How much does a website builder cost? For a small business site in October 2026, the main builders charge roughly $10 to $40 a month on an annual plan, and roughly a quarter to two fifths more if you pay month to month. Online store plans start near $29 a month and climb from there. That is the honest short answer. The longer answer is that the monthly fee is the smallest part of what a builder site really costs you, and the part people forget is their own time.
This guide lays out the actual plan prices for the four builders small businesses ask about most, what those prices leave out, a three-year cost comparison against hiring a designer (including us, with every recurring fee shown), and a plain way to decide. We do not earn anything if you pick a builder, and we will tell you when a builder is the better call.
Website builder prices in 2026, checked plan by plan
We looked up each company's current pricing on October 12, 2026, from their own pricing pages and help articles. Annual prices are the per-month figure when you pay for twelve months at once. Builders change prices often, so treat this as a snapshot and confirm on their site before you pay.
| Builder and plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| GoDaddy Website Builder (entry plan) | from $9.99/mo | higher; check GoDaddy | Simple brochure site, fastest setup |
| GoDaddy Commerce | $20.99/mo | higher; check GoDaddy | Small shop that wants to sell online |
| Wix Light | $17/mo | $24/mo | Informational site, portfolio, own domain |
| Wix Core | $29/mo | $36/mo | First Wix tier that takes payments and bookings |
| Wix Business | $39/mo | $46/mo | Growing online sales |
| Squarespace Basic | $19/mo | $25/mo | Design-led service business |
| Squarespace Core | $348/yr ($29/mo) | $39/mo | More analytics and selling tools |
| Squarespace Plus | $49/mo | $65/mo | Stores that want lower selling fees |
| Squarespace Advanced | $99/mo | $139/mo | Larger stores, lowest selling fees |
| Shopify Basic | $29/mo | $39/mo | Selling products online is the main job |
| Shopify Grow | $79/mo | $105/mo | Small teams, lower card rates |
| Shopify Advanced | $299/mo | $399/mo | High-volume stores |
A few things worth knowing about those numbers. Wix's top tier, Business Elite, is $159 a month billed yearly, which almost no local service business needs. Squarespace raised its annual prices in July 2026 (Basic from $16 to $19, Core from $23 to $29, Plus from $39 to $49 a month, as PetaPixel reported), and some older articles still show the old figures. GoDaddy publishes low first-term prices, and independent reviewers report that renewals cost more, so read the renewal line at checkout. Shopify's monthly fee does not include card processing; on Basic, online card rates start at 2.9% plus 30 cents in the US, and GoDaddy Commerce charges 2.7% plus 30 cents per online card sale.
Every one of these builders has a free trial or a free tier. None of the free tiers let you run a proper business site on your own domain without the builder's branding, which is the whole point of paying.
What the monthly price leaves out
The plan fee buys the software and the hosting. It does not buy a finished website.
Things you still pay for
- Your domain name after any free first year (Squarespace includes one eligible domain for the first year on annual website plans).
- Professional email at your domain, usually a separate subscription.
- Apps and add-ons for booking, reviews or extra forms, often a few dollars a month each.
- Card processing on every online sale.
- Paid photos if your own do not hold up on a large screen.
Things you still do yourself
- Write every page: services, about, service area, contact.
- Set page titles, descriptions and headings so Google knows what each page is for.
- Connect the domain, the contact form and your Google Business Profile.
- Check the site on phones, fix what breaks, and keep the hours and prices current.
- Decide which towns and services deserve their own page, then write those too.
The builders are good software. The templates look clean and the hosting is solid. The hard part of a small business website was never the software. It is knowing what to say on each page, in what order, for the customer who is comparing you with two competitors on a phone in a parking lot.
Three years of cost: builder vs designer, every fee shown
Comparing a $17 monthly plan with a $497 invoice is misleading in both directions. Here is the same three years laid out honestly, using the October 2026 prices above and our own published prices. Domain and email are left out of every row because they cost about the same either way.
On a builder, the main cost that never shows up on a bill is your time. Building your own site usually eats several evenings, and the pages often say less than they should because writing about your own business is hard. On our side, the main cost that keeps running is hosting: the website itself is a one-time price, but hosting, maintenance and updates are $49 a month unless you keep the AI agent, in which case they are included.
| Option | Year one | Three years | Who writes and sets it up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wix Light, billed yearly | $204 | $612 | You |
| Squarespace Basic, billed yearly | $228 | $684 | You |
| Wix Core, billed yearly | $348 | $1,044 | You |
| Dominion Starter ($497 one time) plus $49/mo hosting | $1,085 | $2,261 | Maurice writes and builds it |
| Dominion Pro ($997 one time) plus $49/mo hosting | $1,585 | $2,761 | Maurice, with 10 city pages and local SEO setup |
Builder rows assume the price does not rise, which it often does. Our rows assume you do not keep the AI agent; if you do, hosting is included and the agent itself is the monthly cost instead. The point of the table is not that one side wins. It is that the honest gap over three years is somewhere around $1,000 to $2,000, and the question is what you get for that gap.
