How much does a small business website cost?
It depends on a handful of things you can see in advance. This page explains what they are, how a free website on a monthly plan adds up over a year, and what to ask before you compare quotes, whether your business is in Gilroy, San Jose, Morgan Hill, Hollister or anywhere else.
Six things decide what a website costs.
- How many pages. A one-page site with your services, reviews and contact details is the smallest job. Each added page, such as services, about, a gallery or a page for each town you serve, adds writing, design and testing.
- Custom design or a template. A template is quicker to set up and looks like the other sites built on it. A custom design is drawn around your business, your photos and your customers, and takes more hours to make.
- The words and the photos. Someone has to write every line and choose or take every picture. If you supply them, that work is yours; if the designer writes and sources them, it is part of the price.
- What the site has to do. Online booking, ordering, a store, a quote form or a menu that changes each add setup and testing, and some carry their own monthly fee from the service behind them.
- Who owns the logins and the files. Some offers keep the domain, the site and the hosting on the provider’s own account, so leaving means starting over. Ask who owns each one before you sign.
- Hosting and upkeep. Every site needs hosting, a domain and security updates. Some plans include them; others bill them separately each month or year.
How a free website on a monthly plan adds up.
Some offers build the site for nothing up front and charge a monthly plan with a minimum term instead. The arithmetic is simple, and worth doing before you sign:
The monthly fee × the months in the minimum termThat is the least a free site will cost you, before any extras. A twelve-month minimum means twelve payments, even if you would rather leave after three.
That can still be a fair arrangement. Before you sign one, check four things:
- the minimum term, and what leaving early costs;
- whether the domain is registered in your name;
- whether you get the site’s files if you leave, or only the use of the site while you pay;
- what the monthly plan includes after the first year.
Why quotes for the same site can differ so much.
Quotes vary widely. A 2026 survey of web design agencies by GoodFirms, cited in Shopify’s 2026 guide to website costs, found that quotes for custom design spread across a very wide range, with most agencies quoting toward the lower end of it. Where a site lands depends on the six things above: a few pages for a local service business is a very different job from a store with hundreds of products.
Running costs are separate. The same guide shows hosting varying far more from one provider to the next than the domain does, so compare what each quote includes for the years after launch, not only the build.
Source: Shopify, “How Much Does a Website Cost? (2026 Guide)”, updated September 4, 2026, citing GoodFirms’ 2026 website cost survey. Read October 30, 2026.
Why we quote on a short call.
We do not publish prices, because two websites of the same size can be very different jobs. A fifteen-minute call tells us how many pages you need, what the site has to do, which words and photos already exist, and what you want a customer to do when they land. You get a quote on the call, and it goes into a one-page written project plan before anything is charged.
Every build includes the writing and the search basics, and every website we build carries the Loomwest Guarantee: you see your homepage before any deposit, nothing goes live without your approval, the site is yours, and anything we built that breaks in the first 30 days after launch is fixed at no charge.
Questions owners ask about cost.
Is a cheaper website a bad website?
Not necessarily. A small site done well can bring in more calls than a large one done badly. Compare what each quote includes: the number of pages, who writes the words, who owns the domain and the files, and what happens after launch.
Are there costs after launch?
Yes, for any website: hosting, the domain and security updates. Ask whether a quote includes them and for how long. Every website we start by December 31, 2026 gets its first three months of Loomwest Care free, which covers hosting checks, backups, security updates and small changes.
Can I start small and add pages later?
Yes. Many businesses start with one page and grow. With us, if you outgrow a smaller site, what you paid is credited toward the larger build.
Do you work outside Gilroy?
Yes. We are based in Gilroy, work in person from Marin County to Monterey County, and work with businesses anywhere by Google Meet, phone and email.
Get a quote for your website on a free call.
Fifteen minutes, no obligation, and the quote goes into a written project plan before anything is charged.