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How much does a website cost in 2026?
The first bill is rarely the problem. It's the hosting renewal, the domain in year two and the designer's retainer. Here's what a website really costs, line by line.
Ask three people what a website costs and you'll get three answers that don't overlap. A designer quotes $4,000. A hosting company says $2.49 a month. A friend says theirs was free. They're all telling the truth, and none of them is telling you what you'll actually spend over a couple of years.
The bit that catches people is rarely the first bill. It's the second year: the hosting that renews at several times the intro price, the "free" domain that isn't free any more, the maintenance retainer that turns a one-off project into a monthly cost.
So here's the short answer. A small business can have a good site for about $48 to $240 a year on a website builder, if you do it yourself. A freelancer usually costs $500 to $10,000 upfront, and an agency $3,000 to $30,000 or more, plus ongoing fees. On Mondovo, building your site is free, and putting it live is $20 a month with hosting included.
Below is where every dollar goes, line by line, so you can tell a fair quote from a padded one, with a note on where Mondovo lands in each part.
Website cost at a glance
| How you build it | Upfront cost | Yearly running cost | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website builder, done yourself | $0 (your time) | About $48–$240 for the cheapest plan with your own domain; about $350–$540 to sell online | Small businesses, portfolios, simple stores |
| WordPress, done yourself | $0–$70 for a premium theme | About $120–$216 for hosting at renewal prices, plus a domain | People who want full control and don't mind upkeep |
| Freelancer | $500–$10,000+ | Hosting and plan costs, plus paid changes | A custom-looking small site on a budget |
| Agency | $3,000–$30,000+ | Often a maintenance retainer: small businesses spend $3,600–$12,000 a year | Businesses that need strategy, branding and ongoing help |
| Mondovo (ours) | $0: building and three designs are free | $240 for twelve months of Pro, plus your domain | Small businesses that want to see finished designs before paying |
| Custom ecommerce build | $10,000–$50,000+ (Clutch's average: $51,943) | Platform, payment and maintenance fees | Larger online stores |
The design ranges come from WebFX's website-cost guide and Clutch's project-pricing research. Your quote will depend on scope and where you are.
What you pay for, line by line
The domain: $10–$20 a year
A .com costs about $11 a year at registrars that don't mark it up. Porkbun lists $11.08 a year and promises the same price at renewal, and Cloudflare sells domains at cost. Many builders throw the domain in free for the first year on an annual plan. Lovely, until year two. Check the renewal price before you rely on it.
Mondovo: the domain is a separate cost and stays registered with you, wherever you bought it.
Hosting: cheap to start, more at renewal
This is where the renewal jump bites hardest. Shared WordPress hosting looks almost free until the first renewal:
- Hostinger Premium is $2.49 a month on a 48-month term, then $10.99 a month.
- Bluehost Starter is $3.99 a month on a 36-month term, then $9.99.
- SiteGround StartUp is $2.99 a month for 12 months, then $17.99. That's six times the first price.
Notice that the cheapest intro prices need you to pay for three or four years upfront. Website builders bundle hosting into the plan instead, so there's no separate hosting bill and less to go wrong.
Mondovo: hosting and SSL are in the $20 a month, with no four-year prepay and no intro price that jumps at renewal. Pages publish as static files from a global network.
A website builder plan: about $48–$240 a year
The cheapest plan that lets you use your own domain, from each builder's pricing page:
| Builder | Cheapest plan with your own domain | About a year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress.com | Personal, $4/mo billed yearly | $48 | Selling online needs Commerce, $45/mo |
| Hostinger Website Builder | Premium, $2.49/mo on a 48-month prepay | $119.52 for four years, then $10.99/mo | Current Premium offer lists ecommerce; check the booking side and renewal term |
| Framer | Basic, $10/mo with yearly billing | $120 | 30 pages on Basic |
| Webflow | Basic, $15/mo billed yearly | $180 | No CMS on Basic; Premium with CMS is $25/mo billed yearly |
| Wix | Get a local quote for Light; look at Core if you need bookings or payments | Check your local annual quote | Payments and selling start on Core, $29/mo |
| Squarespace | Basic, $19/mo billed yearly | $228 | 2% fee on store sales on Basic |
| Mondovo (ours) | Pro, $20/mo including one live site | $240 | Bookings, payments, store and forms included; building and comparing designs is free |
What the table can't show is what each plan leaves out. A cheap plan that can't take a booking or a payment often ends up costing more once you add the paid tools that can.
Mondovo: it sits at the top of the cheapest-plan range at $240 a year, but that one plan covers bookings with deposits, a store, forms with an enquiry inbox, contacts and email, so there's no second tier to move up to when you start selling. If you'd rather see your own business in three designs before comparing any further, try it free.
Design: free to thousands
This is the big one, and it's mostly paying for someone's hours.
