How much does a simple website cost?

A 5-page marketing site from a freelancer typically runs $1,000–$8,000. A small agency will charge $6,000–$20,000 for the same scope. If budget is tight, DIY builders like Webflow or Squarespace can get you something functional for $20–$100/month.

Should I use a website builder or hire a developer?

Use a builder when you're testing an idea, have a limited budget, or don't need anything custom. Hire a developer when you need integrations a template can't handle, when you want to own the code outright, or when you're building something that will outgrow a platform in 12 months.

How long does it take to build a website?

A simple marketing site: 2–5 weeks. A site with CMS and custom design: 4–10 weeks. A web application or SaaS product: 3–6 months, sometimes longer. Timelines slip most often when content and feedback are slow — not when development is.

How Much Does a Website Cost in 2025?

Why nobody gives you a straight answer

Google 'how much does a website cost' and you'll find articles confidently telling you anywhere from $500 to $500,000. Which is technically true. And completely useless. The price swings that wildly because 'website' covers everything from a one-page Squarespace site to a full SaaS platform. The real answer depends on three things: what you're building, who's building it, and what's silently inflating the bill.

What websites actually cost in 2025

These are working ranges — what real clients pay, not theoretical minimums designed to get you on a call.

Type	DIY / Builder	Freelancer	Agency
Simple landing page	$0–$50/mo	$500–$2,000	$2,000–$6,000
Marketing website (5–10 pages)	$20–$100/mo	$2,000–$8,000	$6,000–$20,000
Ecommerce store	$30–$300/mo	$3,000–$15,000	$10,000–$50,000
Web application / SaaS	Not possible	$10,000–$50,000	$25,000–$150,000+
Internal tool / dashboard	$50–$500/mo	$5,000–$20,000	$15,000–$60,000

What actually makes the price go up

Most people fixate on the type of site. That's the wrong thing to look at. These are the real cost multipliers:

Custom design vs. a template — bespoke UI typically runs 3–5× the cost of adapting something off the shelf
Third-party integrations — each one (payments, CRM, auth, analytics) adds 20–40 hours of engineering time
A CMS so your team can edit content without a developer — expect $2,000–$8,000 to set up properly
Performance requirements — getting to sub-2-second load times takes real engineering, not just good intentions
Ongoing maintenance — $500–$3,000/month for security patches, updates, and support after launch

The costs most quotes quietly skip

The number in a proposal is rarely the number you pay. These almost always come up after you've signed:

Domain name — $10–$20/year (easy to forget, awkward to not have)
Hosting — $20–$500/month depending on traffic and stack
Stock photography — $0 if you're lucky with free libraries, $500+ per image if you're not
Copywriting — $50–$300 per page if you're not writing it yourself
Post-launch changes — $80–$250/hr for anything outside the original scope

How to think about budget before you get quotes

Start with the outcome, not the site. A $3,000 site converting 4% of visitors outperforms a $30,000 site converting 0.5%. Get at least three quotes. Ask each one to break it down line by line — you'll learn more from comparing line items than comparing totals.

If a quote doesn't spell out exact deliverables, number of revisions, who owns the code, and what post-launch support covers — don't sign it. Vague scopes are how $8,000 projects become $14,000 ones.

Common questions

Want a quote that actually tells you something?

Tell us what you're building. We'll come back within one business day with a real scope estimate — not a range that covers every possibility.

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