How much does a website really cost a small business?

Ask three web designers what a website costs and you will get three very different numbers. The reason is simple: the price you are quoted is usually only for building the site. What it costs to keep it online, safe and up to date is a separate story, and that is the part most small businesses find out about later.

Here is a plain overview of your options, what each one really costs over time, and the questions worth asking before you pay anyone.

The three ways to get a website

There are three common routes for a small business today.

1. A one-off build. An agency or freelancer designs and builds the site, you pay a larger sum up front, and the site is handed over to you. Hosting, the domain, updates and fixes are usually billed separately, or left to you.
2. A do-it-yourself website builder. You pay a low monthly fee for the builder and do the work yourself: picking a template, writing the text, adding photos and keeping it all running.
3. A website as a subscription. A team designs, builds, hosts and looks after the site for one monthly price. There is no large upfront payment, and the site keeps getting improved after launch.

None of these is wrong. They simply suit different businesses, depending on your budget, your time and how much you want to deal with yourself. For a closer look at what decides the price, read how much a website costs in 2026.

The costs people forget

Some of these can be cheap or even free (Let's Encrypt, a non-profit certificate authority, issues security certificates at no cost [1]), but someone still has to do the work: WordPress's own security guide stresses keeping all software up to date [2].

Whichever route you choose, a website comes with running costs. These are the ones that tend to surprise people:

• The domain (your web address) has to be renewed every year.
• Hosting keeps the site online, and it is paid monthly or yearly.
• The security certificate (the padlock in the browser) has to stay valid, or visitors see a warning.
• Updates and security fixes keep the site safe. Skipping them is how sites get hacked or simply stop working.
• Small changes like new prices, opening hours or photos. With a one-off build, each of these is often a small paid job.
• Your own time. With a do-it-yourself builder, every hour you spend on the website is an hour you are not spending on your business.

When you compare offers, add these up for two or three years, not just for the first month.

What €50 a month covers with Studio V1

We chose the subscription route because it removes the large upfront cost and the "who do I call now?" problem. For about €50 a month you get:

• a design made for your brand, not a generic template
• the build, reviewed by a real developer before launch
• a site that works well on phones
• domain, hosting and security certificate
• an SEO-ready setup, so Google can understand your site
• maintenance and minor updates
• a real person to contact when something needs changing

Your site goes live within 7 business days as version 1.0 (see how it works). After that, every improvement is a new release: v1.1, v1.2 and so on.

Questions to ask before you pay anyone

Whoever you choose, ask these questions and compare the answers side by side. Our guide on how to choose the right web agency goes deeper.

• What exactly is included after the site goes live?
• Who do I contact when something breaks, and how quickly will they answer?
• Who owns the domain and the content?
• How much does a small change cost, like a new price or a new photo?
• How long until the site is live?
• What happens if I want to stop?

A good offer is one where you know the total cost over two or three years, and you know who to call.

The short answer

A website does not have to be a big one-off investment. What matters is the total cost over time, and whether there is someone looking after the site once it is live. If you would rather spend your time on your business than on your website, a monthly plan is usually the simplest way to get there. See what our plan includes, or read the real difference between a cheap and a professional website. A website is now the norm rather than a luxury: according to Eurostat, 79% of enterprises in the EU had one in 2025 [3].

References

1. Let's Encrypt. "About Let's Encrypt." letsencrypt.org
2. WordPress.org. "Hardening WordPress." developer.wordpress.org
3. Eurostat (European Commission). "Digital economy and society statistics – enterprises." ec.europa.eu