How much does a website cost for a small business? Ask five web designers and you’ll get five answers, usually right after the words “it depends.” It does depend, but not on anything mysterious. There are three ways to pay for a small business website in Texas, and each one moves the money and the work to a different place.
Here’s how we lay it out for a Sherman or Denison owner sitting across the table from us.
How much does a website cost? Three ways to pay
Build it yourself
Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy all sell monthly plans. Squarespace’s website plans currently run $19 to $99 a month on annual billing, and Forbes Advisor puts a typical do-it-yourself build at $0 to $450 upfront.
Those numbers are real. What they leave out is you. You write every word, pick every photo, sort out the search settings and fix whatever breaks. Most DIY sites we audit around Texoma look fine and don’t show up when someone searches for the service. That’s rarely the platform’s fault. Nobody did the local search work, because nobody had time.
DIY makes sense when you’re brand new, cash is tight and you’d honestly enjoy the project. If you’d rather be on a job, it’s the priciest option here once you count your own hours.
Pay someone to build it
A designer or agency builds a custom site around your services and your market, and you pay upfront. Forbes Advisor lists professional design at $1,500 and up, and “and up” is carrying a lot of weight in that phrase. For a local service business that needs a page for each main service and each town it covers, quotes in the several-thousand-dollar range are normal. When two quotes are far apart, you’re usually comparing two different products.
You own the finished custom website. You also own everything that comes after launch. Our own version is a one-time build starting at $4,000, quoted up front by the size of the site, that includes professional video, Google Business Profile setup and three months of marketing, so the site has help getting found once it’s live.
Lease it
A lease spreads the build across a monthly payment and bundles in the upkeep. Our website lease is $500 a month with nothing upfront, and it covers design, hosting, security, maintenance and ongoing updates. No big check to start, and no surprise invoice when something needs fixing.
Think of it like leasing a work truck. Over enough years you’ll pay more than a one-time build would cost, and part of what you’re paying for is never having to think about the site. For owners who’d rather keep cash in the business, that’s the whole appeal. For owners who like owning things outright, it isn’t, and that’s fine.
Why website quotes vary so much
Two quotes can be thousands of dollars apart because they aren’t pricing the same job. The number moves with:
- How many pages you need. Each service and city page takes real work, and each one is another chance to show up in search.
- Custom design versus a template with your logo dropped in.
- Who writes the words. Copy that gets people to pick up the phone takes time.
- Whether local search setup is included or billed later as “extra.”
- Photos and video of your actual crew and work, which someone has to go shoot.
- Who maintains the site after launch, and how fast they answer when you call.
When you compare quotes, ask every designer the same question: what happens the day after it goes live?
The costs that show up after launch
A “one-time” website keeps costing money. Forbes Advisor estimates hosting and apps at $15 to $150 a month for a typical small business site, and the domain name renews every year. On top of that come software and security updates, backups, and the small edits that pile up: new hours, a new service, a new photo, a price change.
If you can make those edits yourself, great. If you can’t, you’re either paying someone by the hour or living with an outdated site. We see a lot of the second one. The site was fine when it launched, and nobody has touched it since.
So add it up over three years before you decide. A cheap upfront build with no plan for upkeep tends to cost more than it looked like, in fees and in calls that never came.
What should a Sherman or Denison business pay?
Start with one question: how many new customers a month does the site need to bring in to pay for itself? For a roofer or an HVAC company with big tickets, the answer is often one. For a business with $40 tickets, it’s a lot more, and a lighter setup might be the smarter call.
If you’re just getting started and every dollar is spoken for, a DIY site gets you on the map. The lease is there when you want it done properly without the upfront hit.
Established companies with some cash on hand and someone who’ll keep the site current often do better owning a custom build. Budget the upkeep before you sign, not after.
And if you already have a site that isn’t bringing in work, get it looked at before you replace it. Sometimes the fix is a few service pages and a cleaned-up Google Business Profile, not a new website.
Common questions
How much does a website cost per month?
A DIY plan on Squarespace runs $19 to $99 a month billed annually. A professionally built site you own still has monthly hosting and maintenance costs. Our all-inclusive lease is $500 a month, and our one-time build starts at $4,000.
Why not just use a Facebook page?
You don’t own it, it doesn’t do much when people search Google for your service, and your reach is up to Facebook’s algorithm. We wrote a whole post on why your Facebook page is not a website.
Does my website affect whether AI tools recommend me?
It does. ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews pull from websites when someone asks who does a job nearby. Clear service and location pages give them something to cite. A one-page site or a Facebook page usually gives them very little.