How much does a small business website cost?

Quick answer: a small-business website has three kinds of cost: the domain name (usually about $10 to $20 a year), hosting (free to a monthly fee, depending on how it's built), and the work to build it (from doing it yourself to paying someone once or every month). Before you pay anyone, ask what you'll own if you stop paying.

1. The domain name

Your domain is your address, like yourbusiness.com. Most cost about $10 to $20 a year. Buy it in your own account, in your business's name, so it can never be held hostage by a designer or a website company.

2. Hosting

Hosting is where the website lives. Some sites run on free hosting, such as Cloudflare's free plan for simple, fast sites. Website builders usually charge a monthly fee that includes hosting. Neither is wrong. Just know what you're paying for, and what happens to the site if you stop.

3. The work to build it

There are three common ways small businesses pay for the build:

Do it yourself with a website builder. It costs the least money but the most of your time.
Pay once for someone to build it. You usually own the result.
Pay monthly for a website that someone builds and keeps up for you. That's convenient, but read the fine print: some companies keep the website if you cancel.

What I charge, so you can compare

At Open Sign Systems, the Open Sign Setup is $1,200 one-time ($600 for my first 3 clients). It includes a 5-page website, your Google Business Profile, Search Console and Analytics, an email list with welcome emails, checkout if you sell online, and a Claude AI assistant. The only ongoing cost is your own domain name. If you want me to keep things updated, the Open Sign Club is an optional $199 a month, and you can pause it any time.

Either way, you own every account and the website itself.

Five questions to ask any website company

Who owns the domain name, and whose account is it in?
If I stop paying, do I keep the website?
What exactly is included each month?
Can I see two or three sites you've built?
Do you promise rankings? (If they do, be careful. Nobody controls Google.)