How Much Should a Website Cost in 2026?

The cost of your website can range anywhere between $2.99 per month to an upfront fee of $5,000, depending on how you create it:

The right website building route for you will depend on your budget, amount of free time, and level of technical expertise:

Website builders are the best option in most cases because of their user-friendly editors, built-in features (such as hosting and security), and responsive customer support.

Building with WordPress comes with additional costs, such as plugins and hosting, and choosing to hire a web designer can be a very costly process.

If you’re still undecided on what route to take, check out our YouTube deep dive below:

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• 💰 Typical costs: $1.99 to $299 per month
• 💻 Our recommendation: Wix, Hostinger, and GoDaddy
• ✅ Free website builders: Yes

A website builder is the most affordable way to create and manage a website. The best value for money options are Wix and GoDaddy, which start at $17 and $10.99 per month respectively, when billed annually.

In 2025, we spent over 300 hours testing and reviewing the best website builders. And part of this research process involves analyzing pricing plans to check the costs involved with getting online. Here’s the need-to-know pricing information for our top builders:

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Best Free Plan	Cheapest Plan	Affordable Upgrades	14-Day Free Trial	Best Scalability for Stores
Wix	Hostinger	GoDaddy	Squarespace	Shopify
Overall Rating 4.8	Overall Rating 4.2	Overall Rating 4.1	Overall Rating 4.5	Overall Rating 4.2
Today's best price $17 $15.30 with code “TAKE10”	Today's best price 85% off in the current Sale: $12.99 $1.99/month + 3 months for free	Today's best price $10.99	Today's best price $16 $14.40 with code “WBE10”	Today's best price $29 $1/mo for 3 months
Free plan or free trial Free plan	Free plan or free trial 7-day free trial	Free plan or free trial Free plan	Free plan or free trial 14-day free trial	Free plan or free trial 3-day free trial
AI website builder	AI website builder	AI website builder	AI website builder	AI website builder
Recommended for Businesses promoting their online presence	Recommended for Freelancers and budget-conscious users	Recommended for Tech novices and side hustlers	Recommended for Creatives, portfolios and service-based businesses	Recommended for Online stores
Start Free Trial	Try Hostinger	Try GoDaddy	Start Free Trial	Try Shopify
See our Wix Review	See our Hostinger Review	See our GoDaddy Review	See our Squarespace Review	See our Shopify Review

How much does building an online store cost?

Our top ecommerce website builders cost between $16 and $299 per month (billed annually). These plans are definitely pricier than general website builder plans, but that’s to be expected, since you’re unlocking additional sales tools and business support for your online store.

Adding ecommerce functionality usually means upgrading to a more expensive plan, but some website builders, such as Shopify and Squarespace, let you sell on any plan. 

Emma Ryan Lead Writer

Can You Build a Website for Free?

You can build a website for free with select website builders, such as Wix. This can be valuable for anyone on a tight budget, but I recommend upgrading to a premium plan as soon as possible.

Free website builder plans usually come with drawbacks, such as:

• Ads on your website
• No custom domain name
• Low storage space
• Limited features
• No ecommerce functionality

You can use a free website builder to see if a platform is the right fit for you. It’s great for testing out the editor and features, or improving your website building skills without any financial pressure. But, you’ll want to upgrade to unlock advanced tools.

• 💰 Typical costs: $1 – $200+ per month
• 💻 Our recommendation: Bluehost for WordPress
• ✅ Free web hosting: No

Hosting providers can charge anywhere between $1 and $25 per month for basic shared hosting. You’ll only have to pay for hosting separately if you choose to build a website with WordPress, whereas website builders include it in your monthly subscription price.

Of the web hosting providers we’ve tested, Bluehost is our top-rated choice, with pricing starting from $3.95 per month. It’s even recommended by WordPress, and you can upgrade to more advanced hosting types, such as VPS or dedicated hosting, for better resources at a higher price.

The downside to building your site with WordPress is having to pay for these essentials separately. Along with hosting, you’ll need to source security, templates, plugins, and more, which can increase your upfront costs dramatically.

• 💰 Typical costs: $1,000 – $5,000+ upfront
• 💻 Our recommendation: Freelancers and design agencies
• ✅ Free web designers: No

Hiring a web designer to do the heavy lifting for you will typically cost around $50 to $200 per hour, making this the most expensive method of building a website. However, knowing what to budget for a designer can be difficult, since their fees and time required are variable.

However, this is the hardest price to estimate because it varies depending on a designer’s rates – it could set you back a few hundred dollars upfront, with additional fees for ongoing maintenance.

Here are a few key pros and cons to the method:

Do You Need a Web Designer?

If you’re not confident with building a website but don’t have the budget to spend on a professional designer, you could consider using an AI website builder instead to handle the design work for you. We’ve weighed up the pros and cons of building a website with AI vs hiring a freelancer, so you can see which is the best option for your business.

• 💰 Typical costs: $10 – $20 for one year
• 💻 Our recommendation: GoDaddy, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, Hostinger
• ✅ Free domains: Sometimes included with website builder packages

Buying a custom domain name for your website is a great way to build brand awareness. Some website builders include a custom domain name for free (usually for the first year of your plan), but you’ll eventually need to pay to keep your name registered.

A standard .com domain name can cost around $10 to $20 per year.

Domain name prices vary depending on your registrar, such as GoDaddy or NameCheap, the TLD (meaning the .com part of the address), and how popular the domain name is.

There are plenty of additional fees to consider when figuring out how much a website should cost. When browsing website builder plans, see if the following features are included, or make a note if you’ll have to pay extra:

• Templates – For example, the majority of Shopify’s templates have a one-time fee, ranging between $100 and $500
• Apps – Squarespace’s Acuity Scheduling tool costs extra to use (starting from $16/mo)
• Security – An SSL certificate and fraud detection tools will be added costs if you use WordPress
• Content – You’ll need to hire a professional if you don’t feel confident writing or producing your own content
• SEO – SEO experts can help you optimize your website for a fee (but it’s best if you rely on your website builder’s built-in SEO tools)
• Maintenance – You might need to pay extra for tools to track your website’s performance

You need to spend your time and money wisely to get the best results, but you don’t need a huge budget to create a professional website.

Here are my top tips to help you save money when building your site:

• Think about present needs first (you can upgrade down the line!)
• Use a cheap website builder
• Don’t pay for extra features you don’t need
• Choose a free template
• Use available resources and guides to upskill

Below, I’ve summarized the costs we’ve discussed already and the different paths you can take when building your website:

• Website builders – $0 and $299 per month
• WordPress – $11 and $1,000+ upfront
• Web designers – $1,000 and $5,000+ upfront (vary in price)

With these costs involved, using a website builder is the most affordable and beginner-friendly option. The costs are minimal, depending on your chosen plan, and everything’s bundled under one price tag to keep things simple.