Typical costs by type of build
The biggest driver of price is who builds the site and how much of it is made for you rather than adapted from a template. These are typical 2026 ranges for small businesses on Long Island.
| Type of build | Typical cost | What you usually get |
|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace) | $200–$600 a year | A template and hosting. You write, design and maintain everything yourself. |
| Freelancer, template-based | $500–$3,000 | A theme customized with your content. Quality and support vary widely. |
| Starter site (about 5 pages) | $1,000–$2,500 | A professionally set-up site with mobile design, contact form and basic on-page SEO. |
| Custom small-business site | $2,500–$10,000 | Original design, more pages, copywriting help, SEO setup, integrations like booking or forms. |
| E-commerce or complex build | $8,000–$25,000+ | Online store, custom functionality, large catalogs, member areas, migrations. |
Ranges reflect published Long Island agency pricing and national cost guides as of September 2026. National guides put professionally built small-business sites at roughly $4,000–$15,000; Long Island’s smaller studios often come in below that.
What pushes the price up or down
Two quotes for “a five-page website” can differ by thousands of dollars because they describe different amounts of work. The line items that move the number most:
- Custom design vs. a template. Original layouts take more design and development time than adapting a theme.
- Who writes the words. Professional copywriting is often the most underestimated cost. If you supply finished text, the price drops.
- Number of unique pages. Service pages, location pages and case studies each need their own content and layout.
- Integrations. Online booking, payments, CRMs, review widgets and lead routing add setup and testing time.
- E-commerce. Product count, variants, shipping rules and tax setup scale the work quickly.
- SEO setup. Keyword research, page titles, schema markup and Google Business Profile work are sometimes included and sometimes extra. Ask which.
- Redesigning an existing site. Moving content and redirecting old URLs protects the search rankings you already have, but it is real work.
- Accessibility. Building to WCAG accessibility guidelines from the start costs less than retrofitting later.
Ongoing costs after launch
A website isn’t a one-time purchase. These are the recurring costs most small businesses should plan for:
| Cost | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | $10–$25 a year | Register it in your own name, not your designer’s. |
| Hosting | $5–$50 a month | Often bundled into a care plan. |
| Care plan (updates, backups, security, small edits) | $50–$300 a month | Higher for e-commerce or frequent content changes. |
| Business email | About $6–$15 per user a month | Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. |
| Ongoing SEO or content | Optional; varies widely | Only worth paying for if it’s tied to results you can see. |
What East End Web charges
We’re a small studio in Westhampton Beach, and we don’t sell templates. Our prices:
- Starter package: $1,000. A five-page, SEO-optimized WordPress site, built for your business and handed over to you.*
- Managed hosting: $50 a month. Hosting, backups, security and uptime monitoring.
- Custom builds are quoted per project. A 50-page, database-driven site and a 10-page plumber’s site are different animals, so we scope them before we price them.
- Payment plans are available on many projects. Ask about spreading a build over monthly payments.
*Extra features, customizations, premium plugins, e-commerce and copywriting may cost more. We’ll tell you before any of it is added.
You get a written quote after a short discovery call, broken down line by line, so you can compare it with anyone else’s. See how we build websites.
Before you sign anything
Ask three questions: Is the domain registered in my name? Do I own the site if I stop paying? What exactly does “SEO included” mean? The answers tell you more about a quote than its total.
How to compare website quotes
- Line up the scope. Number of pages, who writes the copy, what integrations are included and whether SEO setup is part of it.
- Check ownership. You should own your domain and be able to take your site with you.
- Ask about hosting and care. Who fixes it if it breaks, and what does that cost per month?
- Look at recent, live work. Ask for sites built in the last year and load them on your phone.
- Read the contract length. Monthly website offers are sometimes rentals with 12–24 month terms. That can be fine, as long as you know it.
Sources
- Forbes Advisor, “How Much Does a Website Cost?” (2026)
- GoDaddy, “How much does a website cost in 2026?”
- Published package pricing from Long Island web design studios, reviewed September 2026.