When a website builder is the right choice
We would rather lose a sale than sell someone a site they do not need. A builder is the better answer when:
- You are testing an idea. A side business that may not exist in six months does not need a designer. A $17 plan and a weekend will tell you more than a brochure will.
- You like writing and you have the evenings. If you can describe your services clearly and you enjoy tinkering, a builder template will carry you a long way.
- You sell products online first and foremost. Shopify is built for that job, with inventory, shipping and checkout handled. Our packages build sites for local service businesses, not online stores, so for a product catalog Shopify or Squarespace Commerce is the honest recommendation.
- You need one page with your hours and a phone number. If that is genuinely all, a builder or even a complete Google Business Profile covers it.
- The budget is the budget. If $497 is not there right now, start on a builder. A plain, accurate site beats no site.
When paying a web designer is worth it
A designer earns the money when the website has to bring in calls from strangers, not just confirm your hours for people who already know you. That usually means a trade or service business in a town with competition: plumbers, roofers, law offices, therapists, salons. Those customers search "service plus town," compare three results, and call the one that looks like it knows their problem.
Getting there takes pages written for each service and each town you serve, titles and descriptions that match how people search, schema markup, and a Google Business Profile that points to the right page. None of that is hard on its own. Doing it well for ten or thirty pages, while running a business, is where most do-it-yourself sites stall at five thin pages.
It is also worth paying when you have been burned. If a builder site has sat half-finished for a year, the cheapest option has quietly become the most expensive one.
How to make a small business website yourself, if you go the builder route
If the builder is your answer, do it in this order. It saves the most rework.
- Write the pages before you pick a template.A home page, one page per main service, an about page, a service area page and a contact page. Write them in a plain document first. The template is easier to choose once you know how much you have to say.
- Buy your own domain in your own name.Use your business name or name plus town. Make sure you are the registrant, not a helper or a builder reseller account you cannot reach later.
- Pick the cheapest paid plan that does the job.Most service businesses do not need a commerce tier. Start low; upgrading later is easy.
- Set a title and description on every page.Each one should say the service and the town in plain words, the way a customer would type it.
- Put the phone number at the top and make it tappable.Most local visitors are on a phone and want to call, not read.
- Connect your Google Business Profile.Add the website address to the profile and make sure the name, address and phone match the site exactly.
- Check it on your own phone, then ask someone else to.Fix anything that is hard to tap or read. Run it through our free Site Check for the search basics.
How our packages compare with a builder, plainly
Dominion Web Design Pro is one person, Maurice Johnson, writing and building every page by hand from Big Sandy in East Texas. The prices are one time: Starter $497 for a five-page site, Pro $997 for ten pages plus ten city pages and local SEO setup, Agency $1,997 for keyword research and a page for every town-and-service combination worth having. You own the finished site outright.
What you do not get from us: an online store, a do-it-yourself editor to play with every week, or a price lower than a builder's first year. What you do get: pages that are already written when you see them, and a free demo of your site before you decide anything. If the demo does not beat what you would build yourself on Wix or Squarespace, use the builder. That is a fair test, and it costs nothing.
Starter
$497 one-time
For a business that needs a clean, working website and nothing complicated.
- 5-page website: home, services, about, contact and service area
- Every page written for your business by hand, never filled into a template
- Works on phones, tablets and desktop
- Contact form that emails you every lead
- Page titles, descriptions and sitemap submitted to Google
- Google Maps and your hours on the page
- Links to your Facebook and Instagram
- Live in 7 to 14 days
- You own it outright
Pro Most Popular
$997 one-time
For a business that wants the website to bring in calls from more than one town.
- Everything in Starter, plus:
- 10-page website with a photo gallery
- Lead capture on every page, not only the contact page
- Local SEO: schema markup and Google Business Profile setup
- 10 city pages, each town researched, then written from scratch
- Your Google reviews displayed on the site
- AI chat widget that answers visitors 24/7 and takes their name and number: free for 14 days, then $297/mo
Agency
$1,997 one-time
For a business that wants to cover its whole service area, town by town.
- Everything in Pro, plus:
- Keyword research across your whole service area first
- A hand-written page for every town-and-service combination the research says is worth having, usually 30 to 60 pages
- Pages delivered in waves, the first ones live inside two weeks
- Custom design for your brand
- AI phone agent setup. The agent itself is free for 7 days, then $297/mo for up to 750 minutes, cancel any time (not part of the one-time price)
Hosting, maintenance and updates are included while you keep the AI agent. Without it, they are $49/mo.
We do not sell page counts. Every page on every plan is researched and written by hand for your business and your town. That is slower than generating a few hundred pages from a template, and it is the reason these pages get read. If the research says your service area needs thirty pages, you get thirty good ones rather than a hundred thin ones.
Thinking about a builder? Ask for the free demo first. You will have a written, working site for your business to compare against before you spend a weekend on a template.