How Much Does a Business Website Cost in 2025? A Practical Pricing Guide

The cost of a new website in 2025 is subject to extreme variation. Quotes frequently range from a few thousand dollars for a basic build to complex solutions reaching six figures, a range often complicated by low-cost platforms advertising minimal monthly fees.

This divergence stems from using the phrase “new website” to describe fundamentally different digital assets. A simple brochure site is not comparable to a global B2B engine or an e-commerce platform; each demands unique requirements for UX, content architecture, integration, and governance.

Industry standards have matured, elevating the requirements for a professional website. Today, a successful site must load rapidly, meet accessibility standards, integrate seamlessly with CRM/analytics, and support continuous SEO. This shift moves most projects beyond simple visual design and into strategic product development.

At Brand Vision, we see the same pattern across industries and company sizes. Price ranges only make sense when you anchor them in what the site must do for the business, who the site serves, and how it is built and maintained over several years. The goal of this guide is to give you that context so you can budget with confidence.

Typical 2025 cost ranges (North America)

• DIY builder for a simple local business site
  
  • Typical annual spend: about 150 to 800 per year all in, including the platform plan, domain and a few apps.
    
  • Ongoing cost: largely covered in the subscription, plus domain renewals and any paid apps.
    
• Small business site built by a freelancer
  
  • Typical upfront cost: about 1,500 to 8,000.
    
  • Ongoing annual cost: roughly 200 to 1,000 for hosting, licences and light support.
    
• Small business or boutique B2B site built by an agency
  
  • Typical upfront cost: about 8,000 to 35,000, covering discovery, UX, design and development.
    
  • Ongoing annual cost: about 1,000 to 5,000 or more, depending on maintenance and support.
    
• Mid-market B2B or content-driven site
  
  • Typical upfront cost: about 30,000 to 80,000.
    
  • Ongoing annual cost: about 3,000 to 10,000 or more for hosting, support and continuous improvements.
    
• Complex e-commerce or SaaS marketing site
  
  • Typical upfront cost: about 60,000 to 200,000 or more, especially with heavy integrations and custom UX.
    
  • Ongoing annual cost: about 5,000 to 25,000 or more for infrastructure, security, optimization and support.
    

For some companies, a lean DIY site is the right choice. For others, especially where the website is the primary source of leads or transactions, investing in a strategic redesign in the mid-five or low six figures is what makes sense. The rest of this guide explains which side of this spectrum you are likely on.

Methodology: How We Estimated Website Pricing

These ranges draw on several types of sources:

• Pricing breakdowns for domains, hosting, and website builders from platforms such as Wix, Wix ecommerce and Shopify.
  
• Independent benchmarks such as Forbes Advisor’s website cost guide and its website hosting cost guide.
  
• Web development cost surveys, including GoodFirms’ website construction cost survey, which compiles data from agencies worldwide.
  
• Aggregate project data and patterns we see in Brand Vision’s work with founders, marketing leaders and growth teams.
  

To keep things comparable, the assumptions are:

• The region is primarily the United States and Canada.
  
• Currency is USD.
  
• Projects are for marketing, e-commerce or SaaS sites, not large government or public sector platforms.
  
• Ranges describe typical, professionally delivered work, not the lowest possible prices that may sacrifice security, ownership or quality.
  

All numbers should be treated as 2024–2025 estimates. Real quotes will move up or down based on scope, provider, and business needs.

The 7 Biggest Drivers of Website Cost in 2025

You can think of website pricing as a function of seven main variables. Understanding these will help you see where you can simplify and where cutting too far will cost you later.

Scope and Page Count

The most visible driver is scope.

A five to eight page brochure site with one contact form, a services overview and a handful of team bios sits at the lower end of most ranges. Once you want a structured blog or resource library, multiple service lines, case studies, gated content, and dedicated landing pages, the scope expands quickly.

More pages do not just mean more design time. They require a thought-through information architecture, reusable templates, migration of any existing content, and more thorough QA. Moving from a small site to a 50-plus page content hub often multiplies the design and development effort, as well as the content budget.

