Average Cost of Website Design for Small Business in 2024

If you’re looking to design a website for your small business, you may have certain questions:

  • What is a reasonable price to pay for a domain name?
  • What could be the average cost of website design for a small business?
  • How much does it cost to hire a web development company to build a website?
  • How much does it cost to maintain a website monthly?

We have prepared this complete guide to answer all these questions. Being a leading web design company, we have an in-house team of web developers and web designers, and we interviewed some of these web developers & designers to make sure we deliver the best details about small business website cost.

What is the Average Cost of Website Design for Small Business?

The approximate cost of basic custom website development can range from USD 10,000 to USD 25,000. The average cost of a website development includes factors, such as design, pages, functionality, domain, web hosting, drag, and drop a website, or customization.

We will take you through the whole process, and by the end, you will have a complete idea of the website development cost in Canada as well as in other countries.

ways to create a website

There are mainly three ways to create a website:

  1. Using website builder or drag and drop solution
  2. Using an open-source solution like WordPress
  3. Hiring a web development company

Let’s check how much it cost to make a website using these different platforms.

First, we will look into the drag-and-drop solution in which you will get an idea about average web design cost and pros and cons. Without any further due, let’s dive into it.

  1. Website Built Using Drag and Drop Solutions (Starts from $5 per month)

  2. If you opt to develop your website using drag-and-drop solutions, then you can start creating your own website within a range of 2-6 hours of work. Certainly, it also depends on how familiar you are with the platform.

    Drag and drop website is suitable for you if

    • You need a personal or portfolio website so that you can showcase it
    • You want to have a quick solution within a very limited period of time

    You can design various types of websites using a website builder, such as a single-page website, portfolio website, or blog site. If you choose a drag and drop solution, here is the website design pricing table for you.

    How Much Does it Cost to Build a Website Using Drag and Drop Solution?

    FactorsPricingMore Information
    Monthly plans$5 – $50 per monthIt covers, hosting, domain name, storage, bandwidth, and secure socket layer certificate
    Apps integration$0 – $20+ per monthYou can add paid or free apps to increase your website functionality
    Security$0You don’t need to pay for the security of the website additionally.
    Support$0You will be provided support, it is included in the subscription.

    How much do websites cost to build using a website builder?

    The cost to develop a professional small business website using a website builder can range from $5 per month to $100 per month. This depends on the monthly subscription and integrations you include on your website. Here, the average website cost depends on the plan you choose for a website builder company.

    Now, let’s check the advantages and disadvantages of using drag-and-drop solutions.

    AdvantagesLimitations
    Drag and drop is an affordable optionNeed to pay subscription cost every month
    No coding or web development experience requiredBasic plans have fewer customization options
    Website builders help to create your website within a few hours of workNot all website builders offer you responsive design
  3. Website Built Using WordPress – An Open Source Solution ($5,000 – $50,000 or more)

  4. Being a top WordPress development company, we are often asked, how much does it actually cost to develop a WordPress website? The answer to this question depends on the need for tools that you want to include in your website to grow your business.

    WordPress website development is suitable for you if:

    • You want a customized website
    • You want a flexible and easy-to-use solution for the content management

    To build a WordPress site you will require some technical skills or you can even hire professional web developers. Using WordPress you can have full control over your site.

    Basically, it depends on designing a simple WordPress site or a sophisticated site with more features. Further, if you choose WordPress development. Here’s the detailed information about the approximate cost in the table.

    How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Website Using WordPress?

    FactorsPricingMore Information
    Monthly subscriptionFreeNo subscription is required as WordPress is free to use.
    Plugins/Integrations$0 – $150+ per monthYou can add paid or free plugins or integrations. Some charge one-time fees while others have monthly or annual subscriptions.
    Themes$0 – $50+ upfront costYou can use free as well as paid themes. If you purchase a paid theme, then you need to pay one time charge for it.
    Hosting$2.95 – $50+ per monthTo host the WordPress website, you will require to purchase a WordPress hosting plan depending on your requirements.
    Security$0 – $200 per yearSecurity is a crucial factor for website protection. You can purchase additional security plugins to add strong protection to your website.
    WordPress developer help$15 – $40 per hourIf you are planning to design a custom wordpress site, then you might need developers’ help. Here, the hourly rate may vary depending on location and web application development company.

    How much does it actually cost to develop a website using WordPress?

    The cost to design a website using WordPress can range between $5,000 to $50,000 or even more. Certainly, it depends on your requirements

    To design a WordPress website, the client needs to choose the best suitable template for their business. Then, they should discuss the requirements with the designer to get the exact WordPress website.

