How much does a website cost in 2026?

Website pricing varies wildly because "a website" can mean wildly different things. Here's honest pricing by scope:

Template / DIY sites

$0-$2,000 + your time

WordPress + theme, Squarespace, Wix, Webflow with a template. Works for one-person businesses, side projects, simple service businesses. Limitations: generic appearance, limited customization, you maintain it yourself.

Small business custom sites

$3,000-$10,000

Custom design or heavily customized template, 5-15 pages, basic CMS (WordPress most commonly), responsive layout, basic SEO foundation, contact forms, integration with one or two tools (Google Analytics, simple CRM). Common scope for Tennessee SMBs replacing outdated sites.

Mid-market sites

$10,000-$40,000

Fully custom design, 20-50 pages, advanced CMS (WordPress with custom theme, Webflow, or headless), multiple integrations (CRM, email, marketing automation, analytics), strong SEO foundation, content strategy, custom forms and workflows, professional copywriting included. The typical sweet spot for growing professional services and B2B businesses.

Complex business sites

$40,000-$150,000

Custom application features, ecommerce with custom workflows, multi-language, advanced personalization, deep integrations with proprietary systems, multi-site architecture, accessibility compliance, performance engineering, ongoing iteration. Mid-market to enterprise scope.

Enterprise / custom platforms

$150,000+

Headless architecture, custom CMS, application development, multi-region deployment, dedicated security review, ongoing development team relationship. Generally for businesses where the website itself is a product or competitive moat.

What drives the cost up

• Ecommerce — adds payment, inventory, shipping, tax, returns complexity
• Custom design vs. template — 3-10x the design cost
• Integrations — each integration adds dev and QA work
• Copywriting included or excluded — good copywriting is a 30-50% premium worth paying for
• Content production — photography, video, illustration
• Performance & SEO engineering — Core Web Vitals, schema, technical SEO foundations
• Accessibility compliance — WCAG 2.1 AA conformance adds 10-20% to design and dev
• Ongoing maintenance — budget 5-15% of build cost annually for maintenance, security, updates

The hidden cost question

The website price isn't the full cost. Add: hosting ($20-$500/month depending on scope), domain ($15-$50/year), SSL (often included), tooling subscriptions ($50-$500/month for analytics, marketing automation, CRM, etc.), and ongoing content production if you want SEO results. The cheapest part of a serious website is often the build itself.