UX, UI and Content Strategy Depth

Many price differences reflect how much thinking goes into the experience before anyone opens a design file.

A minimalist project might involve a short discovery call, a basic sitemap and a designer working directly into high fidelity layouts. At the other end of the spectrum, a UX led process includes research, interviews, user journeys, wireframes, prototypes, and content strategy.

For high-stakes sites, that deeper work is often where the return comes from. A team like the UI UX design agency at Brand Vision will pair data-driven user research and UX strategy with strong interface design so the site can actually move the pipeline and revenue, not just look modern. That level of rigour takes more time and specialist talent, which shows up in the price.

Branding is similar. If your brand platform and visual identity are weak or out of date, a serious redesign often needs parallel work with a branding agency so the site does not simply reskin old messaging.

Platform and Tech Stack

The underlying platform changes both the budget and the long-term cost.

• Website builders such as Wix and Squarespace bundle hosting, security and basic SEO tools into a predictable monthly fee. Wix’s current business plans start in the tens of dollars per month.
  
• Open source platforms like WordPress have low licence costs but require separate hosting and ongoing updates.
  
• Visual development platforms such as Webflow offer more design flexibility and cleaner code, often at higher monthly fees than basic builders.
  
• Custom stacks can support highly specific needs and performance but require experienced developers and more complex hosting setups.
  

If you know you want a custom WordPress marketing site, working with a WordPress web design agency will shape both scope and cost. The same is true for a Webflow web design agency if you prioritize visual development, complex animations or CMS driven content.

Integrations and Automation

Modern websites rarely stand alone. They connect to:

• CRM and marketing automation platforms
  
• Booking and scheduling tools
  
• Payment gateways and e-commerce systems
  
• Membership, learning or portal tools
  
• Analytics and BI dashboards
  

Each integration adds planning, configuration, testing and sometimes custom development. A single newsletter form that sends contacts to one list is simple. A multi-form, multi-pipeline CRM setup with lead scoring and automations is not. If you want the website to orchestrate customer journeys, budget accordingly.

Performance, Security and Compliance

In 2025, performance and security are table stakes rather than extras.

Fast, mobile-first experiences help rankings and conversion rates. Meeting Core Web Vitals targets can require careful development, image optimization, caching and sometimes more expensive hosting.

Security also carries weight. SSL, firewalls, backups, uptime monitoring and access controls are essential for any serious business. If your organization handles sensitive data or works in regulated sectors, there may be additional requirements for compliance, logging, and penetration testing. Those are not add-ons to be squeezed into the last week of a project.

SEO and Analytics Requirements

SEO is often underestimated in website budgets.

Technical SEO includes clean URL structures, schema, redirects, sitemaps and a migration plan that protects existing rankings. Strategic SEO involves keyword research, content planning, on page optimization and link strategy. Analytics setup means more than dropping in a single script. Many teams need event tracking, funnels, dashboards and integrations with ad platforms or CRMs.

If search visibility and measurement matter, it is sensible to treat SEO and analytics as core project work rather than “phase two”. That will lift both upfront cost and ongoing investment, especially if you partner with an SEO agency for long-term organic growth.

Team and Location

Finally, who does the work and where they are based makes a measurable difference.

• Builders and templates can be very cost-effective for simple needs.
  
• Freelancers can keep overheads low and offer flexible pricing.
  
• A specialized web design agency will usually be more expensive than individual freelancers, but will bring a team of strategists, designers, developers and marketers, along with project management and quality assurance.
  
• Larger digital consultancies and enterprise partners often have the highest rates, but also handle complex governance and integration environments.
  

Rates in North America are generally higher than in many offshore markets. Some companies adopt hybrid models, pairing local strategy and UX leadership with distributed development.

Cost by Build Path: DIY vs Freelancer vs Agency vs In-House

Different build paths change both the budget and the level of risk you are taking on.

