How Much Does a Website Cost? Business Site vs WordPress vs Custom
Builder, WordPress or custom? What a website really costs before launch and every year after.
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Georgiana Nutas
·9 min read
“How much does a website cost?” is the first question almost every business owner asks us. The honest answer is a range: anywhere from $17 a month on a website builder to $30,000 or more for a custom build.
That range is too wide to plan a budget with. So this guide splits it into the three ways you can actually get a website. For each one, you will see what it costs before launch, what it costs every year after, and when it is the right choice. At the end, you will also see exactly what we charge.
One thing the table hides: professional build prices overlap. A freelancer or agency charges for the work, whatever the platform. What really changes between WordPress and custom is how much work the build takes, and what you pay to keep the site running afterward.
What actually drives the price
Before comparing options, it helps to know why two quotes for “a website” can differ by ten times. Five things move the number most.
Who builds it. Doing it yourself costs time, not money. A freelancer is usually cheaper than an agency, but an agency brings design, development, and project management in one team.
How many pages you need. Each page needs layout, content, and testing. Page design alone can run from $1,000 to $10,000, depending on how many pages the site has.
Template or custom design. A ready-made template costs $20 to $300. A design made for your brand costs more, and custom graphics can add $500 to $1,500 each.
Features. A contact form is cheap. Online booking, a shop, client logins, or a calculator each add real development time.
Content. Someone has to write the text and supply the photos. If that is you, the project moves at your speed. If it is the agency, it is on the quote.
Tagged:#WebsiteCost#WebDevelopment#SmallBusiness
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Written by
Georgiana Nutas
Building modern web applications at BluDeskSoft. We write about what we learn along the way.
Keep these five in mind as you read the options below. They explain most of the gaps between the low and high ends of each range.
Option 1: A website builder ($17–$159 a month)
Website builders like Wix and Squarespace let you build a site yourself with drag-and-drop templates. You pay a monthly plan that already includes hosting.
What it costs. Wix is a good benchmark. Its paid plans, billed yearly, look like this:
So a simple site on the Light plan costs about $204 a year. Pay month by month instead, and you can pay up to 41% more. A premium template adds $20 to $300, once.
The costs people miss:
The domain. It is free for the first year only. After that, renewal runs about $15 to $18 a year.
Your time. You write the content, pick the images, and fix the layout on every screen size.
Lock-in. You cannot export a Wix site to another platform. If you outgrow it, you rebuild from scratch.
Choose a builder if you are just starting, you need 3 to 5 pages, and you are happy to do the work yourself.
Skip it if you need custom features, fast mobile load times, or a site that ranks well for competitive searches. AI site builders have the same trade-offs; we compare them in AI-Generated Websites vs. Custom Development.
Option 2: A WordPress site ($500–$30,000+)
WordPress itself is free. What you pay for is everything around it: the theme, the plugins, the hosting, and the person who puts it together.
What it costs:
Do it yourself: a premium theme for $20 to $300, plus hosting. Cheap in money, expensive in time.
Freelancer: $500 to $10,000+, depending on pages and features.
Agency: $3,000 to $30,000+, often with design, copywriting, and SEO setup included.
The costs people miss:
Plugin licenses. Forms, SEO, backups, security, page builders. Many premium plugins charge every year, and a typical site runs several.
Updates. WordPress core, the theme, and every plugin need regular updates. Skip them and the site becomes an easy target. Our website security checklist shows what to check first.
Speed work. Each plugin adds weight. Many WordPress sites need tuning after launch to load fast on mobile; see How to Speed Up Your WordPress Website.
Choose WordPress if you publish a lot of content, your team already knows the editor, or you need a feature that an existing plugin does well.
Skip it if you want a site that runs for years with little upkeep, or you need features no plugin covers.
Already have a WordPress site that is slow or broken? Our WordPress development team builds new sites and rescues existing ones.
Option 3: A custom-built site ($3,000–$30,000+)
A custom site is coded for your business, usually on a modern framework like Next.js with a headless CMS for editing. There are no themes or plugin stacks: every feature is built for what you actually need.
