What should a small business website cost in 2026?
The honest answer depends on what you're buying. A website is four things bundled together: design, hosting, maintenance, and marketing. Most quotes only show you one of them.
The four tiers.
Every option for getting a website falls into one of four buckets. The real cost isn't the sticker price; it's the time you spend and the opportunities you miss.
DIY (Squarespace, Wix)
Upfront
$0 - $200
Monthly
$15 - $50
Year 1 total
$180 - $800
Pros
- + Cheapest option
- + Full control over design
- + Instant changes
Cons
- - You're the designer, developer, and SEO person
- - Templates look like templates
- - SEO requires manual setup
- - No one to call when something breaks
Freelancer
Upfront
$1,000 - $5,000
Monthly
$0 - $100 (hosting only)
Year 1 total
$1,000 - $6,200
Pros
- + Custom design
- + One point of contact
- + Usually cheaper than agencies
Cons
- - Quality varies wildly
- - Updates cost per hour ($50 - $150/hr)
- - Freelancers disappear
- - SEO is usually extra
Agency
Upfront
$3,000 - $15,000
Monthly
$200 - $2,000 (retainer + SEO)
Year 1 total
$5,400 - $39,000
Pros
- + Professional quality
- + Team behind the work
- + Can handle complex projects
Cons
- - Expensive
- - Slow turnaround (weeks, not hours)
- - You're one of many clients
- - The contract is where they make money
Managed service Strelva
Upfront
$0
Monthly
$99
Year 1 total
$1,188
Pros
- + Custom site, no upfront cost
- + Changes via text or email
- + SEO, analytics, and hosting included
- + Weekly performance reports
Cons
- - Less control over pixel-level design
- - You don't manage the code directly
- - Monthly cost never drops to zero
The hidden cost: your time.
A DIY site costs $15/month. But it also costs you 5 to 10 hours per month maintaining it, updating content, fixing things that break, and learning SEO. If your time is worth $50/hour, that's $250 to $500/month in invisible cost.
The question isn't "what's the cheapest website?" It's "what lets me spend zero time on my website while my website works for me?"
From $99/month. Zero hours per month.
Strelva builds, runs, and proves your website works. You text changes, we handle the rest.
Get started free