DIY Website Builders

Website builders such as Wix and Shopify make it possible to launch a simple business website for a modest monthly fee. Current plans from platforms like Wix often sit in the range of roughly 17 to 36 dollars per month for basic business and ecommerce use, plus domain renewals.

DIY is usually a good fit if:

• You are at an early stage and need a credible presence more than a complex funnel.
  
• You have the time and appetite to learn the platform.
  
• You can live with template constraints and lighter UX strategy.
  

Expect to invest a few hundred dollars a year in platform fees and apps, plus your own time. You will still need to think about basic structure, copy and brand consistency to get real value.

Freelancers

Freelancers sit in the middle for many smaller firms. Surveys and public guides suggest that a small business website built by a freelancer in North America typically ranges from about 1,500 to 8,000 dollars, depending on complexity, content and platform.

Freelancers are often a strong choice when:

• You have a clear brief and someone internally who can manage scope.
  
• You need more custom design than a template, but do not require intense UX research.
  
• You are comfortable with a single point of failure for updates and fixes.
  

The trade-off is resilience. If the freelancer becomes unavailable or moves on, you may have to bring in a new partner who will first need to understand and stabilize the existing work.

Web Design Agencies

A focused web design agency is more expensive in pure project cost, but it typically includes strategy, UX, design, development, and launch support in an integrated process.

In 2025, common ranges for agency projects in North America are:

• About 8,000 to 35,000 for a small or mid-sized business site with proper discovery, UX, visual design, development and basic content support.
  
• About 30,000 to 80,000 or more for complex B2B or content-driven sites, especially where there are multiple stakeholders and systems to align.
  
• Above that range for multi-region, multi-language or deeply integrated ecommerce and SaaS builds.
  

The advantage is not just polish. A strong agency will help connect the website to your positioning, brand and growth strategy, and will be accountable for delivering something stable, measurable and extensible.

In-House or Hybrid Builds

For product companies or larger organizations, building and running the website in-house can make sense. Costs are then borne as salaries, tools and time rather than a single project fee.

In-house teams often work well when:

• The website is tightly connected to the product roadmap.
  
• You need constant experimentation on conversion, onboarding or self-serve flows.
  
• You can justify ongoing headcount for design, development and content.
  

Hybrid models are increasingly common. For example, an internal team may own day-to-day optimization, while partnering with a specialist agency for a periodic brand and UX overhaul, or for specific projects such as a new positioning or product launch.

Cost by Website Type: From Local Brochure to SaaS Platform

Another simple way to frame website pricing is by what the site must do for the business.

Local Services or Brochure Website

These are sites for local or regional businesses that rely heavily on referrals and offline sales, but still need a credible online presence.

Typical characteristics:

• 5 to 12 pages
  
• Services overview, about page, team profiles, testimonials, contact
  
• Basic blog or news section, if any
  
• Simple enquiry forms and maybe a booking tool
  

Using a DIY builder, a committed founder can often get an acceptable version live for a few hundred dollars a year. Working with a freelancer or small agency, a budget in the 3,000 to 12,000 range is more realistic for a polished, mobile-friendly site that reflects the brand and handles local SEO correctly.

Content-Driven B2B or Professional Services Site

For B2B firms and professional services, the website is often the main place where prospects research your expertise.

Characteristics often include:

• Multiple service lines and sector pages
  
• Deep resources, such as whitepapers, case studies and articles
  
• CRM integration and marketing automation
  
• Clear journeys for different buyer roles and stages
  

These sites typically sit in the 30,000 to 80,000 range with a specialist partner, depending on how much UX, content and integration work is required. Many companies also invest in ongoing support from a B2B marketing agency to keep content, SEO and campaigns aligned.

E-commerce Store

E-commerce costs vary widely.

At the leanest end, a small store built on a hosted platform like Shopify or Wix can start around 1,000 to 10,000 for professional setup, on top of monthly platform and app fees. As catalogue complexity, integrations, internationalization and logistics requirements grow, so does the budget.

