How Much Does It Cost to Build a Website in 2026?
How much does it cost to build a website in 2026? $0 to $50 a month on a builder, $500 to $5,000 with a freelancer, $5,000 to $50,000+ with an agency. Line-by-line costs for domain, hosting, design, content and upkeep.
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Short answer (updated September 19, 2026): building a website costs $0 to $50 a month if you do it yourself on a website builder, $500 to $5,000 one time with a freelancer, and $5,000 to $50,000 or more with an agency. Add about $10 to $25 a year for a domain. For most small businesses the real first-year cost lands between $200 and $5,000.
Build your business website. Start free with a template site and publish it on a we.inc address, no card. Or describe your business in one prompt and the We.Inc AI builder drafts the whole site, on paid plans from $20/mo. Start building free, or start from a design made for plumbers, restaurants or consultants.
Get your own number in under a minute. The free website cost calculator asks how many pages you need, who builds the site and which extras you want (store, booking, blog), then gives you a first-year and yearly running estimate. Open the website cost calculator.
Which cost guide is this? This page covers the full cost to build a website: every line on the bill from domain to launch to year-two upkeep. If you only want to price the design work itself (templates vs a freelance designer vs an agency), read website design cost. For custom features and coding, see website development cost.
Website cost at a glance: who builds it decides the price
| Who builds it | What you pay | What you get for it |
|---|---|---|
| You, on a website builder | $0 to $50 a month | A template or AI draft you finish yourself |
| A freelancer | $500 to $5,000 once | A site set up for you, usually from a template or light custom design |
| An agency | $5,000 to $50,000+ once | Strategy, original design, copy and project management |
Whichever row you pick, add a domain at $10 to $25 a year and plan for upkeep after launch.
That range is wide because "a website" can mean a one-page card for a local plumber or a 200-page store with custom checkout. This guide breaks the price into the parts you actually pay for, so you can see where your own project falls and where the money goes.
TL;DR
- Do it yourself on a builder: $0 to $600 in year one.
- Freelancer: $500 to $5,000 for a typical small business site.
- Agency: $5,000 to $50,000+, higher for stores and custom apps.
- Always add: a domain ($10 to $25 a year) and a plan for upkeep.
- Quick estimate: our free website cost calculator gives you a number in under a minute.
How much does a website cost? The three routes compared
The biggest decision is who builds it. Everything else follows from that.
| Route | Upfront cost | Monthly cost | Time to launch | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free builder plan | $0 | $0 | An afternoon | Testing an idea, personal projects |
| Paid builder plan (DIY) | $0 | $15 to $50 | 1 to 3 days | Most small businesses |
| AI website builder | $0 | $0 to $50 | Under an hour for a first draft | Owners who do not want to learn an editor |
| Freelancer | $500 to $5,000 | $0 to $150 | 2 to 6 weeks | A custom look without agency prices |
| Small agency | $5,000 to $25,000 | $100 to $500 | 1 to 3 months | Businesses that want strategy and copy included |
| Large agency or custom build | $25,000 to $150,000+ | $500+ | 3 to 9 months | Stores, portals, custom functionality |
These are typical market ranges from published pricing pages and freelance marketplaces, not quotes. Your location and scope move them a lot. A freelancer in a high-cost city will often charge double what one elsewhere charges for the same five pages.
Website creation cost, line by line
Whichever route you choose, the same building blocks show up on the bill. Here is what each one costs on its own.
| Item | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | $10 to $25 a year | .com is usually $10 to $20; watch renewal prices. See how much a domain costs. |
| Hosting | $0 to $50 a month | Included in builder plans. See website hosting costs. |
| SSL certificate | $0 | Free on every major builder and host through Let's Encrypt. |
| Design | $0 to $10,000+ | Template (free) to fully original design. See website design cost. |
| Development | $0 to $50,000+ | Only large if you need custom features. See website development cost. |
| Copywriting | $0 to $300 a page | Many owners write their own; AI builders draft it for you. |
| Photos | $0 to $1,500 | Stock is free or cheap; a half-day local shoot is the upper end. |
| Business email | About $6 to $8 per user a month | Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 entry plans. |
| Maintenance | $0 to $300 a month | See website maintenance cost. |
Notice that only two lines are unavoidable: the domain and somewhere to host the site. Everything else is a choice about how much of the work you want to buy rather than do.
How much would it cost to make a website yourself?
If you build it yourself, you pay for the platform and the domain, and you pay in time.
- Free plan: $0. You get a subdomain such as yourname.wixsite.com or yourname.we.inc, and usually some builder branding.
- Entry paid plan: roughly $15 to $30 a month billed annually on the big builders. This typically unlocks your own domain and removes ads.
- Business or store plan: roughly $30 to $50 a month, adding payments, bookings or more storage.
Time is the hidden cost. A first-time owner on a drag-and-drop editor typically spends 10 to 30 hours on a small site: choosing a template, writing copy, sourcing photos and fixing mobile layouts. That is where AI builders have changed the maths. On We.Inc's AI website builder you describe the business in a sentence and get a multi-page draft with real copy in minutes, then adjust it by clicking or chatting. The free plan lets you publish on a we.inc address; the Starter plan at $20 a month adds your own domain.
For a side-by-side of what each builder charges once you leave the free plan, the builder cost comparison tool lays it out, and our best free website builders guide covers what each free tier really includes.
What pushes the price up
The same five pages can cost $800 or $12,000. These are the usual reasons:
- Original design instead of a template. A designer creating a layout from scratch bills for concepts, revisions and a style guide.
- Copywriting. Professionally written copy often adds $100 to $300 per page.
