Field Report

How Much Does a Website Cost in 2026? Real Prices for a Simple Business Site vs. an Online Store

Every business owner ends up asking two versions of the same question. The first: “What does a simple website cost — just a few pages that make us look professional?” The second: “What does an online store cost?” The honest answer to both is a range, not a number — and in 2026 those ranges are wider than ever, because “a website” can mean anything from a $16-a-month DIY builder subscription to a six-figure custom platform.

This article gives you real, sourced 2026 numbers for both — plus the number almost nobody puts in the quote: what it costs to run the site after launch.

The short answer

A simple business website (also called a brochure website, one-page site, or — in much of Europe — a “visit card” or presentation site) typically costs anywhere from under $100 to build yourself with a DIY builder, up to $1,000–$3,000 for a professionally built WordPress site, according to WPBeginner’s 2026 cost guide. An online store starts around €24–€289/month on a hosted platform like Shopify (official 2026 EUR pricing), or roughly $500–$10,000 to build on WooCommerce depending on complexity, per WooCommerce’s own pricing breakdown. Industry-wide, WebFX’s 2026 guide puts total website costs anywhere from $1,000 to $145,000 — which is exactly why you should never trust a single “average” number.

What you’re buying	Typical 2026 cost	Source
DIY WordPress site (do it yourself)	$46–$100	WPBeginner
Professional small-business WordPress site	$300–$1,000 (freelancer-assisted) up to $1,000–$3,000	WPBeginner
Custom/business-critical WordPress build	$5,000–$15,000	WPBeginner
Agency website projects (all types)	$1,000–$145,000	WebFX
Hosted store platform (Shopify plans)	€24–€289/mo	Shopify official pricing
WooCommerce store build components	roughly $500–$2,000 (basic) to $2,000–$10,000 (complex)	WooCommerce.com
Running cost after launch (the missing line)	$100–$300+/mo business site · $300–$1,000+/mo eCommerce	WPBeginner [B2]

Every number above comes from a fetched, named source — details and attribution throughout the article.

What “a website” actually includes (and why quotes differ 10×)

When two quotes for “the same site” differ by a factor of ten, it’s usually because they don’t include the same things. A complete website has at least six cost components:

Domain name — your address (yourbusiness.com), renewed yearly.
Hosting — the server the site lives on.
SSL certificate — the padlock; often bundled, sometimes billed.
Design and build — the visible work.
Content — text, photos, translations. The item most owners underestimate.
Licenses — premium themes, plugins, and tools with yearly renewals (for example, Elementor Pro runs $49–$399/year depending on tier, per its official pricing [B6]).

Quick definitions, so we’re comparing the same things:

A brochure website (synonyms: business website, one-page site, presentation site, or “visit card website” in European usage) presents your business — services, about, contact — typically 1–10 pages, no purchases happening on the site.
An online store (e-commerce site) takes money: product catalog, cart, checkout, payments, shipping and tax logic.

The second category costs more not because designers charge more for it, but because it does more — and carries more risk.

A simple business website: the three ways to buy it

1. Do it yourself

WPBeginner’s 2026 WordPress cost guide puts a genuinely DIY WordPress site at $46–$100 — essentially domain, hosting, and free themes/plugins, with your own time as the real cost. Website builders like Wix and Squarespace are the other DIY route; both publish plan pricing, but their current 2026 tiers need direct confirmation before we print them (Wix and Squarespace pricing pages were JS-heavy in our source pass, so we are not quoting exact plan prices here.).

Honest take: if you’re a one-person business with no budget, DIY is a legitimate answer. A clean DIY site beats no site. Where DIY stops making sense is when your time is worth more than the savings, or when the site needs to actually win customers rather than just exist.

2. Freelancer

For a professionally built small-business WordPress site, WPBeginner’s guide lands at $300–$1,000 for a site “with more features,” rising to $1,000–$3,000 when professional design work enters the picture. If you hire vetted specialist developers, expect hourly billing — Codeable, a WordPress-specialist marketplace, lists rates of $80–$120/hour [B10]. A simple brochure site is typically a small number of billable days, but the total depends entirely on scope, so treat any flat “a freelancer costs $X” claim with suspicion.