Typical mid-market ecommerce builds, especially where you need custom design, advanced filtering, subscriptions or headless architectures, often fall between 40,000 and 150,000 including UX, design, development and data migration, with higher ongoing costs for optimisation and operations.

SaaS or Product Led Site

SaaS and product-led sites carry both marketing and product responsibilities. They must:

• Explain the product clearly to multiple audiences
  
• Support free trials and signups
  
• Guide users through onboarding and self-serve education
  
• Integrate tightly with product analytics and in-app experiences
  

These projects frequently sit in the 50,000 to 200,000+ band for initial build, especially for funded companies operating across several markets. The business case is usually framed in terms of conversion rate improvements, customer acquisition costs and sales velocity rather than design alone.

What Most Guides Miss: Ongoing and Hidden Costs Over 3 to 5 Years

A website budget that only accounts for launch is incomplete. The more useful model is a three to five year view that includes the cost of owning, securing and improving the site over time.

Key ongoing costs to account for are:

• Domains, hosting and infrastructure. Entry-level shared hosting can start around 10 to 20 dollars a month after introductory offers. Higher-performance managed hosting or dedicated infrastructure can cost significantly more, especially for e-commerce and high-traffic sites.
  
• Security, maintenance and support. Core and plugin updates, uptime monitoring, backups, bug fixes and minor enhancements often sit in the 1,000 to 5,000+ per year range for small to mid-sized businesses, depending on complexity.
  
• Content and SEO. Regular publishing, on-page optimization, link building and CRO are part of the true cost of making the site perform. Many teams retain an SEO agency or content partner because the work is ongoing and specialized.
  
• Licences and tools. Premium plugins, form tools, CDNs, analytics, personalization and A/B testing all come with monthly or annual fees.
  

As a rule of thumb, it is sensible to reserve at least 15 to 25 percent of your initial build cost per year for maintenance, improvements and content. Over five years, the total cost of ownership for a serious business website is often one and a half to two times the initial build.

A Simple Budgeting Framework for 2025

There is no single correct percentage of revenue to spend on a website. There is, however, a simple way to reason about the budget.

Step 1: Decide what role the website plays in your funnel.

• If it is mainly a credibility asset that supports offline sales, you can often invest at the lower end of the range for your business size.
  
• If most of your inbound demand or online revenue flows through the site, it deserves investment in line with its importance, often at the mid or upper end of the range.
  

Step 2: Anchor the budget to overall marketing spend.

Many growing businesses target marketing investments around 5 to 15 percent of revenue, depending on stage and margins. Within that, allocating one large cycle of spend every three to five years to a significant website rebuild can be reasonable.

As directional examples only:

• A local services business at 1 million in annual revenue might invest 10,000 to 25,000 in a site that supports local SEO and referrals, plus several thousand a year in content and basic campaigns.
  
• A B2B services firm at 10 million in revenue whose pipeline depends heavily on inbound, could justify a 50,000 to 100,000 redesign plus substantial ongoing SEO and content investment.
  
• A funded SaaS company that raises new capital to accelerate growth might allocate low to mid six figures to a replatform and experience overhaul that materially lifts trial to paid conversion.
  

Step 3: Separate one-off and recurring investments.

When planning budgets, treat:

• Strategy, UX, visual design, architecture, and build as largely one-off or episodic.
  
• Content, SEO, CRO, analytics and incremental enhancements as continuous.
  

This keeps conversations with finance and leadership clearer. It also reduces the temptation to squeeze ongoing work into one build, which tends to dilute both.

Timelines, Process, and What You Actually Get at Each Budget Level

Price and timeline usually move together. Short timelines either require higher budgets and larger teams, or they compress important steps in ways that create risk later.

You can think in three broad tiers.

Under 5,000 dollars

• The timeline is often 2 to 6 weeks.
  
• DIY or light freelance support on a builder or a simple WordPress setup.
  
• Limited discovery, few distinct layouts, reliance on existing copy and assets.
  