- Builder templates and AI designs: included in the plan.
- A premium WordPress theme: about $18–$119 on ThemeForest, most between $30 and $70.
- A designer: this is where most of a freelancer's or agency's fee goes. Clutch puts US and Canadian agencies at $100–$149 an hour. Agencies working on Wix, WordPress, Squarespace, Webflow or Shopify average $25–$49 an hour.
Mondovo: design is the line we took to zero. You get three complete designs built from your own business and content, free, and you can keep up to ten on one site and switch the live one with a click. A generated design may need some refining to match a strict brand guide, which is where a designer still earns their fee.
SSL: free
The padlock certificate costs nothing from Let's Encrypt, and builders and good hosts include it. Only advanced certificates for specific compliance needs cost $50 to $1,000+ a year. If someone's charging you for a basic one, ask why. On Mondovo it's included with your live site.
Upkeep: the cost people forget
WebFX puts website maintenance at $3,600–$12,000 a year for a small business, and its own WordPress care plans start at $350 a month. On a website builder, updates, security and backups are part of the plan. What's left is your time keeping the content current.
Mondovo: there are no plugins, no updates and no backups to manage, and platform security is our job. Editing is free too: change a price or a photo on the page, or ask for the change in words. No invoice.
What makes a website cost more
- Selling online. Clutch's average ecommerce project is $51,943. Even on a builder, store features usually start one plan up. On Mondovo the store (cart, checkout, payments, orders) is part of the same $20 plan.
- More pages and custom features. Bookings, member areas, several languages and integrations all add design and build time.
- Who writes the words. Copywriting is often billed separately, and it's the part that decides whether the site brings in customers. Mondovo builds from your own description or your current site's pages, so you start from your words, not a blank page.
- Ongoing marketing. SEO retainers commonly run $1,500–$5,000 a month (GoodFirms, as cited in Shopify's SEO pricing guide). That's a marketing budget, not a website cost, but it often turns up on the same quote.
What I'd do instead of paying for a gamble
The expensive part of a website isn't the hosting or the domain. It's paying someone thousands for a design you only see once you've committed, then paying again every time you want to change it.
That's the part we set out to remove with Mondovo. You describe your business, or paste your current website address, and Mondovo plans the pages and builds three complete designs with your own content in them. You look at real, finished options before you spend a cent, and pick one. If you already have a site, it reads your pages, text, images, logo and colours, so you're not paying anyone to rewrite what you already have. See how to redesign an existing site.
Added up, a Mondovo site costs $240 for twelve months of Pro, one live site on your own domain with hosting and SSL. Building and previewing are free if you want to start with nothing.
Your domain is a separate cost and stays registered with you. Add tax, payment-processing fees if you take payments, and an email sending account if you run campaigns. Prices can differ by country, so check pricing for yours.
A designer is still worth it when you need a distinctive brand or something complex. If you're torn, read web designer vs website builder. Or just look first: see your three designs for free, then decide what you'd pay for.
How to keep the cost down
- See designs before you pay for one. Then you're paying for a choice, not a gamble.
- Price the plan you'll actually need, not the cheapest one. If you take bookings or sell, compare the plans that do that.
- Read the renewal price. On hosting especially, the second year can cost three to six times the first.
- Keep the content you already have. Redesigning a site from its own pages costs far less than writing from scratch.
For the same service-business brief costed across builders, see our affordability comparison.
Prices checked on 20 and 21 October 2026. They change, so check the linked pages before you buy.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a website cost for a small business?
On a website builder, about $48–$240 a year for the cheapest plan with your own domain, plus your time. With a freelancer, $500–$10,000+, and with an agency $3,000–$30,000+, according to WebFX's 2026 ranges. Most projects on Clutch come in under $10,000.
How much does it cost to build a website yourself?
Mostly the plan and the domain. On Mondovo, building is free and twelve months of Pro is $240, before your domain, tax and any payment fees. Compare plans that cover the same bookings, payments and marketing, not just the cheapest entry tier.
How much does a website cost per month?
For a builder site, about $4 to $30 a month for a basic plan, more for selling online. For an agency-managed site, maintenance retainers commonly start around $350 a month.
Why do website quotes vary so much?
A quote mostly reflects hours: design, copywriting, custom features and project management. The same five-page site can cost a few hundred dollars from a freelancer and well over $10,000 from an agency that also does branding and strategy. Clutch's hourly rates alone run from under $25 to $149.
Can I see a website design before I pay for it?
With most designers, no: you pay a deposit and see drafts later. On Mondovo, building is free, so you see three complete designs of your own business before paying anything, and only pay $20 a month when you put one live.
Is a website builder cheaper than a web designer?
Almost always upfront, yes. A designer is still worth it when the site needs a distinctive brand or complex features, or when nobody on your team will look after it after launch.
