Updated October 1, 2026. Every price links to where we found it.
How much does a website cost in 2026?
The short answer
- Build it yourself: about $4 to $39 a month for a website builder plan (billed yearly), plus a domain at roughly $10 to $23 a year once the first free year ends.
- Hire a freelancer: $300 to $15,000, with most business sites at $2,000 to $8,000 or more.
- Hire an agency: US small business sites run $10,000 to $15,000, and basic agency sites start around $7,000.
- Keep it running: $20 to $100 a month for hosting, platform and domain.
The three ways to get a website
| Route | Upfront cost | Ongoing cost | Who does the work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website builder (DIY) | $0 to start | $4 to $39/mo plus domain | You |
| Freelancer | $300 to $15,000 | Hosting, plus optional maintenance | The freelancer, with your input |
| Agency | $7,000 to $15,000+ | Hosting, often a maintenance plan | A team, after meetings and approvals |
Website builder prices
These are the plans that let you use your own domain name. "Billed yearly" means you pay twelve months up front; paying month to month costs more.
| Builder | Cheapest plan | Popular plan | Free domain |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress.com | Personal: $4/mo yearly, $9 monthly | Business: $25/mo yearly, $40 monthly | Year one, yearly billing only |
| Hostinger | Premium: $2.99/mo on a 48-month prepay, renews at $10.99 | Unlimited: $3.99/mo intro, renews at $16.99 | Year one |
| GoDaddy (Airo) | From $9.99/mo on a yearly term | Tier prices not published | Not stated |
| Wix | Light: $17/mo yearly | Business: $39/mo yearly | Year one, new domains bought through Wix |
| Squarespace | Basic: $19/mo yearly, $25 monthly | Core: $29/mo yearly, $39 monthly | Year one, yearly billing only |
| Shopify (online stores) | Basic: $29/mo yearly, $39 monthly | Grow: $79/mo yearly, $105 monthly | Not stated |
The builder price is the easy part. The real cost of doing it yourself is the time spent writing copy, choosing photos and checking how it looks on a phone, and that time comes out of running your business.
What a domain name costs
A .com usually runs $10 to $30 a year. Watch the renewal price, not the first-year price:
- GoDaddy: $0.01 for the first year, but only with a three-year purchase. Each extra year is $22.99.
- Namecheap: $11.28 for the first year on sale, renewing at $18.48.
- Cloudflare: about $10.46 to register and the same to renew, since Cloudflare sells domains at cost (price from a third-party tracker).
Whoever builds your site, register the domain in your own name so you always control it.
What a freelancer costs
- Upwork (September 2026): $300 to $15,000 for a custom build, and $2,000 to $8,000 or more for a typical business site. Designers on the platform charge $15 to $39 an hour.
- Fiverr: landing page projects average around $110 to $125, with entry-level sellers at $20 to $35 an hour.
- Clutch: builder specialists (Wix, WordPress, Squarespace, Webflow, Shopify) charge $25 to $49 an hour.
The range is wide because a freelancer's quote depends on whether you supply the copy and photos, how many pages you need, and how many rounds of changes are included. Ask for all three in writing.
What an agency costs
- DesignRush: basic US agency sites start around $7,000; a 5 to 15 page small business site with a content system runs $10,000 to $15,000; template-based sites run $1,000 to $5,000.
- Clutch (September 2026): US agencies bill $100 to $149 an hour. The average project on Clutch is $38,105, though Clutch says most projects come in under $10,000.
Agencies make sense for larger sites, brand work and ongoing marketing. For a single page that tells customers who you are and how to call you, most of an agency fee pays for process you don't need.
What it costs to keep a website running
- Shared hosting: $2 to $10 a month (Upwork).
- Hosting, platform plan and domain together: $20 to $100 a month (Upwork).
- Maintenance from a freelancer or agency: about $50 to $200 a month (Upwork), or $500 to $2,000+ a year (DesignRush).
Prices that look lower than they are
- Intro prices often require paying years up front and renew at three times the rate or more.
- Free domains cover the first year only.
- Monthly billing usually costs more than the advertised yearly rate and can lose the free domain.
- Agency averages are pulled up by a handful of very large projects.
Where a $800 one-page site fits
It sits between doing it yourself and hiring a freelancer for a full site. You don't learn a builder or write the copy, and you don't pay for pages and meetings you don't need. For comparison, GoDaddy's own done-for-you design service is $499.99 plus annual hosting. Ours is $800 with the copy written for you, 2 rounds of changes and the first year of hosting included. See exactly what's included.
Website cost questions
What is the cheapest way to get a website?
Building it yourself on a website builder. WordPress.com Personal is $4 a month billed annually and Hostinger's builder starts at $2.99 a month on a 48-month prepay (renewing at $10.99). The cost you don't see is your time: you write the copy, pick the layout and fix it when something looks wrong on a phone.
How much should a small business website cost?
Upwork's 2026 guide puts a professionally built business site at $2,000 to $8,000 or more, and DesignRush puts a 5 to 15 page US agency site at $10,000 to $15,000. A single-page site for a local or service business costs far less because there is far less to design and write.
How much does it cost to run a website every month?
Upwork estimates $20 to $100 a month for hosting, a platform plan and a domain combined. Optional maintenance from a freelancer or agency adds roughly $50 to $200 a month on top.
Is a free website builder really free?
You can build on Wix's free plan, but you can't connect your own domain without a paid plan, so your address includes the builder's name. Most businesses end up on a paid plan.
Why do website prices vary so much?
Because 'a website' covers everything from one page to a custom web app. Page count, who writes the copy, custom design versus a template, online payments and logins drive most of the difference. Agency hourly rates (Clutch lists $100 to $149 an hour in the US) do the rest.
Prices were checked on the providers' own pages on October 1, 2026, in US dollars. Builders change prices and run promotions often, so confirm on their site before you buy.