This can be appropriate for early-stage ventures or side projects. Just be clear about what you will not get, such as deep UX research, strong original content, or complex integrations.

10,000 to 30,000 dollars

• The timeline is often 8 to 14 weeks.
  
• Proper discovery, goal setting and information architecture.
  
• Custom visual design within the constraints of the chosen platform.
  
• Solid front-end and back-end implementation, basic SEO migration, and structured Q&A.
  

This tier is a sensible target for many small to mid-sized businesses that want a durable foundation. It often includes enough structure for future content and campaigns rather than just the launch set of pages.

30,000 to 80,000 dollars and above

• Timeline is often 12 to 24 weeks or more for complex work.
  
• Workshops with leadership and sales, customer interviews and research.
  
• Brand, messaging and UX strategy integrated with the website project.
  
• Complex templates, states and components designed systematically.
  
• Integrations with CRM, automation, analytics and sometimes product.
  

At this level, you are not just buying design and development. You are aligning your digital presence with a growth strategy through a partner like Brand Vision Marketing, which operates as both a creative and media company. The cost reflects the mix of senior strategy, specialized UX, engineering, and governance needed to land the project successfully.

How to Compare Proposals and Avoid Costly Mistakes

When you start collecting proposals, the hardest part is often comparing them fairly. A lower headline price can mask significant gaps.

A strong proposal usually includes:

• Clear scope, with page types, features and integrations listed.
  
• A defined process for discovery, UX, design, development, content and QA.
  
• Responsibility for SEO migration and redirects, or a clear note if this is out of scope.
  
• Post-launch support terms and response times.
  
• Assumptions about content creation, photography and copywriting.
  

Warning signs include:

• Very short timelines with little or no discovery or UX work.
  
• No mention of analytics, SEO, accessibility or security.
  
• Vague language such as “modern, responsive website” without detail.
  
• Ownership that sits with the provider rather than your company.
  

If you are choosing between several options, it can help to map each proposal back to the drivers in this guide. Where does one vendor invest more in strategy or UX? Where are integrations and long-term support better thought through?

If you want a neutral view before committing, a structured website and marketing performance audit can surface risks and opportunities so you can choose partners and scopes with a clearer picture.

When Paying More Actually Saves Money: ROI, Revenue and Risk

For many leaders, the most useful question is not “How do we minimize cost” but “At what level does the investment make sense given the upside and downside?”

Consider a simple scenario. A B2B firm with an average deal size of 30,000 dollars closes 50 new deals per year from inbound leads. If a more focused, UX led site improves lead quality and lifts website to opportunity conversion by even 10 to 15 percent, the incremental revenue can easily exceed a 50,000 project budget in a year or two.

On the risk side, underinvesting can create hidden losses. A slow, confusing site that erodes trust can quietly depress close rates for years. A fragile build without proper security and maintenance can result in downtime, data exposure or emergency rebuilds that cost far more than doing it properly once.

The point is not that every business needs a high-end website. Many do not. The point is that higher investment is justified when the website carries a meaningful share of revenue, reputation and operations. In those cases, paying more for strategy, UX, technical quality and governance is often the more conservative financial choice.

Key Takeaways and Next Steps for Your 2025 Website Project

If you are planning a website in 2025, a few principles will keep the project focused and the budget under control.

• First, clarify the website’s job. Is it a simple, credible presence, or a core sales and delivery channel?
  
• Second, decide which build path fits your stage and risk tolerance, from DIY through freelancer to specialist agency or hybrid model.
  
• Third, frame budgets across three to five years, not just at launch, including maintenance, content, SEO and tools.
  
• Fourth, look past the surface design and into the underlying UX, integrations, performance and security. That is where reliability and return live.
  
• Finally, treat proposals as strategic documents, not just prices. The partner you choose will shape how prospects see and experience your business every day.
  

If you are considering a new site or a redesign and want to explore how branding, UX and web design can work together, you can start a conversation with our team as a web design agency that builds websites as durable parts of a broader growth system, not just one-off projects.