Ten vendors, twenty-four months, every sum printed
The published answer runs from $1,000 to $30,000. Ours is one number.
Ask three people what a small business website costs and you get three different ranges, because a range is what you publish when the work is quoted by the hour. None of them tells you whether you can pay for it this month. So here’s the number: $1 to design it, write it and build it, then $8.99 a month for hosting, billed monthly, and you can cancel in any month. The .com is about $12 a year at cost, or inside the $18.99 Complete plan.
The published ranges
Every other answer is a band, and someone owns each band
These are the three most widely cited US figures, quoted as they are written.
None of them is wrong. None of them is a price you can buy at either. And each is published by someone with an interest in where the band sits, so that interest is printed beside it.
- Web design, on average
- $1,000 to $30,000 and up
- What most businesses spend a year
- $501 to $5,000
- A business of one to ten people
- $501 to $1,000 a year
- Eleven to fifty people
- $2,501 to $5,000 a year
Whose page it is: An agency that sells web design.
webfx.com/web-design/pricing read September 3, 2026- A web designer
- $1,000 to $5,000 up front, plus ongoing costs
- A website builder
- $1.99 to $299 a month
- WordPress
- $11 to $1,000 up front
- A designer’s hourly rate
- $50 to $200 an hour
Whose page it is: An affiliate review site that earns commission from the builders it lists.
websitebuilderexpert.com, page updated December 5, 2025 read September 3, 2026- A freelancer, custom WordPress
- $2,000 to $8,000 up front
- An agency
- $10,000 to $35,000
Whose page it is: A page-builder vendor.
elementor.com, "How much does a small business website cost" read September 3, 2026IONOS sells a builder rather than a build, and still tells its own readers that having a professional design and build the site means expecting to invest several hundred to several thousand dollars. ionos.com/websites/website-builder read September 3, 2026
Jabz Web Design, a US agency, publishes a floor of its own: custom website builds available starting at $1,000 and up. jabzwebdesign.com read September 3, 2026
Every figure above was read from the vendor’s own public pricing page on September 3, 2026, in USD, and the source is printed in the row. Prices move, and a vendor can change one the day after this was written, so check the source before you rely on it. Anything we couldn’t read from a United States connection is marked not verified instead of guessed at.
Table one
When someone else designs it, writes it and builds it
Two years of fees, summed from the vendor’s own published rate.
Where a vendor charges a setup fee, it’s the first line of the sum. Where a vendor publishes an introductory rate and a renewal rate, both are in the sum, in that order.
| Who, and on what terms | Two years of fees | The .com | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| DEVIQOThis site Basic hosting. Designed, written and built by our team, live in seven days. | $240.76$1 for the website + 24 × $8.99 hosting + 2 × $12 registry fee, at costThe registry fee is the only cost outside the monthly. | Domain included on Complete, $18.99 a month. On Basic it’s billed at cost, about $12 a year. | This page. Prices from our own price table. |
| DEVIQOThis site Complete hosting. The same build, with the .com inside the monthly. | $456.76$1 for the website + 24 × $18.99 hosting, .com includedNothing is billed on top in either year. | Domain included on Complete, $18.99 a month. On Basic it’s billed at cost, about $12 a year. | This page. Prices from our own price table. |
| UENI Website Launch, billed monthly, plus a one-time setup fee. Advertised against a list setup of $599. | $678.76$79 setup + 24 × $24.99 a month | “Custom domain and SSL” on all plans. How long it runs and what it renews at aren’t stated. Not verifiedthe vendor publishes no term and no renewal price | ueni.com/pricing read September 3, 2026 |
| SiteMonth Standard, billed monthly, plus a one-time setup fee. The page says “No Contract” directly above that fee. | $2,295$399 setup + 24 × $79 a month | “Domain Name” is listed in all three plans, with no term and no renewal price beside it. Not verifiedno term and no renewal price published | sitemonth.com read September 3, 2026 |
| Jabz Web Design Starter Website. Nothing up front, and twelve monthly payments are required and non-refundable. | $2,37624 × $99 a monthThe first twelve of those payments are committed, so the least you can spend is $1,188. | Not listed as included. Hosting is. | jabzwebdesign.com read September 3, 2026 |
| B12 Professional, the done-for-you tier, billed monthly. There’s a cheaper DIY tier on the same page. | $4,77624 × $199 a month | “Free custom domain*”, and the vendor’s own footnote reads: custom domain is free for the first year. Not verifiedyear two renewal not published | b12.io/pricing read September 3, 2026 |
| A US designer, hired directly Quoted per project or per hour. Hosting is a separate bill on top, from someone else. | $1,000 to $5,000 up front, before hosting Hourly rates on the same page run $50 to $200. | Yours to buy and to renew, wherever you buy it. | websitebuilderexpert.com, page updated December 5, 2025 read September 3, 2026 |
| Hibu, RedefineWeb Two of the larger US done-for-you vendors. Both are quote-only. | No price published. Hibu’s pricing page returns a 404 and RedefineWeb has no pricing in its navigation. | No published terms. | hibu.com/websites read September 3, 2026redefineweb.com read September 3, 2026 |
Every figure above was read from the vendor’s own public pricing page on September 3, 2026, in USD, and the source is printed in the row. Prices move, and a vendor can change one the day after this was written, so check the source before you rely on it. Anything we couldn’t read from a United States connection is marked not verified instead of guessed at. The two rows marked This site are ours and come from the same price table the rest of the site reads, not from a figure typed into this page.