What it costs. A custom business site starts in the same range as an agency WordPress build. The price climbs with each feature that needs real development:
What you get for the money:
Speed by default. Pages are pre-built and served from servers close to your visitors, with no plugin weight.
Fewer moving parts. No monthly plugin updates, and a much smaller attack surface.
Room to grow. You can add booking, client portals, or dashboards later without a rebuild.
You own the code. No platform lock-in.
We compare the two approaches in detail in WordPress vs. Next.js for Agency Websites: An Honest Comparison, based on rebuilding our own site.
Choose custom if speed and search rankings matter to your sales, you need features no template offers, or the site is the start of a bigger product.
Skip it if you need something live this week on a very small budget. A builder is the honest answer there.
If your “website” needs logins, roles, or a dashboard, it is really a web app. Read How Much Does a Custom Web Application Cost in 2026? or see our custom web application development service.
The yearly costs nobody quotes you
The launch price is only the first bill. Every website, whatever the option, keeps costing money after it goes live:
Maintenance is the line that varies most. A WordPress site with a dozen plugins needs someone checking updates and backups every month. A custom site needs occasional dependency updates and periodic reviews.
To see what good maintenance actually covers, read our Website Maintenance Services Checklist. Our own care plan starts from €200 a month: monitoring, updates and fixes, a response in under one business day, and you can pause or cancel anytime.
Red flags when comparing quotes
A low quote is not always a good deal. Watch for these before you sign:
No page or feature list. If the quote does not say exactly what you get, you cannot compare it with another one.
Unclear ownership. Check who owns the domain, the hosting account, and the code. It should be you. We list what to check in 7 Key Controls for Post-Launch Website Ownership.
Nothing about after launch. If maintenance, hosting, and updates are missing, the real cost is hidden.
A template sold as custom design. Ask to see the design before development starts, not after.
Will the website bring you customers, or just confirm you exist? If it only needs to confirm you exist, a builder is enough. If it has to win clients from Google, invest in a professional build.
Who will update it, and how often? A team publishing every week will like WordPress. A site that changes a few times a year runs cheaper as a custom build.
Will it need to do more than show pages? Bookings, client logins, calculators, or a shop point to a custom build, because adding them later to a template site often means starting over.
Then compare quotes on the same terms: what is included, who owns the site, and what it costs per year after launch. A cheap build with expensive upkeep is not cheap.
What a website costs with BluDeskSoft
Most agencies make you sit through several calls before they say a number. We publish ours. Every project is quoted after discovery, but here is the ballpark:
Builds are delivered as a fixed-price project, from €6,000: a defined scope, weekly demos so you can steer, and full handoff and launch support.
How it works:
A free 30-minute strategy call. No cost, no obligation. You walk us through what you need, and by the end we both know whether it makes sense to keep talking.
Discovery, from €1,000. In 1 to 2 weeks, we map what you actually need and come back with a clear scope and a fixed build price. If you go ahead, we credit the fee toward your build, and the plan is yours to keep either way.
The build, at the price agreed in discovery. No surprises later.
We are a good fit if you value speed and quality over the lowest possible price. If you need the cheapest option, a website builder is the honest answer, and we will tell you so on the first call.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a small business website cost?
A basic small business site costs $0 to $500 if you build it yourself on a builder, and $500 to $5,000+ if a freelancer or agency builds it. Add hosting, a domain, and maintenance every year.
Is WordPress cheaper than a custom website?
Often at the start, not always over time. WordPress builds can be quicker, but premium plugins, updates, and speed fixes add yearly costs that a custom site mostly avoids.
Is there a monthly fee to have a website?
Yes. At minimum, you pay for hosting and a domain. Builders bundle hosting into a monthly plan; WordPress and custom sites pay for it separately.
Can I build a website for free?
Yes, on a builder’s free plan, but you get the builder’s branding and a subdomain instead of your own name. Fine for testing, not for a business.
How long does a professional website take?
It depends on the number of pages, features, and how quickly you provide content. With us, discovery takes 1 to 2 weeks and ends with a clear scope and build timeline. A clear brief is the biggest time saver.
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