3. Agency

Agencies bundle strategy, design, build, and project management — and price accordingly. WebFX’s 2026 website cost guide spans $1,000 to $145,000 for website projects overall, with small-business sites at the lower end of that spectrum. WPBeginner’s top WordPress tier — $5,000–$15,000 for custom, business-critical builds — is a realistic band for “small business, but the website is the business.”

The right choice isn’t about which is cheapest. It’s about matching the buy to the job: DIY for existence, freelancer for a professional presence, agency when the site carries serious revenue.

An online store: why it costs more

An e-commerce site adds four cost drivers a brochure site doesn’t have:

Payments — gateways, transaction fees, and PCI compliance obligations.
Product data — photos, descriptions, variants, inventory. Often the biggest hidden labor cost.
Shipping and tax logic — rules that vary by country and change under you.
A bigger security surface — a store holds customer data and takes money, which makes it a more attractive target. Ongoing security monitoring (services in the Sucuri class [B9]) moves from “nice to have” to “line item.”

There are two main cost structures:

Hosted platform (Shopify-class). You rent everything. Shopify’s official 2026 pricing shows plans at €24, €69, and €289 per month (EUR locale; there’s also a €1/month promotional starter offer) (EUR locale fetched; pricing may differ by country.). On top of the plan, most stores add paid apps; we’re not quoting an “average app spend” because we found no citable survey for it.

WooCommerce (self-hosted WordPress). The software is free; you pay for the pieces. WooCommerce’s own pricing page breaks costs into components: hosting around $25–$350/month depending on scale, extensions typically $29–$299/year each, and build estimates of roughly $500–$2,000 for a basic store up to $2,000–$10,000 for complex builds. That matches WPBeginner’s independent estimate of $1,000–$3,000 for a typical WordPress e-commerce build in its mid tiers.

We won’t tell you “WooCommerce is cheaper than Shopify” or vice versa — it depends on scale, apps, and who runs it. The honest framing: Shopify converts most of the cost into a predictable subscription; WooCommerce trades a lower floor and more control for more decisions and more responsibility. That responsibility is precisely the running cost most quotes leave out — which brings us to the number that matters most.

The number missing from every quote: what it costs to RUN

The build price is the entry ticket. The site then needs hosting renewals, license renewals, updates, backups, security monitoring, and someone to fix things when they break — every month, forever.

Sourced 2026 run-cost anchors:

WPBeginner estimates ongoing costs of $100–$300+/month for a business website and $300–$1,000+/month for an eCommerce site [B2].
Hostinger’s website maintenance cost breakdown shows the same shape: monthly totals ranging from tens of dollars for a small site into the thousands for complex ones [B1].
Individual line items add up fast: managed WordPress hosting from $35/month at Kinsta [B3] or $30–$276/month at WP Engine [B4]; a page-builder license like Elementor Pro at $49–$399/year [B6]; developer help at $80–$120/hour via Codeable [B10].

Over three years, a $1,500 build with $150/month running costs is a $6,900 website. The build was 22% of the real price. That’s the calculation cheap quotes are designed to keep you from doing.

We’ve broken down the full running-cost picture in our WordPress maintenance cost guide — see How Much Does WordPress Maintenance Cost? rather than restating its tables here.

The traps in cheap quotes

A suspiciously cheap quote usually isn’t a discount — it’s a different product. Five things to check before signing anything:

Who owns the domain and hosting? If the answer is “the developer,” you don’t own your website; you rent your own name. (Our website ownership questions checklist covers exactly what to ask.)
Whose licenses are those? Sites built on a developer’s bundled licenses stop updating the day you part ways.
Is there staging and are there backups? If the only copy of your site is the live one, every update is a gamble.
What happens when the developer disappears? It’s common enough that we wrote about it: the ghosting developer problem.
Who maintains it after launch — and at what price? If the quote is silent on this, the real answer is “nobody, until something breaks, at emergency rates.”