Prefer to pay upfront? Custom website builds are available starting at $1,000 and up.
Jabz Web Design, quoted from its own home page. jabzwebdesign.com read September 3, 2026That’s a real US vendor’s published floor for the job we do.
It’s also the reason the list price we strike through is the number it is. The same build is openly sold at $1,500, which is what a US agency charges for a small business site of this size.
Table two
When you build it yourself
These prices buy software, not a website.
Choosing the template, writing the words, sourcing the photographs and laying out the pages are all yours, and none of these vendors claims otherwise. Where a plan advertises an introductory rate, the renewal rate is the second leg of the sum.
| Who, and on what terms | Two years of fees | The .com | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| DEVIQOThis site For contrast only. We aren’t a builder: Basic is a finished site someone else drew and wrote. | $240.76$1 for the website + 24 × $8.99 hosting + 2 × $12 registry fee, at costBuilt, written and laid out for you. | Domain included on Complete, $18.99 a month. On Basic it’s billed at cost, about $12 a year. | This page. Prices from our own price table. |
| WordPress.com Personal, billed annually. $4 a month for the first term, then it renews at $5. | $10812 × $4 first term + 12 × $5 renewal | “First year free with any annual paid plan.” Not verifiedyear two renewal couldn’t be read | wordpress.com/pricing, country set to US read September 3, 2026 |
| IONOS Starter, on a one-year minimum term. $6 a month for that term, then $14. The list price beside it is $18. | $24012 × $6 first term + 12 × $14 renewal | “The first year is on us.” The .com card shows a list price of $20 a year struck against a one-year promotion. | ionos.com/websites/website-builder read September 3, 2026 |
| Wix Light. Yearly subscriptions, paid in full at purchase. No monthly-billing price is published anywhere on the plans page. | $40824 × $17 a month, paid yearly | A one-year voucher on selected yearly plans, redeemable within 60 days, first-time yearly upgrades only. Not verifiedno .com renewal price is published | wix.com/plans read September 3, 2026 |
| Squarespace Basic, billed monthly. The same plan is $16 a month if you pay for a year up front. | $50424 × $21 a month | Annual billing only: “All Squarespace sites on an annual billing cycle include one free custom domain.” A monthly plan carries none. Not verifiedrenewal price couldn’t be read | squarespace.com/pricing, currency set to USD read September 3, 2026 |
| Hostinger Unlimited, on the one-month term. The same plan is $4.99 a month on a twelve-month term and renews at $16.99. | $455.7624 × $18.99 a month | On the one-month term the domain line is absent from all three plans. A .com renews at $19.99 a year. | hostinger.com/web-hosting read September 3, 2026 |
| Webflow Basic site plan, billed monthly. $15 a month if billed annually. | $60024 × $25 a month | None. Webflow supports a custom domain and you buy it somewhere else. | webflow.com/pricing read September 3, 2026 |
Every figure above was read from the vendor’s own public pricing page on September 3, 2026, in USD, and the source is printed in the row. Prices move, and a vendor can change one the day after this was written, so check the source before you rely on it. Anything we couldn’t read from a United States connection is marked not verified instead of guessed at. Wix publishes no monthly-billing price at all: the plans page states that displayed prices are for yearly subscriptions paid in full, and that the final price can be seen on the purchase page. The Wix row above is therefore the yearly rate, run for 24 months.
The part the price hides
Four costs that never appear on a pricing page
A builder subscription is the cost of the software you’ll build a website with, and these are the four bills that arrive afterwards.
01
Someone has to design it
A template is a starting point, not a design. Website Builder Expert prices the hours at $50 to $200 an hour when someone else does them. websitebuilderexpert.com, page updated December 5, 2025 read September 3, 2026
02
Someone has to write it
Nobody sells a builder subscription that writes your services, your prices and your area for you. Here a writer turns your questionnaire into the finished copy, and that’s inside the $1.
03
The introductory rate lapses
Three of the six DIY rows publish one rate for the first term and a higher one afterwards. That’s why the tables above run 24 months instead of twelve, and why the renewal is a separate line in every sum.
04
The domain is a second bill
Every included domain we could verify covers twelve months, and then renews at the vendor’s price. Year one against year two sets out what each of them charges, and what ours does instead.
The detail is on the websites page: what the seven days contain, who does the work and what arrives at the end of them. If you’d rather see the monthly on its own, the hosting page sets out both plans line by line.
Questions
What people ask next
So what does a small business website cost?
