How Much Does a Business Website Cost in 2026? Real Prices

Legacies is a software and web studio from Romania, founded by Horia Stan and Alexandru Talnaci, that builds websites, landing pages and web apps for businesses worldwide. We get asked about price more than anything else, so here is the honest version.

A professional business website in 2026 usually costs between $1,000 and $15,000 to build, depending on who builds it and where they are based. A DIY builder costs a few hundred dollars a year instead. The build price is only half the story: hosting, domain, subscriptions and maintenance decide what you really pay over three years.

Quick answer

• DIY website builder: roughly $200 to $500 a year on a paid plan, plus your own time.
• Freelancer or small studio: usually $1,000 to $10,000 for a 4-6 page site, depending on location and how custom the work is.
• Full-service agency: often $10,000 and up, with US agencies at the top of the range.
• Running costs: budget for a domain, hosting or a platform subscription, and maintenance every year after launch.

Website cost at a glance

Here is the market in one table. These are rough ranges, not quotes. Builder fees come from official pricing pages. Agency numbers come from Clutch's web design pricing guide, which collects data from client reviews of thousands of agencies. Freelancer and studio ranges are our own estimate, based on Clutch's hourly rates and the hours a small site usually takes.

Clutch reports that most web design projects reviewed on its platform cost under $10,000, while the overall range runs from $2,000 to $100,000. At the time of writing, its listed average project cost is a little over $38,000. That average is pulled up by big projects, so do not treat it as the price of a small business site.

Why website prices vary so much

The same 5-page site can cost $800 or $15,000. That gap is not random. It usually comes down to four things.

Where the team is based

Labor is most of the cost. According to the same Clutch guide, web design companies in the US, Canada and Australia typically charge $100 to $149 an hour. In the UK it is $50 to $99. In countries like Poland, Spain, Ukraine or Mexico it is $25 to $49. A project that takes 40 hours lands in very different places depending on that rate.

This is also why more businesses now work with remote studios. Quality depends on the team, not the country. What matters is clear written communication, a fixed price and someone who answers after launch.

Template or custom code

A template is cheaper because nobody writes new code. Someone configures an existing theme. That works, but it limits what you can change later. Templates also tend to load slowly, because they ship far more code than your site needs.

A custom build is written for your business. It costs more up front, but it is usually faster, cleaner for SEO and easier to extend. We explain the trade-offs in detail in our comparison of Wix vs WordPress vs a custom website.

How much the team does beyond code

Copywriting, photos, SEO setup, analytics and a contact form that actually reaches you all take time. Some quotes include them. Some leave them out and add them later. When you compare two offers, compare what is included, not only the number at the bottom.

Who is responsible after launch

A cheap site with no support often becomes expensive the first time something breaks. Libraries age, security patches come out, and forms stop sending email. Ask who fixes things in month seven, and what that costs.

The running costs most quotes leave out

The build is a one-off. These costs come back every year. Prices below are from official pricing pages at the time of writing and can change.

The .com increase is documented by Openprovider. Hosting prices are from Hostinger's web hosting page. Builder prices are from Wix's plans page, which notes that prices and currency vary by location.

Watch the gap between intro and renewal prices. It is one of the most common surprises we see. A plan that costs $2.99 a month today can cost more than three times as much when it renews.

What a fair price should include

Whatever you pay, a professional business website should come with a few basics. If a quote does not mention them, ask.

• A design that works well on phones first, not only on desktop.
• Fast loading. Your visitors should not wait.
• Basic SEO setup: page titles, descriptions, clean URLs and structured data.
• A working contact form that you have tested yourself.
• Analytics, so you know how many people visit.
• Full access to the code, the hosting and the domain, in your name.
• A clear support period after launch.

Search is also changing. Your site is now read by AI assistants as well as Google, and that shapes how it should be structured. We wrote about this in how AI crawlers are changing what a business website is for.