- E-commerce. Product pages, checkout, shipping rules and tax setup add days of work. A small store build commonly starts around $3,000 with a freelancer.
- Integrations. Booking systems, CRMs, member logins and custom forms each add hours.
- Content volume. Migrating 100 old blog posts is real work even if nobody redesigns them.
- Revisions and meetings. Agencies price in project management. It is a large part of why their quotes are higher.
If you are budgeting for a business specifically, our small business website cost guide shows typical budgets by business type.
Ongoing costs: the part people forget
A website is not a one-time purchase. Here is a realistic year-two budget for a small business site:
| Setup | Yearly running cost |
|---|---|
| DIY on a builder, own domain | $200 to $600 |
| DIY on WordPress with cheap hosting | $100 to $500, plus your time on updates |
| Freelancer-built, owner maintains | $150 to $600 |
| Agency-built with a care plan | $1,200 to $6,000 |
If the WordPress line looks cheaper, factor in the maintenance time. Our website builder vs WordPress guide walks through which one fits your situation.
The care plan line is where the difference sits. Agencies and freelancers usually offer monthly plans covering hosting, updates, backups and small edits. They are good value if you would otherwise not touch the site, and poor value if you only need hosting.
Cost to build a website: estimate your own in five minutes
- List the pages you need. Home, services, about and contact covers most local businesses.
- Pick a route. DIY, freelancer or agency, based on your time and budget, not your ambition.
- Mark the extras. Store, booking, blog, member area, multiple languages.
- Add the fixed costs. Domain, email, any paid apps.
- Run the numbers in the website cost calculator and compare against one real quote.
If a quote is far above the calculator, ask what is included. Often the difference is copywriting, photography or strategy work you may or may not need.
Example budgets: three real-world situations
These use the ranges from the tables above, so you can see how the lines add up rather than a single headline number.
- A one-person service business doing it themselves. Entry builder plan for twelve months, a .com domain and no paid extras. Year one lands in the low hundreds of dollars, and year two costs about the same.
- A local shop that hires a freelancer for five pages. A one-time freelance fee somewhere in the $1,000 to $4,000 band, the domain, and a builder or hosting plan the owner keeps paying for. Year two drops back to just the running costs.
- A company with a store and booking that hires an agency. A five-figure build, plus a monthly care plan. The running cost is where this route differs most, so ask for it in writing before you sign.
If your project sits between two of these, price both routes in the website cost calculator and compare.
If you build websites for other people
Everything above is from the buyer's side. If you are a freelancer or agency, the other half of the question is what to charge, which we cover in how much to charge for a website. One cost lever worth knowing: instead of paying a builder subscription per client, a white-label website builder lets you host many client sites under your own brand. We.Inc's white-label pricing is tailored to your volume and setup; book a demo for your exact price.
Want the calculation done for you? The website cost calculator runs these five steps and shows the build cost and yearly running cost side by side.
The bottom line
For most small businesses in 2026, the sensible budget is a builder plan at $15 to $50 a month plus a domain, or a freelancer at $1,000 to $5,000 if you would rather hand the work off. Agency budgets make sense when the website is a core sales channel and you want strategy, copy and design handled together. Start by building a free draft, since it costs nothing and shows you what you actually need before anyone sends you a quote. You can start one on We.Inc for free, no card required.
Build your business website free today. Sign up free, start from a template site and publish it free on a we.inc address. AI builds from one prompt on paid plans from $20/mo. Prefer a head start? Start from the design for plumbers, restaurants or consultants.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to build a website in 2026?
Most small websites cost $0 to $50 a month on a website builder, $500 to $5,000 once with a freelancer, or $5,000 to $50,000 and up with an agency. On top of the build, budget $10 to $25 a year for a domain and $0 to $50 a month for hosting and upkeep.
How much should a 5-page website cost?
On a builder you can do it yourself for the price of the plan, roughly $15 to $40 a month with your own domain. A freelancer typically quotes $1,000 to $4,000 for five pages, and a small agency $4,000 to $12,000, depending on how much copy, photography and custom design is included.
Can I build a website for free?
Yes. Several builders, including We.Inc, Wix and WordPress.com, let you publish for $0 on their own subdomain. Your own domain costs about $10 to $25 a year, and most builders require a paid plan to connect it. On We.Inc that is the Starter plan at $20 a month.
Why do website quotes vary so much?
Because the work varies. A quote covers design, copywriting, photography, development, integrations like booking or payments, SEO setup and project management. A $500 quote usually means a template with your text dropped in. A $15,000 quote usually includes strategy, original design and written copy.
What are the ongoing costs of a website?
The domain renewal ($10 to $25 a year), hosting or a builder plan ($0 to $50 a month for most small sites), business email (about $6 to $8 per user a month), and any paid apps. If someone else maintains it, care plans usually run $50 to $300 a month.
How much does it cost to make a website yourself?
Between $0 and about $600 in the first year. A free builder plan costs nothing; an entry paid plan that connects your own domain is roughly $15 to $30 a month on the big builders, plus $10 to $25 a year for the domain. The real cost is your time, usually 10 to 30 hours for a first small site on a drag-and-drop editor.
What is the cheapest way to create a website?
A free plan on a website builder. You pay nothing to publish on the builder's own address. When you want a professional address, the cheapest step up is usually the builder's entry plan plus a domain.
Is it cheaper to use a website builder or hire a designer?
Over the first year, a builder is almost always cheaper: $0 to $600 against $1,000 or more for a designer. A designer can still be worth it if you need original branding, complex features or simply do not have the time. Many people now start on an AI builder and hire help only for the parts they cannot do.
This page is part of our Website builder pricing hub: see all website builder pricing pages.
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