What a small business website really costs

Ask three people what a website costs and you get three answers that are miles apart. One says it is free, one quotes a monthly plan, one sends a proposal with a number that makes you close the laptop. All three can be right, because they are pricing different things.

This article splits a website into the parts you actually pay for, so you can compare offers on the same terms and spot the costs that only show up later.

The five parts you pay for

Every website, from a one-page site for a barber to a large shop, is built from the same five parts. The price differences come from how much of each part you buy and who does the work.

1. Domain. Your address, like yourbusiness.com. A small yearly fee at a registrar. Make sure it is registered in your name, not in the name of whoever builds the site.
2. Hosting. The server that shows your site to visitors. For a simple site this can be cheap or even included with a static host. Shops and apps need more.
3. Design and build. Turning your business into pages that work on a phone and a laptop. This is where most of the price differences sit.
4. Content. Texts, photos, prices, opening hours. Often forgotten in a quote, and often the reason a project stalls for weeks.
5. Upkeep. Changes after launch, updates, backups, someone to call when something breaks. Some offers include this in a monthly fee, others charge per change.

Three routes and what they really cost

Do it yourself with a template

You buy a finished design and fill it in yourself. It costs the least money and the most time. It works well if you are comfortable editing text files and you know where you want to host. Our website templates cost €19 each: one HTML file, mobile first, with a short guide. Domain and hosting are on you.

A small site built for you

Someone else does the work, you send the content. For many local businesses a single, well-built page is enough: what you do, prices or a menu, opening hours, a map and a clear way to contact you. Our one-page website is €199 one time, built on one of our designs with your logo, texts and photos. Domain and hosting are not included, and the files are handed over to you.

A custom site or app

Several pages, a booking flow, a shop, a client portal or links to other systems. This is real project work and should come with a written scope and a fixed price before anything starts. If a provider cannot tell you what is included and what is not, that is a warning, not a detail.

The costs that show up later

The build price is rarely what hurts. These are the costs that surprise people in year two:

• A monthly plan that keeps running, where leaving means losing the site.
• A domain registered in the agency's name, so moving away needs their cooperation.
• Every small text change billed as extra work.
• No access to the files or the admin, so another developer cannot take over.

None of these are wrong in themselves. A monthly plan can be great value if it includes real support. The problem is not knowing about them before you sign.

How to choose

Start with what the site has to do, not with what it should look like. If people mainly need to find your address, see your prices and call you, a one-page site does the job. If people need to book, pay or log in, plan for a custom build.

Then check three things in every offer: what is included, what depends on you, and what is not included. A good offer answers all three on paper. And whatever route you pick, make sure the domain is in your name and the files are yours. That is what keeps your options open.