A local agency or web designer
Usually a few thousand up front for a custom build. Good if you need something specific and have the budget. The cost people forget is that every change afterwards is an email, a quote, and a wait.
What a website should cost
What a small business website actually costs
Quotes range from nothing to fifteen thousand dollars for what looks like the same thing. Here is what sits behind each number, and which part of it you are actually paying for.
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Main Street Cleaning
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Post
$3,000 build, then nothing
Last updated the month it launched
yourwebsite.com
A page from Tuesday's job
The site kept working without an invoice
/katy/patio-clean-flagstone
$0 per update
No developer, no change requests
The number nobody quotes you
Every quote covers building the site. Almost none covers keeping it alive, which is where the real money goes. A site built once and never touched again is not cheap at any price, because it stops doing the job you bought it for.
Start your 14-day trialWhat each page would cost you elsewhere
A freelancer typically charges per page or per change request. Every page on this chart came from a job you finished, at no extra cost. Drag the slider to how many jobs you finish a week.
144 examples
of your work, ready for the next customer who looks you up
One page per job
Month 1
Month 3
Month 6
Month 12
A normal website
nothing new after launch
0
0
0
0
A normal website
nothing new after launch
Month 1
0
Month 3
0
Month 6
0
Month 12
0
Growth potential FOR Your Forxample site
1 page per postNew pages added since launch
144
pages / year
M1
12
M3
36
M6
72
M12
144
The four ways people buy a website
Each one is a genuinely reasonable choice for someone. The mistake is picking on the build price without asking what the second year looks like.
Start your 14-day trialA DIY builder
Fifteen to fifty a month and a weekend of your time. Cheap in cash, expensive in attention, and the whole model depends on you going back into the editor regularly.
A cheap freelancer
A few hundred dollars for a site that exists. The risk is what happens when they stop replying, which is a common enough story that it is worth asking who will hold the login.
Something that updates from your work
A monthly fee where the ongoing effort is a photo instead of an editing session. Suited to businesses that finish visible work regularly, and less useful if yours does not change.
Working out the real number
Rather than comparing build quotes, it is worth pricing three years. That is roughly how long a small business site lives before someone decides to redo it.
Add up the build
The quote itself, plus whatever your own time is worth if you are doing it.
Add three years of changes
Hours, prices, services, photos. Either an invoice each time or an evening each time.
Add the cost of it going stale
The hardest to see and usually the biggest. A site nobody trusts is a lost job, over and over.
Questions worth asking before you pay anyone
Three that tend to surface the difference between a quote and what you will actually spend.
Who updates it, and what does that cost?
Ask this before signing anything. If the answer is an hourly rate, you will not call them for small changes and the site will drift. If the answer is you, be honest about whether you will actually do it.
Who owns the domain and the login?
It should be you, on both. Plenty of small businesses discover years later that their web designer registered the domain in their own name and has since disappeared.
What happens in year two?
Most quotes cover the build and stop there. Year two is when the site either keeps earning or quietly stops, and nobody prices that in because it does not appear on an invoice.
Price the second year, not the first
The build is the easy part and every option handles it. What separates them is what the site is worth eighteen months later.
Start your 14-day trialFrequently asked questions
Is a free website ever good enough?
For a while, yes. A free page with your details on it beats nothing and gets you found for your own name. The limits show up when you want your own domain, want to be found for the work you do rather than your business name, and want it to look like a business rather than a placeholder.
Why do quotes vary so much for the same thing?
Mostly because what is quoted is not the same thing. A four-figure quote usually includes design work, copywriting, and someone to call. A few-hundred-dollar one is often a template with your logo on it. Both can be reasonable, but they are not comparable.
Should I pay for a redesign or start over?
Ask why the current one stopped working. If it looks dated, a redesign helps. If it went stale because updating it was a chore, a redesign fixes that for six months and then you are back where you started with a nicer-looking version of the same problem.
What does Forxample cost?
Plans start at $25 a month, with a 14-day trial and no card needed to start. Extra locations are an add-on. Everything is on the pricing page including what each plan covers.
What happens after the 14-day trial?
You can choose a plan before the trial ends to keep your site live. No card is needed to start, and we will remind you before the trial finishes. If you decide not to continue, you are not billed.
Get your next job found.
Post the work. Forxample turns it into a website customers can find.
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