Quick Takeaways
- Hiring a website designer for a small business site usually costs $1,500–$4,000 with a freelancer and $5,000–$15,000+ with an agency. Marketplace gigs can start under $500, but scope and quality vary widely.
- Most website designers charge $50–$150 an hour in the US. Beginners and overseas freelancers can be $25–$60; established agencies often bill $100–$250.
- A DIY website costs about $20–$50 a month in builder fees, plus your time. Expect 20–60 hours to build it and a few hours every month to keep it working.
- The build is only part of the bill. Hosting, maintenance, plugins, fixes and redesigns usually cost more over three years than the original website did.
- A monthly managed plan ($50–$300/month) is a third option: little or no upfront cost, with hosting and upkeep included.
Hiring a website designer for a small business website typically costs $1,500 to $4,000 with a freelancer, $5,000 to $15,000 or more with an agency, or $50 to $300 a month with a managed website plan. Building it yourself on a website builder costs about $20 to $50 a month, but you pay with your own time: usually 20 to 60 hours to launch and a few hours a month after that. If you’d rather hand it off, see what website management includes and who does it.
The right choice depends less on the upfront price than on what the website costs you over the next three years. That’s where most of the hidden costs show up, especially for do-it-yourself sites.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Website Designer?
Here’s what a typical 5–10 page small business website costs with each option:
| Option | Upfront cost | Ongoing cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself (Wix, Squarespace, WordPress) | $0–$500 + 20–60 hours | $20–$50/month + your time | Very new businesses with simple needs and spare time |
| Marketplace freelancer (Fiverr, Upwork) | $200–$1,500 | Usually none included | Simple sites with a tightly written scope |
| Experienced freelancer | $1,500–$4,000 | Hosting + hourly updates ($50–$150/hr) | Small businesses that want a custom look |
| Small web design agency | $5,000–$15,000+ | Care plan, often $100–$500/month | Larger sites, custom features, brand work |
| Managed website plan (website as a service) | $0–$500 setup | $50–$300/month, all-inclusive | Owners who want it built and handled for a monthly fee |
Sites with online stores, booking systems or dozens of pages can cost $15,000 to $75,000 or more. If you already have a site and want it rebuilt, see how much a website redesign costs.
How Much Do Website Designers Charge Per Hour?
| Who | Typical hourly rate |
|---|---|
| Beginner or overseas freelancer | $25–$60 |
| Experienced US freelancer | $50–$150 |
| Web design agency | $100–$250+ |
Most designers quote a fixed project price for a new website and use hourly rates for changes and fixes after launch. A low hourly rate doesn’t always mean a cheaper website: a less experienced designer may need more hours, and you’ll pay again for anything that has to be redone. See what web design packages include at each price.
What About Fiverr and Upwork?
Marketplaces list website gigs from under $100 to several thousand dollars. They can work well for a simple site if you write down exactly what you need. Before you hire, confirm how many pages and revisions are included, who writes the text, whether hosting and a domain are included, and who owns the finished site. The most common surprise is that nothing is included after launch, so updates, security and fixes become your job.
What Affects the Cost of Hiring a Website Designer?
Number of pages
A 5-page site (home, about, services, contact, one more) costs far less than a 30-page site with a page for every service and location.
Template vs. custom design
Customizing a quality template is the most common approach for small businesses. Fully custom design costs more because every layout is designed from scratch.
Writing and photos
Designers usually expect you to supply the text and images. Professional copywriting often adds $100–$500 per page, and it’s the cost owners forget most often.
Features
Contact forms are standard. Online booking, payments, member areas, online stores and integrations with other software all add cost.
SEO setup
Basic setup (page titles, descriptions, a sitemap, Google Search Console) should be included. Ongoing SEO work is usually a separate service. See what search visibility means for how this affects whether customers find you.
Who looks after it after launch
Ask this before you sign. A website needs updates, backups and security monitoring every month. If that isn’t in the quote, budget for website maintenance separately: usually $35–$300 a month.
What Does a DIY Website Really Cost?
Building your own site looks cheap on paper. Here’s what a typical do-it-yourself small business website costs in its first year:
| Cost | Typical amount |
|---|---|
| Website builder or hosting plan | $20–$50/month |
| Domain name | $10–$30/year |
| Premium template or theme | $0–$200 one time |
| Apps, plugins and add-ons | $0–$300/year |
| Your time to build it | 20–60 hours |
| Your time to maintain it | 2–5 hours/month |
Platform choice matters too. Compare the options in WordPress vs. Wix vs. Squarespace. If you’re leaning toward a website builder, see what a Squarespace website really costs.
