The ranges
These figures come from sellers' own pages and price guides, so treat them as rough. They are not all from the Bay Area, and your own quotes are the real test.
Top of each published range for a small business site, in dollars
Doing it yourself
A site builder runs about $17 to $50 a month. It is a fair choice if you have more time than money and a simple business. The cost that doesn't show up on the bill is your own hours, and the fact that speed and search details are often left at their defaults.
A freelancer
Published ranges run about $1,500 to $8,000 for a custom site of five to eight pages, and San Francisco freelancers quote about $2,500 to $7,500. Quality varies a lot, so ask to see sites they built and run my free check on them.
An agency
One guide puts a simple informational site at $5,000 to $15,000, and another puts agency builds at $6,000 to $35,000 or more. You pay for a team and a process. That is worth it for a complicated site and often more than a bakery or a dentist needs.
What moves the price
- The number of pages, and who writes the words on them.
- Selling online. A store means products, payments, shipping and taxes.
- Bookings, forms that feed another system, and anything else that has to connect to something.
- A custom design rather than one adapted from a template.
The costs that come after
The build is rarely the last bill. Published care plans run about $50 to $200 a month from a freelancer and $150 to $500 from an agency. Local SEO, if you want it, is priced separately, from a few hundred dollars a month to $2,500 at an agency. Ask what a site costs to keep running before you ask what it costs to build, and ask what happens to it if you stop paying.
What to ask before you pay
- Who owns the domain and the site if we part ways?
- What exactly is included, and how are changes outside that priced?
- What will it cost each month once it is live?
- Can I see two sites you built that are live now?
- How will I know it worked?
What I charge
A new website is $2,500 for up to six pages, and a tune-up of the site you already have is $750. The website design page says what is and isn't included. Check the site you have first, because you may not need a new one.