How much does a website cost in 2026?

The real answer: it depends on who does the work

A website in the US costs anywhere from about $100 to well over $7,000 over its first three years. The software is rarely the big number. Labor is.

If you build it yourself on a website builder, you mostly pay a monthly plan. If you hire a freelancer or an agency, you pay for hours first and the plan second. Everything else, like the domain, email and add-ons, is small on its own but adds up.

This guide shows real list prices from the vendors’ own pages, then walks through four common paths over three years. Use the numbers as a starting point, then plug your own into our website cost calculator.

What you are actually paying for

Every website has the same basic parts. Some platforms bundle them into one bill. Others make you buy each one.

• A domain name. Your address, like yourbusiness.com. You rent it by the year from a domain registrar.
• Hosting. The computer that stores your site and sends it to visitors. Builders include it. With self-hosted WordPress you rent it from a host. See web hosting.
• The platform. The builder or CMS you edit the site in. This is the monthly plan on Squarespace, Wix or Webflow, or free software on WordPress.
• Design and add-ons. Templates, premium themes, plugins and apps.
• Email. An address at your own domain, like you@yourbusiness.com. Almost no builder includes this for free past year one.
• Labor. Your time, or someone else’s at an hourly rate.

If you want to see how these pieces fit together, read how a website works.

Website builder plan prices in 2026

Here are the entry-level paid plans that let you use your own domain. Annual prices are shown per month but are paid upfront for the year.

Most people who sell or need more than a few pages end up one tier higher. Squarespace Core is $29 a month billed yearly ($39 billed monthly) and drops the store transaction fee to 0%. Wix Core is $29 a month billed yearly and is the first Wix plan that takes online payments.

WordPress.com is the cheapest name-brand option if you prepay. Its Personal plan works out to $2.75 a month on a three-year term, or $99 for all 36 months. Business, the first tier with full WooCommerce and 0% transaction fees, is $25 a month billed yearly ($40 billed monthly).

Self-hosted WordPress: hosting is the bill

WordPress itself is free. You pay a host. We build on WordPress every week, and the hosting renewal is the number that surprises people most.

• SiteGround StartUp: $2.99 a month prepaid for 12 months, then renews at $17.99 a month.
• Bluehost Starter: $3.99 a month on a 36-month term, then renews at $9.99 a month.
• Hostinger Premium: $2.99 a month on a 48-month term ($143.52 upfront), then renews at $10.99 a month.
• Kinsta Single 35k (managed WordPress): $30 a month billed yearly ($35 billed monthly), with no separate intro price.

Shared hosting intro prices are steep discounts. Plan your budget on the renewal price, not the headline.

What it costs to pay someone

If you hire help, the hourly rate drives the total. Here is what the published data says.

Clutch also reports that most web design projects reviewed on its site cost under $10,000. The average is $38,105, but a few large projects pull that number up, so do not treat it as typical for a small business.

The BLS figure is the median yearly pay for web developers and digital designers. It is wages only. It mostly matters if you are weighing an in-house hire against outside help.

For a side-by-side of the three ways to get a site built, see builder vs WordPress vs agency.

Three-year cost for four typical paths

A three-year view is fairer than a monthly price. It catches the free first year ending, hosting renewals and email. Here is the same simple small-business site, about 5-10 pages with one email address, built four ways.

How we got these numbers

• DIY builder: Squarespace Core at $29 a month billed yearly for 36 months ($1,044). The domain is free in year one. Squarespace does not publish its renewal price, so years two and three use Namecheap’s published .com renewal of $18.48 as a stand-in. Core includes one Google Workspace account free for the first year; years two and three use Google’s own Business Starter price of $7 per user a month on the annual plan ($84 a year).
• DIY WordPress: SiteGround StartUp at $2.99 a month for year one ($35.88), then $17.99 a month for two years ($431.76). Free first-year domain, then $18.48 a year as above. GeneratePress Premium theme at $59 a year. Google Workspace Business Starter at $84 a year.
• Freelancer: the same running costs as DIY WordPress, plus a build of 40 hours at Upwork’s $30 median. The hours are our example, not a quote. At $50 an hour the build is $2,000 and the total is $2,933.60.
• Agency: an example build of 60 hours at $100 an hour, the low end of Clutch’s range. Hosting is Kinsta Single 35k at $30 a month billed yearly. The domain is bought at Namecheap for $11.28, then renewed at $18.48. Same theme and email as above.

