US wage for web developers and digital designers was $47.85 an hour in May 2025, and an agency's rate also covers software, sales and hours nobody can bill. A 68-hour job cannot cost what a template does.
Is a free website good enough for a business?
Check three things on any free plan. Can you use your own domain name? Does the builder's branding show on your pages? Can you take bookings or payments? If any answer disappoints, price the paid plan instead.
Next step. If you run an agency, quote the businesses whose sites need the work most. See how Leadodo finds and scores them.
