How much does a small business website cost per month?

A website isn’t one thing. It’s a few jobs, and every price you see is some mix of them.

• The build. Planning the pages, writing or shaping the words, the design, and putting it all together so it works on phones.
• The hosting. A place on the internet where the site lives, plus the security certificate (the padlock in the address bar).
• The upkeep. Updates, backups, fixing things when they break, and watching that the site stays up.
• The changes. New prices, new photos, a new service, holiday hours. Small things that come up every month.
• Being found. The basics that help Google understand your site: page titles, descriptions, speed, and a clean structure.

A cheap quote often covers only the build. Everything else lands on you later, as extra bills or as jobs you do yourself on a Sunday night.

There are two common ways to pay.

Pay once, then you’re on your own

You pay a larger sum up front. The site is handed over and you look after it yourself, or you pay by the hour each time something needs doing. This can work if you have someone in-house who’s comfortable with updates and hosting.

Pay monthly, and it’s kept running

You pay a smaller amount each month. The studio builds the site, then hosts it, updates it, backs it up and makes small changes for you. The cost is spread out and predictable, and someone is always responsible when something goes wrong.

Most owner-run businesses we talk to want the second one. They don’t want to learn hosting. They want the site to work and the phone to ring.

If you’re paying every month, the fee should cover more than “the site exists”. Before you sign, check for these:

1. Hosting and the security certificate. No separate bill for either.
2. Updates and backups. Done for you, on a schedule, without you asking.
3. A set number of edits. Know how many small changes are included and what counts as one.
4. A monthly report. A short note on what was done and how the site is doing.
5. Who owns what. You should own your domain name and your content. If you leave, they should be handed over.
6. How to leave. The minimum term, and what it costs to cancel early.

If a quote is vague on any of these, ask. A good studio will answer in one line.

Even with a monthly plan, a few costs can sit outside the fee. None of them are bad, but they shouldn’t be a surprise.

• Your domain name. The yearly fee for yourbusiness.com, paid to a registrar. Keep it in your own name.
• Email. A mailbox at your own domain is usually a separate service with its own monthly fee.
• Paid tools. Booking systems, online shops and payment providers can have their own fees or take a cut of each sale.
• Photos and words. If you need new photos or someone to write every page from scratch, ask whether that’s included.
• Bigger changes later. A new section or a new feature is usually quoted on its own. That’s normal. Just know the rule up front.
• Taxes. Prices on most sites are before sales tax.

We’re a small studio in Montreal, and we price on monthly plans. Every price is on our pricing page. In short:

• Starter, $70 a month: a one-page site, built for you and kept running. Hosting, security certificate, updates, backups, a contact form, SEO basics at launch and a monthly report.
• Essentials, $210 a month: up to five pages, your Google Business Profile and local listings, online booking, a monthly check and two edits a month.
• Growth, from $630 a month: up to ten pages and a blog, two to four posts a month, a chat assistant and simple automations.
• Custom: tools made for how you work, always quoted after a call.

On setup: with a 6-month plan, setup is $0. If you’d rather pay month to month and cancel anytime, there’s a one-time setup fee instead, from $280 on Starter. Yearly billing gives you 12 months for the price of 10, with $0 setup.

You own your domain and your content. If you leave, we hand them over.

Price alone won’t tell you much. A low monthly fee with no edits, no backups and a long contract can cost more in the end than a higher fee that covers everything.

Instead, ask three questions:

1. What exactly is included each month? Get it in writing.
2. What happens when I need a change? How fast, and is it included?
3. What happens if I leave? Do I keep my domain and my content?

If the answers are clear, you can compare quotes fairly. If they aren’t, that tells you something too.

Don’t start with “how much does a website cost”. Start with what your business needs the site to do: bring in calls, take bookings, answer the same questions so you don’t have to. Then pick the smallest plan that does that job well, and make sure the monthly fee covers the upkeep.

If you already have a site and only need it looked after, that’s a different, smaller job. See the care plans for existing sites.

Not sure which plan fits? Book a free 30-minute call. We’ll look at your business, tell you what fits and what it costs, and say so if we’re not the right fit.