How Much Does a Website Cost in 2026?

You Googled it. I know you did.

"How much does a website cost?" — and you got a range so wide it was useless. Somewhere between $500 and $50,000. Cool. Super helpful.

The reason the answer is all over the place isn't because web designers are trying to be mysterious. It's because "a website" can mean a hundred different things. A one-page landing page and a 20-page service site with custom photography, blog strategy, and SEO architecture are both "websites" — but they're completely different projects.

So instead of throwing another vague range at you, I'm going to explain what actually drives the cost. By the end of this, you'll know what to expect, what to ask, and how to budget for a site that actually works for your business.

Why the range is so wide

Here's the short version: you're not paying for a website. You're paying for someone's time, expertise, and the strategy that determines whether the site actually does anything for your business.

A template-based site where someone swaps in your logo and colors costs less because there's less thinking involved. A custom-built site that starts with understanding your business, your customers, and your goals costs more because the work goes deeper.

Neither is inherently wrong — it depends on where your business is and what you need the site to do. But comparing them side by side is like comparing an oil change to an engine rebuild. They both involve cars, but that's about it.

The other factor: who's doing the work. A freelancer on a marketplace platform has different overhead than a mid-size agency with an office, account managers, and a creative director. You're often paying for the structure around the work, not just the work itself.

What you're actually paying for (and what most people miss)

Most business owners think of a website as a visual product. Something that looks good with their information on it. But the visual design is maybe 30% of what makes a website effective.

Here's what's happening behind the scenes that you're paying for:

Strategy and discovery. Before anyone opens a design tool, someone needs to understand your business, your customers, and what the site needs to accomplish. This isn't a formality — it's where the actual value gets created. Skip it and you end up with a site that looks fine but doesn't convert, doesn't rank, and doesn't represent what makes your business different.

Content architecture. How your pages are organized, what goes on each page, how a visitor moves from "just looking" to "ready to reach out" — that's information architecture. It's invisible when it's done well. You notice it when it's done poorly.

Design. The visual layer. This is what most people think they're buying when they hire a web designer. Colors, typography, layout, photography — how the site looks and feels. But here's what surprises a lot of my clients: the design isn't just about aesthetics. It's about communicating your brand. Your brand identity needs to be extracted and expressed — visually and non-visually — throughout the entire site. The colors, yes, but also the tone of voice, the way information is structured, the feel of the interactions. That's a much bigger job than most people realize when they start the process.

Development. Building the actual site. Responsive design so it works on every device, page speed optimization, accessibility, CMS setup so you can manage content after launch, contact forms, integrations — the technical layer that makes everything function.

SEO foundation. Page titles, meta descriptions, heading structure, image optimization, site speed, schema markup. A site without SEO basics is like opening a storefront with no sign out front.

Launch and handoff. DNS configuration, hosting setup, SSL, analytics, CMS training, documentation. The stuff that gets the site from "done" to "live and yours."

When you get a quote from someone, you're paying for some combination of these layers. Cheaper quotes skip some of them. More expensive quotes go deeper on all of them.

The things that surprise people

I've built sites for lawyers, optometrists, wineries, fitness coaches, and restaurants. Across all of them, a few things consistently catch business owners off guard.

Your brand shows up in places you didn't expect. Most clients come in thinking about their logo and colors. But brand identity goes way beyond that. It's in the way your homepage headline is written. It's in how your services are described. It's in the spacing between elements and the tone of your call-to-action buttons. When I work on a site, I'm extracting your brand and making sure it's communicated through every detail — not just the obvious visual ones. That's a large part of my approach, and it's why discovery sessions exist. These small details get acknowledged from the start, not patched in later.

Your website isn't "done" after launch. This one comes up in almost every initial conversation. Business owners think of a website like a brochure — you print it, it's done, you hand it out for the next three years. But a website is a living thing. Search engines are crawling it. Visitors are interacting with it. Your business is evolving. Content gets stale, competitors launch new sites, Google updates its algorithm. Without ongoing attention, a great website slowly becomes a mediocre one. Maintenance, security updates, content refreshes, SEO monitoring — this is the long game, and it's what separates sites that generate leads from sites that just exist.

