If you've spent any time Googling what a website should cost, you already know the problem. Everyone gives you the same non-answer: "it depends, somewhere between $500 and $50,000." Cool. Narrowed it right down.
I build websites for small businesses around South Jersey, so I'm just going to tell you what they actually cost, and more importantly, what makes that number move. No range so wide it's meaningless, no "request a quote to find out" runaround.
The three ways to get a website
Before the numbers make sense, it helps to know who's on the other end of them. You really have three options.
Do it yourself on Wix or Squarespace
Cheap up front, and you'll spend a weekend (or several) becoming an amateur web developer. It can work for a placeholder. The catch is you're renting. Your site lives on their platform, it's hard to move later, and it usually looks like what it is. Fine for a hobby. For a business you want people to take seriously, it tends to show.
Hire an independent senior developer
This is the middle tier, and for most local businesses it's the right one. You get custom work and you talk directly to the person building it, without the overhead a big agency builds into the price. The real risk people worry about is hiring someone who disappears halfway through. That's a hiring problem, not a freelancer problem, and it goes away when you hire someone with a track record who owns the whole thing start to finish.
Hire an agency
A full team and a real process, which is genuinely worth it if you're a large company with a complicated brand. For a local business that needs a solid five page site, you're mostly paying for their overhead. Project managers, sales teams, and the office all show up in your invoice before a single line of your site gets built.
The actual numbers
Here's roughly what each of those options runs in this market:
| Who builds it | Real cost | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|
| You, on Wix or Squarespace | $0–$500 up front, ~$200–$400/year after | Side projects and people with more time than money |
| An independent senior developer | $1,000–$5,000 | Businesses that want it done right and want to talk to the person doing it |
| An agency | $8,000–$30,000+ | Bigger budgets and complex brands |
Most local businesses land in the middle and don't need to spend a dime more. What follows explains why that number moves.
What actually moves the price
Design gets all the attention, but it's not the main cost driver. Scope is. A website costs more when there's more to build and when more of it has to be custom. The things that matter:
- How many pages. A two page launch site is nothing like a ten page site with a blog, service pages, and a team section.
- Custom design versus a template. A template is cheaper and looks like a template. A custom design is what stops you from looking like every other business that bought the same theme.
- Whether your content is ready. If your copy, photos, and logo exist, the build moves fast. If someone has to create all of that first, that's where the time goes.
- Functionality. Online booking, payments, a customer login, hooking into the tools you already use. Each one is real work, not a checkbox.
- Selling products. E-commerce is its own tier. Inventory, checkout, and payments add up quickly.
If you take one thing from this: a small site that does one job well beats a sprawling one nobody ever updates.
What I charge
I keep this public because vague pricing wastes everyone's time, mine included.
| Project | Starting at |
|---|---|
| Basic 2-page site | $1,000 |
| 3–4 page business site | $1,750 |
| Full build or rebuild from scratch | $3,000 |
| Ongoing updates and support | $500/month |
Where you land depends on the scope factors above. The full breakdown is on the web design page, and an estimate is free.
The costs nobody warns you about
The build is one number. Owning a website has a few recurring ones that surprise people:
- A domain name runs about $12–$20 a year.
- Hosting is anywhere from free to around $30 a month, depending on how it's built. A lot of modern sites host for next to nothing.
- Maintenance is the one people forget. Updates, content changes, security, the occasional thing that breaks. You can handle it yourself or put it on a retainer so you never think about it.
Budget for these from day one. A website you never touch slowly stops earning its keep.
How to avoid getting ripped off
A few questions cut straight through a sales pitch:
- "Do I own the site and the code?" If no, you're renting, no matter what they call it.
- "Who actually builds it, and do I talk to them?" Layers between you and the builder mean markup and slow changes.
- "What happens after launch?" A real build hands off cleanly with a way to make updates. It doesn't hold your site hostage.
- "Is it fast on a phone?" Most of your visitors are on their phones, and Google ranks fast mobile sites higher. This isn't optional anymore.
Going too cheap usually costs more in the end, because you pay once for the bad version and again for the rebuild. Overpaying an agency for a simple site is just money you didn't need to spend. For most businesses around here, the right call is a senior independent developer who gets it right the first time.
What you should budget
For a small business in South Jersey in 2026, a professional site is usually $1,000 to $5,000 with an independent developer. Less if you do it yourself, a lot more with an agency. What you pay should track what you're actually building, not somebody else's rent.
Want a real number for your project?
Tell me what you're building and I'll give you a straight estimate. No pitch, no obligation. I build fast, modern sites for businesses across Burlington and Camden County, and remotely.