None of this means cheap is always wrong. It means the quote should say what’s not included, in writing.

What ProWebCare charges

We do not price new websites from a fixed menu, because two websites with the same number of pages can have completely different jobs.

A simple brochure site that only needs to introduce a local business is one scope. A lead-generation website with copywriting, landing pages, tracking, performance work, and conversion planning is another. An online store with product data, payment setup, shipping rules, security requirements, and post-launch support is another again.

So ProWebCare prices website projects by scope and outcome:

what the site needs to do for the business;
how much content, design, and technical work is required;
whether it needs e-commerce, migration, SEO structure, tracking, or custom integrations;
what level of launch support and ongoing care the owner wants after the site goes live.

That is why we prefer a real quote over a fake flat price. A cheap number is easy to print. A useful number needs context.

Whoever builds your site, someone has to run it. Our maintenance plans cover updates, backups, security, and support. And if your current site was built badly or is held hostage by a previous developer, our website migration service exists for exactly that.

Want a number for your specific project? Contact ProWebCare for a scope-based quote.

FAQ

Is a $500 website worth it?
It can be. Per WPBeginner’s 2026 guide, $300–$1,000 buys a professionally assembled small-business WordPress site. What matters at that price is what’s excluded: content, licenses, and any ongoing maintenance are usually on you. A $500 site with clear ownership beats a $5,000 site you don’t control.

How much does a website cost per month?
Two layers: the platform and the upkeep. A DIY builder or basic hosting can be low double digits monthly, while WPBeginner’s ongoing-cost estimate for a business website is $100–$300+/month all-in, and $300–$1,000+/month for a store [B2].

What’s the difference between a brochure website and a one-page site?
Only size. A one-page site (or “visit card website,” as it’s often called in Europe) puts everything on a single scrolling page; a brochure site spreads it across several pages. Both are presentation sites — no e-commerce.

How much does a WooCommerce store cost compared to Shopify?
Shopify’s official plans run €24–€289/month with costs bundled into the subscription. WooCommerce’s own estimates put a basic store build around $500–$2,000 plus hosting ($25–$350/month) and per-extension fees ($29–$299/year). Neither is universally cheaper — Shopify is more predictable, WooCommerce more controllable.

How long does a website build take?
A small brochure site can move quickly when the content and decision-maker are ready. E-commerce and custom builds take longer because product data, payment setup, shipping rules, testing, and launch support add real work. For ProWebCare projects, timeline should be estimated after scope review rather than guessed from page count alone.

Why do website quotes vary so much?
Because “website” isn’t one product. WebFX’s 2026 guide spans $1,000 to $145,000 for a reason: scope, custom design, e-commerce, content volume, and ongoing responsibilities each multiply the price. A good quote itemizes; a bad one gives you one number and hopes you don’t ask.

Sources (fetched 2026-07-23 by Hermes unless bracketed [B#] = verified 2026-07-22)

WebFX — How Much Does a Website Cost in 2026? — https://www.webfx.com/web-design/pricing/website-costs/ ($1,000–$145,000)
WPBeginner — How Much Does It Really Cost to Build a WordPress Website? — https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-wordpress-website/ ($46–$100 / $300–$1,000 / $1,000–$3,000 / $5,000–$15,000; running costs [B2] $100–$300+/mo business, $300–$1,000+/mo eCommerce)
WooCommerce official pricing — https://woocommerce.com/pricing/ ($25–$350/mo hosting, $29–$299/yr extensions, $500–$2,000 / $2,000–$10,000 build components)
Shopify official pricing — https://www.shopify.com/pricing (€24 / €69 / €289 per month, €1/mo promo — EUR locale)
Hostinger — Website maintenance cost breakdown — https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/website-maintenance-cost/ [B1]
Kinsta from $35/mo [B3] · WP Engine $30–$276/mo [B4] · Elementor Pro $49–$399/yr [B6] · Sucuri [B9] · Codeable $80–$120/hr [B10]

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