You might need to provide more than you expected. Here's the hidden cost that surprises almost everyone: content. Your web designer can build a beautiful structure, but someone needs to fill it with words. Most clients expect to provide a bio and an about us paragraph, but a real website needs headlines, service descriptions, CTAs, blog posts, image captions — pages and pages of content that tells your story and speaks to your customers. Many of my clients are surprised when they realize the scope of copy involved. I often end up creating and expanding on their story myself — writing page headings, service descriptions, and supporting copy in the same on-brand voice we established during discovery. That work adds time and value, but it's one of those things people don't budget for because they didn't know it was part of the process.

Realistic ranges for small business websites

I'm based in the Seattle eastside area and work primarily with small businesses, so these ranges reflect that market. Your numbers might look different in other regions or with other types of providers.

Template-based / DIY platforms ($0 – $5,000)
Squarespace, Wix, or a freelancer installing a WordPress theme. You get a functional site that looks decent. Best for businesses that need a basic online presence and don't rely on their website for lead generation. The tradeoff: limited customization, generic feel, and you're usually on your own for content and strategy.

Custom small business website ($5,000 – $15,000)
This is where most of my projects fall. A custom-designed site built on strategy — discovery session, brand-aligned design, responsive development, CMS setup, basic SEO foundation, and launch support. You're getting a site that's built around your business specifically, not adapted from a template. This range covers most service-based small businesses: professional services, healthcare, hospitality, fitness, creative industries.

Advanced / content-heavy websites ($15,000 – $30,000+)
More complex sites with custom functionality, ecommerce integration, extensive content strategy, photography, or ongoing SEO built into the engagement. Think multi-location businesses, sites with booking systems or patient portals, or businesses investing in content marketing from day one.

Ongoing support ($500 – $2,000/month)
Monthly retainers for SEO monitoring, content creation, analytics review, and site maintenance. This is where the long-term value compounds. A website without ongoing attention is a depreciating asset. With it, it's a marketing tool that gets stronger every month.

These ranges aren't meant to scare you — they're meant to give you a framework. When someone quotes you $800 for a custom website, now you know what's being skipped. When someone quotes $25,000, you know what's included.

How to evaluate a quote (without being a web expert)

You don't need to understand code to evaluate whether a web design quote makes sense. Here's what to look for:

Does the process start with strategy? If someone jumps straight to "pick a template" or "send me your content and we'll build it," there's no discovery. That means no one is thinking about why your site should exist or what it needs to accomplish for your business.

Is the scope clearly defined? A good proposal tells you exactly what you're getting: how many pages, what's included in design vs. development, what happens after launch, how many revision rounds, and what's explicitly not included. Vague proposals lead to vague results.

Who's doing the actual work? At an agency, the person you talk to during the sales process is often not the person designing or building your site. That's not necessarily bad, but it adds a translation layer. Ask who you'll be working with directly.

What happens after launch? If there's no mention of training, documentation, or ongoing support options, that's a red flag. A site without a plan for after launch is a site that's going to stagnate.

Can they show you relevant work? Not just pretty screenshots — actual case studies with results. Traffic growth, search rankings, lead generation. Design is subjective. Results aren't.

What to do next

If you're a small business owner on the Seattle eastside thinking about a new website or a redesign, here's my honest advice: don't start by collecting quotes. Start by getting clear on what you need the site to do.

Is it a digital business card? A lead generation engine? A content platform? The answer changes everything — the scope, the timeline, the budget, and who you should hire.

Once you know that, you're in a much better position to evaluate proposals and spot the difference between someone building you a website and someone building you a marketing tool.

If you want to talk through where your business is and what makes sense, I'm happy to have that conversation. No pitch deck, no pressure. Just a real conversation about your business and whether working together makes sense.