What a small business website really costs

The build

This is the number people quote: design and development. It ranges from almost nothing for a template you assemble yourself to a substantial project fee for a custom build. It is also the part that says nothing about whether the site can take orders or bookings.

The running costs nobody mentions

On a self-managed site these are separate bills and separate jobs. On a subscription platform they are usually bundled — worth checking before comparing prices.

• Hosting and SSL
• A domain name, renewed yearly
• Security patches and framework updates
• Fixes when a plugin or integration breaks

Payment costs

If you sell, your payment provider takes a percentage per transaction. That is normal and unavoidable. Marketplace commission on top of it is not: a delivery app taking a double-digit share of each order will often cost more in a month than the website itself does in a year.

The cost of being stuck

The most expensive websites are the ones the owner cannot edit. If changing a price means paying someone, you will delay changes, and stale prices and old photos lose sales quietly.

A realistic way to budget

Decide what the site must do — show, sell, book, or run the business — then price that, including a year of running costs. Building free and paying only when you publish is a reasonable way to test the idea before committing money.