How much does a small business website cost? It’s the first question most owners ask, and it usually gets a shrug and an “it depends.” Here’s a more useful answer: most home services websites with 10 to 15 pages start at $5,000. From there, a handful of factors move the price, and it helps to know what they are before you compare quotes.
Here’s what that starting point covers, the factors that change it, and the questions to ask before you sign anything.
How much a small business website costs to start
For a typical home services business, like a landscaper, a fence company, a plumber, or a remodeler, a solid website has 10 to 15 pages. That usually looks like:
A homepage that says what you do, where, and how to reach you.
A page for each main service.
A project gallery or portfolio.
An About page with your story and your team.
A contact page with a form that actually reaches you.
Most home services websites at that size start at $5,000. For that, you should expect a custom design that looks like your business, a site that works well on phones, search titles and descriptions on every page, forms and tracking that are set up and tested, and a launch that redirects your old pages so you don’t lose what you’ve built.
You should also own all of it. With us, your website, domain, and files are yours, so if you ever leave, everything goes with you.
Factor 1: Pages and copywriting volume
More pages take more time to plan, design, build, and write. A site with a page for every service and every town you serve can be several times the size of a 12-page site. Service area pages, pages built to show up when someone searches a service plus a town, are a common reason sites grow.
Copywriting, meaning who writes the words, belongs here too. If you send finished text for every page, that’s one scope. If you need us to interview you and write every page from scratch, that’s more work, and it usually makes for a better site. Most owners land somewhere in between.
Factor 2: Ecommerce
Selling online changes the scope. An online store needs product pages, a cart, checkout, payments, shipping or pickup rules, and taxes, plus a way for your team to manage orders.
For Norris Cultural Arts Center, the new site included an online art shop alongside the events calendar. For Ironclad Fencing and Fabrication, it was an online store for shop parts. Both are bigger builds than a site whose only job is to make the phone ring.
Factor 3: Custom features and integrations
A feature is something the site does beyond showing information. An integration connects your site to another system, like your CRM, scheduling software, or email platform. Both add design, development, and testing time.
Common examples:
Online booking or a multi-step request form.
A member or customer portal.
An events calendar.
Forms that send leads straight into your CRM.
When we redesigned the site for N2 Workspaces, coworking in downtown St. Charles, it needed a two-step tour booking flow and a member portal. Those are the kinds of features that move a quote.
Factor 4: Photo and video
Your own photos make the most convincing websites, and stock photos make the least convincing ones. If you have a library of good job photos, you’re set. If you don’t, a photo and video shoot adds to the cost and usually adds even more to the result.
Phone photos are fine to start. They just need to be the originals, not ones that went through a text message.
Factor 5: Who updates the site after launch
If your team wants to add projects or posts on their own, the site needs to be built for it, with templates and an editor they can use without calling anyone. For Plandscape, a Kane County landscaper, we built templates so their team adds project pages in minutes. That takes a little more setup and saves a lot of calls later.
Separately, plan for ongoing costs like hosting, your domain, and updates. Ask what’s included, what isn’t, and whether you’re signing a long contract. Our ongoing services are month-to-month.
Questions to ask before you sign
Who owns the website, domain, and files? The answer should be you.
What’s included, page by page?
Who writes the words, and who supplies the photos?
Are forms, tracking, and redirects from my old site included?
What happens after launch, and what does ongoing help cost?
Compare quotes on those answers, not just the total. A cheaper site that skips tracking or leaves your domain in someone else’s name tends to cost more by the time you fix it.
If you want a straight number for your site, see how we build websites, or tell us about your business, and we’ll walk you through what your site needs and what it will cost.
