How much does a website cost in 2026? Real numbers, no ranges

Why nobody publishes real numbers

Search ‘website cost’ and you get ranges so wide they are useless. $500 to $50,000. That range exists because agencies are afraid of anchoring you low and because the honest answer requires asking what you actually need.

So here are real numbers, from real invoices, with the reasoning attached. If your quote is wildly outside these, ask why — there may be a good reason, and there may not.

Business website: $299 to $2,500

At $299 you get a templated five-page site. The template is customised with your colours, type and content, and it will look professional. It will not look like nobody else’s.

At $799 the design is original. Someone draws your layout rather than adapting one. You get up to ten pages, a CMS you can edit, and advanced on-page SEO.

At $1,999 to $2,500 you get unlimited pages, full UI/UX design with a documented component system, scroll animation, CRM-connected forms and Core Web Vitals work. This is what an agency means when they say ‘custom’.

Ecommerce: $499 to $3,000

A $499 store is Shopify or WooCommerce on a purchased theme with up to twenty products and one payment gateway. Entirely viable for a first store.

At $1,299 the theme is custom-built, you get up to a hundred products, two gateways and checkout optimisation. This is where conversion work starts to happen.

At $2,999 you get unlimited products, all payment methods including local options, custom checkout logic, upsell flows and inventory integration. If you are doing serious volume this pays for itself in the first quarter.

Web application: $2,400 to $14,000

This is a different discipline. A dashboard with user accounts, permissions and a real database is not a website with a login bolted on.

$2,400 to $6,800 buys an MVP — one core workflow done properly, with authentication, a data model and documentation. Six to ten weeks.

$14,000 and above is a platform: multiple user roles, integrations, an admin panel, audit logging and the boring infrastructure that stops it falling over. Anyone quoting a full SaaS product for $3,000 is describing a prototype.

The five hidden costs

**Content.** Most quotes assume you supply copy and images. If you do not, add $140 to $780 for copywriting and a similar amount for photography or stock licensing.

**Revisions beyond scope.** Two rounds is standard at entry level. A third round of structural change is new work, not a revision.

**Integrations.** Every third-party connection — CRM, booking system, payment gateway, inventory — is scoped separately. Three integrations can add a week.

**Migration.** Moving an existing site with its URL structure and SEO intact is skilled work. Done badly you lose your rankings, which costs more than the migration.

**Maintenance.** Sites need updating. Budget $99 a month for a care plan or accept that you will be paying hourly in a panic when something breaks.

What to ask before you sign

Ask whether the design is original or templated, and get that in writing. Ask how many unique page templates are included — a ten-page site with two templates is much cheaper than one with eight.

Ask who owns the code and accounts at the end. The answer should be you, unconditionally. Ask what happens if you leave.

Ask what the Lighthouse score target is. If the agency does not have one, performance is not part of their process and your site will be slow.