    Let’s check the advantages and disadvantages of using WordPress solution:

    AdvantagesLimitations
    WordPress is free and easy to useCoding is required to do major customization
    Scale your WordPress website with themes and pluginsIt provides frequent updates which leads to uncertainty in plugins
    Develop SEO friendly websitesYou need to add more plugins for additional features

    Furthermore, if you are looking to develop a website using an e-commerce website and want to have a complete idea of it. Check out our complete guide on the best eCommerce website design tips.

    Want to Design a Website for Your Business?

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  5. Custom Website Design (Starts from $10,000)

  6. Custom website design gives you the option to make it creative and visually appealing to your target audience. Opting for custom web design enables you to create a website from scratch rather than using website templates. Additionally, it also benefits you to stand out from your competitors in the market. Because developing a custom website design enables you to create a website as per your business goals, ideas and with a custom-driven approach.

    The custom website is suitable for you if:

    • Budget is not your primary concern and you need a complete customized solution to address the complex problems within your organization
    • Your main concern is data security and you want to have total control over your data so that no one can access your important data

    How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Custom Design Website?

    Here is the bifurcation of cost for designing a website from scratch without using any web builder.

    FactorsPricingMore Information
    Domain$1 – $13You need to buy a domain name for your website.
    Web hosting/Integrations$40 – $500There are several hosting providers you can choose from depending on your requirement. Remember, some companies might manage the web hosting others don’t.
    SSL certification$0 – $200It is possible SSL can come into your hosting plan. But, some low-cost plans don’t offer the SSL so you will need to purchase it.
    Web development company$10000 – $15000To design a website, you will need to hire a professional team of website designers and developers. You are paying experts to create your design.
    Monthly website maintenance$250 – $1000 per yearYou may need to pay the ongoing website maintenance costs and updates fees to professionals depending on the contract..

    Here, the approximate cost of designing a website for a small business depends heavily on three types of websites:

    Types of WebsiteApproximate Cost RangeFeatures
    Small business website$10,000 to $25,000
    • Basic customization
    • Web design
    • Search and filter functionality
    • CMS integration
    Medium complex website$30,000 to $40,000
    • CMS (Content management system)
    • Design layouts
    • Unique features
    • Analytics Integration
    • Search Console integration
    Highly complex websiteStarts from $50,000
    • Purchase Products
    • Payments
    • CMS Blog Platforms
    • Multimedia Creation
    • Customization
    • Analytics integration
    • Search Console integration

    In custom web design, you get the opportunity to make strategic planning for your website development. Many small business owners build custom websites according to their business objectives and make it unique. Creating custom websites offers the benefits of using the variety of colors, fonts, and graphics most suitable to the business.

    Choosing a custom website design is a one-time investment and gets rid of the monthly costs of website templates. That actually results in cost-saving in the long term. Furthermore, web designers make a proper strategy to build the website according to business objectives in custom website design. Now, we will check the advantages and disadvantages of custom website development.

    AdvantagesLimitations
    You have total control over your website and its databaseIt takes time to create a custom website
    Helps to scale your website as per your future requirementsCostlier compared to readily available template websites
    Custom website solution is customer-centricTakes more time and effort in the process of development
    Enables to build SEO friendly websiteYou need to rely on the developers to manage your website
    Helps to develop a clean code website
    Offers better security than WordPress

Apart from understanding the average cost of website design for small businesses, it’s important to consider the cost involved with website maintenance and redesign. If you are looking to overhaul or redesign your website, then check out our blog on website redesign cost which might be valuable for you to know the exact cost of your website redesign.

6 Core Factors That Impacts the Website Design Cost

core factors that impacts the website design cost

  1. Buy a Domain Name(Starts from $1 per year)

  2. A domain name is your digital address through which users can visit your website. For example, our domain name is spaceo.ca which is identical to our company’s name. It’s obvious to purchase the domain name according to your company’s name unless that domain is already purchased.

    How Much Does it Cost to Buy a Domain Name?

    The average cost to purchase a domain lies between $1 to $13.00 per domain name. You can check websites like Bluehost, GoDaddy, Hostgator, and NameCheap to buy a domain name. Furthermore, if the domain name you choose is available only then it will be possible for you to purchase it. Otherwise, you will have to look for an alternative name option for your website.

    The purchased domain name is valid for one year. To keep the same domain, you will be required to renew the domain every year as long as you want to keep it.

  3. Buy Web Hosting (Starts from $3 per month)

  4. Web hosting is a space on a server on which the files of your website are stored. It provides 24X7 availability of your website over the web.

    The cost of web hosting varies on the requirements of resources:

    • Storage
    • Bandwidth
    • Security
    • CMS
    • CDN
    • SSL certificate
    • Backup

    Generally, the cost of web hosting starts from $3/month to $25/month. Let’s check some website hosting providers.

    Web Hosting Service Provider

    There are numerous web hosting providers available for renting space on a server for your website.