What we charge

We build custom sites with a fixed price. The quote comes within 48 hours of our first chat, and what is in the quote is what you pay. Prices are in Romanian lei, with approximate euro amounts at the October 2026 exchange rate.

Every project includes 30 days of support after delivery, and you get all the access and files. Maintenance is optional. It covers monitoring, monthly technical updates, weekly backups and 2 hours of edits each month. The full details are on our services page, and you can see what we have built on our projects page.

We write our sites in Next.js, the same stack we use for our own products. If you want the technical reasoning, here is why we choose the Next.js App Router.

When you need more than a business website

If you want to take orders, give users accounts or run a workflow more complex than a contact form, you are not buying a website anymore. You are buying a web app. The price then depends on features, and a fixed number on a pricing page means little until someone understands the scope.

Web apps also need ongoing care. Frameworks ship security fixes that should be applied quickly. We cover that side in Next.js security patches are now a product maintenance task.

Red flags when you get a quote

The clearest warning sign is not a high or low price. It is a lack of clarity.

1. No fixed price after a real conversationIf the provider still says "it depends" after understanding what you need, the final bill will likely grow along the way.
2. No delivery date in writingA serious team can commit to a timeline and tell you early if something changes.
3. The domain or hosting is registered in their nameYour domain and accounts should belong to you. Otherwise leaving later gets painful.
4. Nothing about what happens after launchAsk about the support period and the cost of maintenance before you sign.

For a longer checklist, read our guide on how to choose a web design agency.

Do it yourself or hire someone

Build it yourself on a builder if you are just starting, your budget is a few hundred dollars and the site is not your main source of clients. You will spend time instead of money, and that is a fair trade early on.

Hire someone when clients find you on Google or ask an AI assistant before they contact you. At that point speed, structure and trust matter, and a site that converts pays for itself. If you are not sure which side you are on, start with the free audit or send us a message through our services page. We reply with a fixed price, not a sales pitch.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should a small business pay for a website in 2026?

Most small businesses pay between $1,000 and $10,000 for a professionally built 4-6 page website, depending on where the team is based and how custom the work is. A DIY builder costs roughly $200 to $500 a year on a paid plan instead, but you do the work yourself. Whatever you choose, add yearly costs for the domain, hosting or platform fees, and maintenance.

Why do web design agencies charge so much more than freelancers?

Agencies carry more overhead, such as account managers, project managers and sales teams, and that cost shows up in the price. Location matters too, since Clutch data shows US agencies typically charge $100 to $149 an hour while teams in parts of Europe charge $25 to $49. A higher price can buy more process, but it does not guarantee better code or faster support.

What are the hidden costs of owning a website?

The usual hidden costs are hosting renewals that jump after the intro period, yearly domain renewals, paid plugin and theme licenses, and maintenance. For example, at the time of writing Hostinger's Premium shared hosting starts at $2.99 a month on a 48-month term but renews at $10.99 a month. Ask for these numbers before you sign anything.

How much does website maintenance cost per month?

It depends on the platform and what is included, but most providers charge a monthly fee that covers updates, backups, monitoring and some small edits. At Legacies, maintenance is 499 lei a month, about EUR 95, or 3,999 lei a year, and includes monitoring, monthly technical updates, weekly backups and 2 hours of edits. WordPress sites with many plugins usually need maintenance the most.

Is it cheaper to build a website with Wix or to hire a developer?

Wix is cheaper in the first year, because you only pay a plan fee, which starts at $17.77 a month with yearly billing for the Light plan at the time of writing. Over three years, though, the subscription adds up, and you can never move the site to another host. A custom site costs more up front but has no platform rent and belongs to you.

How long does it take to build a business website?

A simple landing page can take one to two weeks, and a 4-6 page business site usually takes two to four weeks with a focused team. At Legacies, a landing page takes 7-10 days and a business website takes 14-21 days. Web apps take longer and the timeline depends on the features you need.