Selling online changes the math. On Squarespace Core the store transaction fee is 0%, but card processing is 2.9% + $0.30 per sale. On WooCommerce there is no platform fee, but your payment gateway still charges its own rate.

Cheaper ways to run a small site

If you only need a few pages and no store, the three-year plan cost can be much lower:

• WordPress.com Personal on a three-year term: $99 in total.
• Hostinger Premium: $143.52 covers 48 months, then renews at $10.99 a month.
• Bluehost Starter: $3.99 a month on a 36-month term ($143.64), then renews at $9.99 a month.
• GoDaddy Airo Starter: $9.99 a month billed yearly, or $359.64 over three years.
• Framer Basic: $10 a month billed yearly, or $360 over three years.
• Wix Light: $17 a month billed yearly, or $612 over three years.

These are today’s list prices. Most builders do not publish a separate renewal price for their plans, so check the price again before each renewal.

Hidden costs people miss

1. The free domain ends after year one

Squarespace, Wix, WordPress.com, Framer, GoDaddy and Hostinger all include a free domain for the first year on qualifying plans, usually annual billing only. After that you pay the renewal. At Namecheap a .com renews at $18.48 a year; at GoDaddy it is $22.99.

.com prices are also going up across the industry. Verisign, which runs .com, is raising its wholesale fee from $10.26 to $10.97 a year on November 1, 2026. Registrars usually pass that on. Our domains and hosting guide compares registrars.

2. Email is almost never free for long

Google Workspace Business Starter is $7.00 per user a month on the annual plan, or $8.40 on the flexible monthly plan. Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $7.00 per user a month paid yearly ($8.40 billed monthly). Three people on Google’s annual plan cost $252 a year.

3. Transaction fees on lower plans

• Squarespace Basic: 2% on store sales and 7% on Digital Content & Memberships.
• WordPress.com Personal: 10% on payment buttons. Premium: 8%.
• Webflow Ecommerce Standard: 2% Webflow fee on top of processor fees.
• Shopify: an extra 2% (Basic), 1% (Grow), 0.6% (Advanced) or 0.2% (Plus) if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments.

Read more in our glossary entry on transaction fees.

4. Monthly billing costs more

Paying month to month gives you flexibility, but you pay for it. Squarespace Core costs $120 more per year billed monthly. GoDaddy Airo Starter costs $19.99 billed monthly versus $9.99 billed yearly.

5. Extra seats and second bills

Webflow charges a site plan for hosting and a separate workspace plan for the people who build. Code export needs a paid workspace, such as Core at $19 a month billed yearly. Extra Webflow seats are $39 a month (full) or $15 a month (limited), annual prices.

Framer charges $20 per extra editor per month and $10 per content editor, billed monthly even on an annual plan.

6. Premium plugins and apps

WordPress add-ons are mostly yearly subscriptions. Elementor Pro starts at $49 a year for one site. WooCommerce Subscriptions is $279 a year. Wix and Shopify app stores have many apps with their own monthly fees.

7. AI credits

AI builders often charge by usage. Lovable Pro is $25 a month billed monthly with 100 monthly credits; top-ups cost $15 per 50 credits. Webflow sells 2,000 extra AI credits for $20 a month (annual). Squarespace Basic includes only 10 one-time AI credits.

8. The cost of leaving

This one does not show up on any bill until you move. If your platform cannot export your design or blog, you pay to rebuild it. Wix says blog posts cannot be exported. Squarespace exports only one blog and basic pages. Check the exit scores before you commit.

How to keep your costs down

1. Buy the domain at an independent registrar. You avoid the year-two surprise and keep the domain if you switch builders.
2. Prepay only when you are sure. Annual and multi-year terms save money, but Google Workspace annual plans, for example, charge the remaining balance if you cancel early.
3. Price the plan you will need in year two. If you will sell, price the tier with 0% transaction fees now.
4. Count renewals, not intros. A $2.99 hosting plan that renews at $17.99 is a $17.99 plan.
5. Ask freelancers and agencies for a written scope. Get the hours, the deliverables and who pays for hosting, plugins and email after launch.

What to do next

• Plug in your own plan, domain and email choices in the cost calculator.
• Not sure which platform fits? Read how to choose a website builder.
• Comparing DIY to hiring help? See builder vs WordPress vs agency.
• Before you pay for anything, check how hard it is to leave on the exit scores page.