    Here is the list of the best web hosting companies with their basic shared hosting plan:

    Website Hosting CompaniesPlan NameBasic Plan Pricing
    A2 HostingStartUp$2.99 per month
    DreamHostShared Starter$2.59 per month
    SiteGroundStartUp$4.99 per month
    HostingerSingle Shared Hosting$1.39 per month.

    The third aspect of website development is hiring a professional web development agency.

  5. Hiring a Web Development Agency

  6. For designing a professional website for your business, you will need to hire a web development agency. Creating a professional website design is essential because your website reflects your brand identity for your audience.

    Once you hire a professional web development company, then your next step is to discuss your requirements. It will help website designers to create their small business website design as they want. So, designers and developers help you from ideation validation to making your small business website live.

  7. Number of Pages on Website

  8. Every website has a different number of web pages in it depending upon the type of business. Talking about a service-based website will have at least 10-15 pages. On the other hand, an eCommerce website will have more than 100 pages depending on the product list. Therefore, from a website development agency’s point of view, it takes time to design and build a website. While creating a website from scratch you must take these 7 essential factors into your consideration.

    Let’s assume you are planning to design an eCommerce website, and you have 120 products. Even though a professional website designer is using the same template design for all the products. Still, other factors can take time like product description, images, pricing, and testing of pages for the website designer and development team. As these tasks take time, therefore, the website cost increases.

  9. Designing of Website

  10. Now, the core part comes with the design of the website. It’s crucial because everyone has different requirements for design for a website. If you want simple features and designs on your own website. If you prefer to have a design that can take much of the time of any designer. Therefore, it ultimately affects the website costs.

    Additionally, different pages of the website can have different designs, such as,

    • Homepage
    • About Us
    • Contact us page
    • Product/Service page
    • Portfolio page
    • Testimonial page

    For more details, you can even contact the professional web design team to discuss web design for your website. Although, ask for examples of high-end quality web design as well as the simple website to get a vivid idea of the budget for website development cost.

  11. Functionality

  12. Adding functionalities to your website enables the ability to a better user experience. It simply means adding features to your website. To be precise, adding the feature of accepting online payments. Furthermore, provide signup or registration functionality, create an email list or integration of email marketing providers, add web forms, and chatbots, and provide automated answers to the queries on your website.

    These all functionalities can take the time of a website development team. Not only this, some of the integrations you decide to include in the website can be subscription-based.

    Confused About Which Website to Build WordPress or Customized?

    We have a team of experts to help you. Get your free consultation.

    FAQ About Website Cost for Small Business

    1. What is a wireframe in design?

    2. A wireframe of a website refers to creating a basic outline and structure of a website how it would look once made. It helps designers have a perfect idea of the requirements of the clients in designing a website.
      website mockup

    3. What is the difference between wireframe and mockup?

    4. A wireframe is created as a structured outline of a whole website, you can say a sketch of a website. While mockup is the advanced step of a wireframe by adding images, graphics, and UI components to a wireframe.

      WireframeMockup
      A sketch design to convey the concept of new product functionalityA visual design of new product functionality to present how the product will look like.
      It contains the format and structure of contentIt includes the components like fonts, colours, icons, and images
      It requires approximately 6-8 daysIt requires approximately 5-7 days
    5. What is the difference between mockup vs prototype?

    6. A mockup is the graphical representation of a future product that contains the images, graphics, or UI components. While a prototype is a visual representation of how a user will interact with a product.

      MockupPrototype
      Graphical representation of a future productA prototype is a visual presentation of the final product.
      It contains images, fonts, colours, and UI componentsConnect all elements for a complete interactive flow of the product
      The mockup contains the dummy contentUsers can interact with prototypes
    7. How much does a website cost in Canada?

    8. The average development cost of a website for a small business starts from $10,000, and there is no upper limit. Certainly, the cost of a website depends on the requirements and features that a project owner wants to include.

    Get Your Custom Website Design Cost

    Answer to your question – how much does it cost to build a website for a small business? There is no fixed cost to design a website. The cost of website design involves several factors like domain, hosting, SSL, functionality, and others factors as per your requirements. Therefore, the best idea to get the estimated cost for your website design is to consult web design firms or a web development agency and discuss your requirements. Also, you can ask them about their previous work and discuss with them the cost to have a budgeting idea.

    Want to have a website for your business? Or confused about which type of website is best suitable for your business? We have an expert team of web developers to help you. You can contact us by filling up the below form.

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Rakesh Patel

Written by

Rakesh Patel is the Founder and CEO of Space-O Technologies (Canada). He has 28 years of IT experience in business strategies, operations & information technology. He has expertise in various aspects of business like project planning, sales, and marketing, and has successfully defined flawless business models for the clients. A techie by mind and a writer at heart, he has authored two books – Enterprise Mobility: Strategy & Solutions and A Guide To Open311

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