It's the first question almost everyone asks me, and it's a fair one. Search for it and you'll find answers anywhere from "free" to "$50,000", which isn't much help when you're trying to work out a budget.
So here's an honest breakdown: what actually drives the price of a website, what you get at different levels, and what I charge.
The short answer
My custom websites start from $1,500. That covers a basic website: a few well-designed pages to get you online properly.
Bigger builds, extra pages, bookings and ecommerce are quoted clearly up front, so you know the full price before anything starts.
For context, prices across the market vary a lot:
- DIY website builders (Wix, Squarespace and similar) cost a monthly subscription, plus your own time.
- Freelancers and small studios usually sit in the low-to-mid thousands for a small business site.
- Agencies often charge significantly more, because you're also paying for account managers, overheads and layers of sign-off.
None of these is automatically the right choice. It depends on what your website needs to do.
What actually changes the price
1. How many pages you need
A five-page site (Home, About, Services, Contact and maybe a Portfolio) is a very different job from a 30-page site with a page for each service. More pages means more design, more content and more testing.
2. Whether it's custom or a template
A template is a design someone else made, re-skinned with your logo and colours. It's quicker, but you're working within someone else's layout. A custom site is designed from a blank canvas around your business and your customers. That's how I build every site, including at the $1,500 level. I've written more about the difference in Custom website vs template.
3. Functionality
Features like online bookings, ecommerce, member areas and integrations with your other tools all add time. They're often worth it, but they should be priced clearly as separate items, not hidden inside a vague total.
4. Content
Who's writing the words? If you already have copy and photos ready, the build is faster. If not, content can be added to the job. I offer SEO-focused website copy, built around keyword research for your industry, so your pages are written to be found as well as read.
5. Branding
If you don't have a logo, colours or fonts yet, it makes sense to do those first. Designing the brand and website together is usually cheaper than doing them separately, which is why I bundle them.
6. Ongoing costs
A website isn't a one-off cost. Budget for:
- Domain name: renewed yearly
- Hosting: usually monthly or yearly
- SSL certificate: the padlock in the browser bar
- Updates, security and backups
You can manage these yourself, or roll them into monthly hosting and maintenance. My optional maintenance covers hosting, domain renewal, SSL, security updates, daily backups, uptime monitoring, minor edits and priority support.
What you should get for your money
Whatever your budget, a professional small business website in 2026 should be:
- Mobile-first. Most people will see your site on a phone first.
- Fast. Slow sites lose visitors and rank lower in Google.
- Search-friendly. It needs proper page titles, meta descriptions, headings and structure.
- Easy to update. You shouldn't have to pay someone every time you change a price or a photo.
- Yours. You should own your site outright, not rent it.
Every site I build is handed over as a fully editable WordPress site that you own. Considered animations come as standard, even on the base package.
Red flags to watch out for
- A quote with no breakdown. You should be able to see what's included.
- You don't own the site. Some providers keep ownership, so you can't leave without starting again.
- "Unlimited revisions" with no process. It usually means there's no real plan.
- A suspiciously cheap price with a big monthly fee. Add up the total cost over two or three years.
So what should you budget?
If you need a straightforward site to get online properly, start from around $1,500 with me. If you need more pages, bookings, ecommerce, copywriting or branding, get a clear quote that separates each of those out, so you can decide what's essential now and what can wait.
The best way to find out is to talk it through. I'll give you an honest view of what's realistic for your budget before anything is quoted.
Start a conversation →Personal reply within 24 hours, always from me.
Chloe, Coco Creatives. Sydney web designer with 8 years in web design and branding. I design and build every site myself, from our first chat through to handover.