The Hidden Costs of a DIY Website
The bigger costs of doing it yourself don’t show up on any invoice:
Your time
Website work doesn’t arrive as one big job. It’s twenty minutes of plugin updates, forty-five minutes figuring out why the contact form stopped sending, an afternoon fixing a layout an update broke. Across a year that adds up to days of work, pulled from the hours you could spend with customers or on the work that pays the bills.
The knowledge gap
Running a modern website well means knowing about security updates, caching, image optimization, backups and Core Web Vitals. Most owners learn as problems appear, so issues get fixed late or not at all, and the site slowly drifts out of shape.
Emergency repairs
Problems that regular maintenance would prevent get fixed at their worst. A skipped plugin update can lead to a hacked site that needs days of developer time to clean up, at emergency rates. That one repair can cost more than years of routine upkeep. See what to do when your website is down.
Lost search visibility and leads
When nobody is checking Search Console, broken links, indexing errors and slow pages go unnoticed. The site gets fewer visits from Google over time and sends fewer calls and form fills, but that loss never shows up as a line item.
Opportunity cost
Every hour spent troubleshooting the website is an hour not spent on sales, service or growing the business. For most owners, that’s the largest cost of all.
Example: 3-Year Cost of a Small Business Website
To compare fairly, here’s an illustrative 5-page small business website over three years. Your time is valued at $50 an hour; adjust that to your own rate.
| Option | Year 1 | 3-year total | What’s included |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY website builder | About $4,100 | About $8,300 | $300/yr in tools, 40 hours to build, 3 hours/month to maintain |
| Freelancer + hosting/updates | About $3,900 | About $5,700 | $3,000 build, then about $75/month for hosting and updates |
| Small agency + care plan | About $9,300 | About $12,900 | $7,500 build, then about $150/month care plan |
| Managed website plan | $1,200–$3,000 | $3,600–$9,000 | $100–$250/month covering build, hosting, updates and support |
Your numbers will differ, but the pattern holds: the cheapest option upfront is rarely the cheapest over three years, and DIY gets expensive fast once your time is counted.
Is It Worth Paying Someone to Build Your Website?
Doing it yourself makes sense when:
- You’re just starting and need something simple online this week.
- You enjoy the work and have time to keep the site updated.
- Your site is a basic one- to three-page brochure with no forms or bookings.
Paying a professional makes sense when:
- Your website needs to bring in calls, bookings or sales, not just exist.
- Your time is worth more spent on your business than on website fixes.
- You need to show up in Google for the services you offer.
- You’ve already lost hours (or customers) to a broken or slow site.
Still deciding whether you need a site at all? Read do I need a website for my business.
How to Hire a Website Designer Without Overpaying
- Get a written scope: number of pages, features, revisions and who writes the text.
- Make sure you own your domain and website. The domain should be registered in your name.
- Ask what happens after launch: who handles updates, backups, security and fixes, and at what price.
- Look at 3 live sites they’ve built and check them on your phone.
- Agree on a payment schedule. A 30–50% deposit with the rest at launch is common.
- Compare at least two quotes, and compare the 3-year cost, not just the build price.
Website Designer Cost FAQs
How much should a small business website cost?
Most small businesses pay $1,500–$4,000 for a freelancer-built site or $5,000–$15,000+ with an agency. Managed website plans spread the cost into $50–$300 a month. DIY costs $20–$50 a month plus your time.
How much do website designers charge per hour?
Usually $50–$150 an hour in the US. Beginners and overseas freelancers can charge $25–$60, and agencies often bill $100–$250 or more.
Is it cheaper to build your own website?
Cheaper in cash, yes. Once your time to build and maintain it is counted, DIY often costs about as much as hiring someone over three years, and usually gets worse results in Google.
What’s included in a website designer’s price?
Usually design, building the pages, basic mobile and SEO setup, and a set number of revisions. Text, photos, hosting, a domain and maintenance after launch are often extra, so ask before you sign.
Do I have to keep paying after my website is built?
Yes, in some form. Every website needs a domain and hosting, and it needs regular updates and backups to stay secure. You either do that yourself, pay hourly as needed, or pay a monthly plan.
The Bottom Line
A website designer typically costs $1,500–$15,000 upfront, or $50–$300 a month with a managed plan. Doing it yourself is cheapest in cash but most expensive in time. Whichever route you choose, budget for the next three years, not just the launch.
Learn more about website as a service, or browse the small business website guide and all topics at Cindaro Resources.
Full disclosure: Cindaro is a managed website service. Our plans start at $99 a month and include the design and build, hosting, security, updates and support. See how it works or view our pricing.
