What should a small-business website cost?

A small-business website built by a professional costs a one-off fee for the build, plus a small monthly amount for hosting and upkeep. The fee depends on what the site has to do. A simple site that says who you are and how to reach you sits at the low end. A site that takes bookings or sells products sits at the high end. At Linkify, websites start at $1,500 for a portfolio site, $2,500 for a service business and $4,500 for an online store, all in Canadian dollars. The rest of this post explains where that money goes, so you can judge any quote you get, ours included.

What are you actually paying for?

Most of a website quote pays for time. Someone has to plan the pages, write or tidy the words, choose the photos, design how it looks on a phone and a laptop, build it, test it, and put it live. Each of those steps takes hours, and the price follows the hours.

Here is roughly how the work splits on a typical small-business site:

• Planning: agreeing which pages you need, what each one must say, and what you want a visitor to do next, such as call you or book.
• Design: how the site looks, how it reads on a small screen, and how it matches the rest of your brand.
• Building: turning the design into a working site that loads quickly and is easy for Google to read.
• Content: your words and photos. This is often the part that takes longest, because it depends on you.
• Launch and handover: connecting your domain, setting up email forms, and showing you how to make small changes yourself.

When a quote looks very high or very low, ask which of these steps it includes. A low quote often leaves out content and handover, and you find that out later.

Why do two quotes for the same site look so different?

Because they are rarely quotes for the same site. One agency might quote for five pages built on a ready-made template, with you writing every word. Another might quote for a custom design, help with the words, and a booking system. Both call it a website.

The fairest way to compare is to write down what you need before you ask anyone. List the pages, the things a visitor must be able to do, and whether you want to change the site yourself afterwards. Send the same list to everyone. Then the quotes have to answer the same question.

It also helps to ask each agency what is not included. The answer tells you more than the price.

What makes a website cost more?

A few things push the price up more than anything else:

• Taking payments or selling products. An online store needs product pages, a cart, a checkout and a way to manage orders. That is why our store sites start higher.
• Bookings and forms that connect to other tools, such as a calendar, a till system or an email list.
• Many pages with different layouts, rather than a few pages that share one.
• Writing all the words for you, or arranging a photo shoot.
• A custom design from a blank page instead of a well-chosen starting point.

None of these are bad. They just take more time. If a feature will bring you customers, it is usually worth paying for. If it is there because it seemed nice to have, it can wait.

What does a website cost after it goes live?

Many owners miss this part. A website has running costs, even if they are small. You pay for the domain name every year, and for hosting every month or year. Someone also needs to keep the site updated, fix anything that breaks, and make the small changes you ask for.

Some agencies roll this into a monthly plan. Others charge by the hour when you need them. Either can work. What matters is that you know who looks after the site once it is live, and what that costs, before you sign. A site nobody maintains slowly breaks: a form stops sending, a plugin goes out of date, a page stops showing up on Google.

If you also want the site to bring in new customers through search, that is ongoing work too. Our search engine work starts at $499 a month, and some owners start with a one-off website and search audit for $750 to see what is worth doing first.

Is a cheap website a false saving?

Sometimes. A cheap site is fine if it does the one job you need, such as showing your hours and phone number, and you can update it yourself. It becomes a false saving when it looks fine on the day it launches but cannot grow with you.

Signs a cheap site will cost more later:

• You cannot change anything without paying the person who built it.
• It loads slowly on a phone, so visitors leave before it appears.
• It was built on a tool you do not own, and moving away means starting again.
• Nobody set it up properly for Google, so customers searching for what you do never see it.

Rebuilding a site that was done badly usually costs more than building it well the first time, because the new team has to undo the old work before starting.

How long does it take, and does speed change the price?

Our websites take four to six weeks from the first call to going live. The biggest factor is usually how quickly the words and photos arrive, not how fast the site is built. If you need the site sooner, an agency can often rush it, but you may pay more, because other work has to move.

How do you set a sensible budget?

Start from what the site needs to do for your business. If it only needs to be found and to give people a way to call you, you are at the lower end. If it needs to take bookings or sell products, plan for the higher end, and for a monthly amount to keep it running.

Then ask each agency three questions: what is included, what is not, and who looks after the site once it is live. If the answers are clear and the price fits, that agency deserves a closer look. If you want to talk through what your site needs before you ask for quotes, book a call and we will help you write the list, whether or not you hire us.