Short answer
A small business brochure website typically costs USD $1,500–$5,000, a mid-sized site with custom design and integrations $5,000–$15,000, and an eCommerce store $8,000–$40,000 depending on catalogue size and integrations. Ongoing costs of $20–$300 per month for hosting, maintenance and updates apply on top.
What the price bands actually look like
Quotes for the same brief routinely differ by a factor of ten, which tells you the market is not pricing a commodity. Broadly, a small brochure site of five to ten pages on a standard content management system falls between $1,500 and $5,000. A mid-sized site with bespoke design, twenty or more pages and a couple of integrations runs $5,000 to $15,000. An online store lands anywhere from $8,000 to $40,000, driven mostly by catalogue size and how many other systems it must talk to.
Below about $1,500 you are almost always buying a template with your logo dropped into it. That is not automatically wrong — for a very small business that needs a credible presence quickly it can be entirely sensible — but you should know that is what you are getting rather than believing you commissioned a design.
What actually drives the number
Four things move the price more than anything else. The first is how much of the design is genuinely bespoke, because original layout work is slow. The second is integration: every system the site must connect to — payment, CRM, stock, booking, accounting — adds work that is invisible on the surface. The third is content, since someone has to write and structure it, and if that is not you it is billable. The fourth is the number of distinct page types, which matters far more than the number of pages.
Notice that "number of pages" is not on that list in the way people expect. Fifty pages using three templates is cheaper than eight pages that each need their own layout.
The ongoing costs nobody mentions in the quote
A website is not a one-off purchase. Hosting runs roughly $5 to $50 a month for most business sites. Domain renewal is $10 to $30 a year. A maintenance or care plan covering updates, backups, security patching and small content changes typically costs $30 to $300 a month depending on how much support is included.
You can skip the care plan, and plenty of businesses do. The usual result is a site that goes unpatched for two years and then needs emergency work costing more than the maintenance would have. Budget for it as part of the total cost of ownership rather than treating it as an upsell.
Where website budgets get wasted
The most common waste is paying for bespoke design on pages nobody visits. Analytics almost always show traffic concentrating on the homepage, two or three service pages and contact. Spending equally across thirty pages spreads the budget away from the ones doing the work.
The second is building for a scale you do not have. Elaborate multi-language, multi-currency or membership functionality commissioned "for when we grow" is usually rebuilt anyway by the time growth arrives, because the requirements turn out different from what was imagined.
The third is paying for a rebuild when the existing site needed a content and speed fix. If your site converts badly, establish why before replacing it. Sometimes the design is fine and the copy is the problem.
How to compare quotes properly
Ask each supplier what is excluded, not what is included — the exclusions tell you far more. Ask who owns the site and the code at the end, and be wary of any answer that is not simply "you do". Ask what happens after launch, and what a typical change costs. Ask whether the price includes content, images and testing, because those are the three things most often quietly left out and billed later.
A higher quote that names its exclusions is usually cheaper in the end than a low one that does not.
Key points
- Small brochure site: $1,500–$5,000. Mid-sized: $5,000–$15,000. eCommerce: $8,000–$40,000.
- Cost is driven by bespoke design, integrations, content and page types — not page count.
- Budget $20–$300 a month ongoing for hosting and maintenance from the start.
- Compare quotes on exclusions and ownership, not on the headline figure.
Frequently asked
Why do website quotes vary so much?
Because "website" describes anything from a template with a logo on it to a bespoke application. The variation is usually in how much is original work, how many systems it connects to, and whether content and testing are included.
Is a cheap website ever a good idea?
Yes, for a very small business that needs a credible presence quickly and has no unusual requirements. The risk is only that you believe you bought something bespoke.
How much should I budget for maintenance?
Between $30 and $300 a month depending on how much support and content change you want included. Skipping it entirely usually costs more later.
Written by the Softech Team team. Last reviewed September 2026. This guide is general information, not advice for your specific circumstances.