Built for you here, $1 once for the website and then hosting at $8.99 a month.
Over two years that is $240.76 all in, with the registry’s own annual fee for the .com, about $12 a year, inside that figure at cost. Today you pay $1 for the website plus your first month of hosting. After that hosting is $8.99 a month, billed on the same date each month until you cancel, and you can cancel in any month.
Hired from a US designer instead, the narrowest published band we could find puts it at $1,000 to $5,000 up front, before hosting. websitebuilderexpert.com, page updated December 5, 2025 read September 3, 2026
Why does everybody else answer with a range?
Partly because the price varies when the work is quoted by the hour. Mostly because the pages answering this question are written by someone who benefits from where the band sits.
- An agency’s range brackets what that agency charges.
- An affiliate review site earns a commission on the builders inside its range.
- A page-builder vendor’s range makes its own product look like the sensible floor.
None of those ranges is a price you can buy at. Ours is fixed because the work is fixed: the same seven days, the same team, the same build.
Is $1,500 a real price, or a number invented to be struck through?
The same build is openly sold at $1,500, which is what a US agency charges for a small business site of this size. It sits inside every published band we could verify.
- Website Builder Expert puts a web designer at $1,000 to $5,000 up front. websitebuilderexpert.com, page updated December 5, 2025 read September 3, 2026
- Jabz Web Design, a real US vendor, publishes a floor: custom website builds available starting at $1,000 and up. jabzwebdesign.com read September 3, 2026
- WebFX puts a business of eleven to fifty people at $2,501 to $5,000 a year. webfx.com/web-design/pricing read September 3, 2026
Is the monthly a payment plan for the website?
No. The website is paid for once, at $1. The monthly is hosting, which every website on earth needs from someone whatever else it does.
Ours carries the SSL certificate, nightly backups, a mailbox on your own name, the software updates, the DNS and renewals on your domain, and a person who makes your changes for you.
It’s billed monthly until you cancel, it doesn’t rise after a first year, and canceling stops it at the end of that month with no exit fee.
What isn’t in the cheap monthly prices further up the page?
The work.
Every figure in the second table buys software, and every one of those vendors expects you to choose a template, write your own copy, source your own photographs and lay out your own pages.
Website Builder Expert prices that labor separately when someone else does it: $50 to $200 an hour. websitebuilderexpert.com, page updated December 5, 2025 read September 3, 2026 On a small business site that’s the difference between a plan and a website.
Why compare over 24 months instead of a year?
Because a year flatters whoever front-loads the discount, and in this market that’s nearly everybody.
- Hostinger’s twelve-month term is $4.99 a month and then renews at $16.99. hostinger.com/web-hosting read September 3, 2026
- IONOS is $6 and then $14. ionos.com/websites/website-builder read September 3, 2026
- WordPress.com is $4 and then $5. wordpress.com/pricing, country set to US read September 3, 2026
Two years is the first window in which the renewal price is visible, and it’s short enough that nobody is being asked to imagine a decade.
Do I own what I pay for?
Yes. The domain goes on the register in your name rather than ours, and the words, the photographs and the customer data are yours.
Ask for your files at any time and we send them, with no exit fee and no notice period. That’s also set out in the terms of service and the refunds and cancellation policy.
The offer
A number, rather than a range
The website is designed, written and built by our team and live in seven days. It costs $1, against a build openly sold at $1,500. Nothing else is added and nothing rises after a first year.
Today you pay $1 for the website plus your first month of hosting. After that hosting is $8.99 a month, billed on the same date each month until you cancel, and you can cancel in any month. The .com is included on the Complete plan at $18.99 a month. On Basic at $8.99 a month the name is registered in your own name and run for you, and the registry’s own annual fee for it, about $12 a year, is billed separately at cost.
The same build is openly sold at $1,500, which is what a US agency charges for a small business site of this size. No contract, no minimum term and no exit fee: cancel in any month from the dashboard.
The other comparisons
-
Pay monthly websites
Who charges what per month, and which "no contract" offers have a term underneath.
-
The .com, year one and year two
Whose included domain lapses after twelve months, and what ours does instead.
-
DEVIQO vs Wix
A builder you drive yourself, against a site drawn for you.
-
DEVIQO vs Squarespace
Templates and an annual bill, against seven days and a monthly one.
-
DEVIQO vs GoDaddy
What we can verify, what we can’t, and where the upsells sit.
-
DEVIQO vs WordPress
Free to download, and someone still has to run it. The upkeep, priced.
-
DEVIQO vs UENI
Two done-for-you services, compared on the setup fee and the monthly.
-
Wix alternatives
Seven of them, sorted by whether you want a better tool or want to stop building.
-
Squarespace alternatives
Six of them, judged on the year instead of the advertised month.
-
GoDaddy alternatives
Six of them, counted at renewal rather than at the introductory price.
-
Our own price list
The build, the two hosting plans and the charges that won’t appear later.
All of them are indexed on the comparisons page, together with every source we read and the date we read it.