The short answer
If you build it yourself, you pay a builder’s monthly plan and spend your own time. If a small studio like ours builds it, a one-page site starts from $1,000, a site of up to five pages you can edit yourself starts from $1,500, and a custom build starts from $2,000. On every route you also pay for a domain and hosting, billed to you by those providers.
The cheapest site is the one that gets finished and brings in calls. Pick the route by how much of the work you want to do, not only by the first number.
What a website costs if you build it yourself
Builders like Squarespace and Wix sell monthly plans. Their published entry plans cost under $30 a month (checked October 2026), and the price goes up when you add online booking, a store or more features. Wix also lists a free plan.
The real cost is your time. You write the copy, take the photos, choose a template, learn the editor and set up the contact form. For an owner who enjoys that work, it is the cheapest route. For one who is on job sites all day, the site can sit half finished for months.
A builder site can work well. Check three things before you publish: it loads fast on a phone, the phone number is a tap-to-call button on every page, and the towns you serve are written out in plain text.
What a freelancer or agency charges
A freelancer or an agency quotes per project. The range is wide because the work is: a one-page site from a template is a few days of work, and a twenty-page site with booking, a blog and a custom design is weeks. Two quotes are only comparable when they cover the same work. Ask these before you compare numbers:
- Who writes the copy, and who supplies the photos?
- How many pages are included, and what does an extra page cost?
- Who owns the domain, the hosting account and the code?
- What does a change cost after launch, and how fast is it made?
- Are hosting, the domain and any paid editor included, or billed to you?
- Is it built for phones first, with a call button on every page?
What our websites cost
We build every site by hand, for phones first, with one clear action per page: call, book or send the job details. Three tiers, picked by how often the site will change:
- Starter
- From $1,000. One page, live in under a week. A business that needs one clear page live soon and will rarely change it.
- Editable
- From $1,500. Up to five pages you can edit yourself. An owner who wants to change text, photos, and posts without calling us.
- Custom
- From $2,000. Quoted per project after the free 15-min AI review. A business that needs integrations or more than five pages, and wants us to make every change.
Each price is where the tier starts. You get the full number in writing after a free 15-min AI review, before any work starts. Starter comes with a promise: live in under a week, or $100 off, counted from when your copy and photos are in. The details are on the Websites page and on pricing.
What a website costs after launch
- Domain
- Registered in your name and billed to you by the registrar. It stays yours if you leave.
- Hosting
- Billed to you by the hosting provider. We pick it with you on the call and say what it costs before anything is set up.
- Editor plan
- If the editor on an Editable site needs a paid plan, you pay that vendor directly.
- Changes
- On a Starter site: changes are $75 an hour, in 30-minute blocks, quoted before we start. On an Editable site you make most changes yourself.
- Care plan
- Optional, from $99 a month: a monthly form test, security updates, a broken-link check, monitoring and a monthly check-in.
You keep the domain, the site and its content. If you leave, the code is handed over and the hosting can move to your own account.
Which one fits your business
If you need to be found and called this month, one clear page is enough: what you do, the area you cover, your hours and a call button. If you add services or post updates often, pick a site you can edit. If you need online booking, a form wired to your phone or more than five pages, it is a custom build.
A website on its own does not answer the phone. If the calls it brings in go to voicemail after hours, pair it with an AI receptionist. Right now, the first 3 businesses that buy a website get the receptionist’s setup fee waived (the conditions).
We also build for single trades: dentists, HVAC companies, plumbers, salons, law firms and auto repair shops. We are based in Herndon, Northern Virginia and work with businesses in Reston, Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, Loudoun and DC, and remotely anywhere.
Sources: Squarespace and Wix published plan prices (squarespace.com/pricing, wix.com/plans), October 2026.