A small business website on a DIY builder typically costs less than $30 a month, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, while a custom-built site starts around $2,000 and can run into five figures. In practice the plan price is only part of the yearly bill, because the domain, the renewal price and the billing term all change the total. ZenBusiness's website builder is $129 a year, or $15 a month, after a 30-day free trial, with hosting and SSL included, which puts it at the low end of the range. Squarespace or Wix suit better if design depth or a large app ecosystem matters more than the lowest yearly cost.

How much does a small business website cost per month?

The SBA gives the clearest anchor. It says a typical custom website price starts at $2,000 and can go into five figures. It also says paid DIY builder plans typically run less than $30 a month, which is an order of magnitude cheaper.

The SBA does not declare a winner between the two methods. Its position is that there is no right method for every business, and it frames the choice around budget, needs, timing and in-house capability. Custom work gets exact specifications and professional support. DIY gets professional designs, instant updates, and included hosting and security, at the cost of limited customisation and platform lock-in.

For a business watching its costs, the DIY side of that comparison is usually the relevant one, and the answer to the monthly question is a range. As of 2026-10-06, the entry plans among the providers covered here run from $9.99 to $25 a month on ongoing or monthly prices. The rest of this page explains what sits on top of those numbers and what moves them at renewal.

What does the annual cost actually include?

A website's yearly cost has five parts. The subscription is the visible one. The others are the domain, SSL, email, and whatever the price becomes when the first term ends.

Some plans bundle several of these and others bill them separately. That is why two plans at the same monthly price can produce different yearly totals. The useful habit is to list every part and ask which ones a given plan already includes.

The sections below take each in turn. Where a cost varies by provider and plan, it is flagged for checking rather than estimated.

How do subscription prices compare per year?

The simplest comparison converts every ongoing monthly price to a yearly total by multiplying by twelve. Prices below are as of 2026-10-06, and each provider's own pricing page is the final word. The providers are listed alphabetically, and the order is not a ranking.

GoDaddy has a free tier and three paid tiers: Starter at $9.99 a month, Professional at $24.99 and Ultimate at $99.99. Every paid tier is billed annually, so Starter comes to $119.88 a year and Professional to $299.88. The free tier gives 50 AI credits a month and no custom domain. Best for: a business that wants a low paid entry price and can commit to a year.

Hostinger lists Premium at $10.99 a month, Unlimited at $16.99 and Cloud Startup at $25.99 on renewal. Over twelve months those come to $131.88, $203.88 and $311.88. Its promotional rates apply to a 48-month term paid up front, which is covered in the renewal section below. Best for: a business willing to prepay a long term and budget for the renewal price afterwards.

Square Online has a free plan available. Square has moved to Square Free, Square Plus and Square Premium plans, and it publishes paid software pricing through an industry selector rather than a flat tier table. The paid cost depends on the plan and industry selected, so no yearly figure can be quoted. Best for: a business that already takes payments through Square.

Squarespace lists Basic at $25 a month, or $19 a month billed annually. Core is $39 or $29, Plus is $65 or $49, and Advanced is $139 or $99. On the annual rate, Basic comes to $228 a year. Best for: a business where design is a selling point, such as a studio or boutique.

Wix lists Light at $17.77 a month, Core at $29.77, Business at $39.77 and Business Elite at $159.77, all at the yearly-subscription rate. Light comes to $213.24 over twelve months and Core to $357.24. Best for: a business that expects to add apps and templates over time.

ZenBusiness sells a website builder at $129 a year, or $15 a month, after a 30-day free trial. It is AI-assisted, ships industry templates and is mobile responsive. Hosting runs on Amazon Web Services with a stated 99.9% uptime, and SSL is included. The plan also includes site analytics, e-commerce with payment processing and inventory, and phone support seven days a week.

Paid yearly, ZenBusiness is $10.75 a month. Paid monthly, it is $180 over twelve months, so the yearly option saves $51. It does not win everywhere. Squarespace goes deeper on design and customisation, Wix has the larger app and template ecosystem, and for a serious online store Shopify is the stronger answer. Best for: a small business that wants a credible site at a predictable yearly price with phone support, and does not need a high design ceiling.

What happens to the price at renewal?

The renewal price is the most common source of an unpleasant surprise. A promotional rate is a first-term discount, and it is not the ongoing price.

Hostinger shows the gap most clearly. Its ongoing prices are Premium at $10.99 a month, Unlimited at $16.99 and Cloud Startup at $25.99 on renewal. Its promotional rates are $2.99, $3.99 and $7.99 a month, on a 48-month term paid up front.

On that term, Premium totals $143.52 collected at the start, which is cheaper per year than the ongoing price for four years. After the term, the price moves to $10.99 a month, or $131.88 a year. A business that budgets from $2.99 will face a much higher bill later, and one that cannot commit for four years will never see the promotional rate.

The same logic applies to billing terms generally. Squarespace's lower figures assume an annual commitment, Wix's published rates are yearly-subscription prices, and every GoDaddy paid tier is billed annually. None of these is a trick, but each describes a commitment. The honest way to budget is to use the ongoing figure and treat any discount as a bonus.

What does a domain add?

A custom domain is the usual extra. Free tiers generally do not carry one: GoDaddy's free tier has no custom domain, and free tiers more broadly tend to mean a platform subdomain and platform branding.

ZenBusiness says a custom domain can be attached or bought through it. The price of a domain, and of its renewal, varies, and the same applies to domains bought from other providers, so each provider's own domain pricing should be checked before the total is added up.

The practical point is that a domain is a recurring yearly cost, not a one-off. A budget that includes only the plan price will be low by whatever the domain costs.

What about SSL and hosting?

SSL and hosting are the two items most likely to be bundled. The SBA lists included hosting and security among the things DIY builders provide, which is one reason they cost so much less than a custom build.

ZenBusiness states that its plan includes hosting on Amazon Web Services with a stated 99.9% uptime, and SSL. At $129 a year, those are inside the price rather than billed separately. For other providers, the plan page is the place to confirm whether hosting and SSL are bundled at each tier.

This matters for comparison. A cheaper plan that charges separately for something a slightly dearer plan includes is not always cheaper over a year.

What does business email cost?

Business email is the item most often left out of a website budget. Whether a given plan includes it, and what it costs if not, varies by provider and should be checked on each provider's own page.

The sensible approach is to decide whether the business needs email at its own domain, and then check each provider's page for how it is handled. Some businesses use a separate email service, which adds its own yearly cost. Leaving the question out of the budget is the mistake, not the answer to it.

What do the real annual totals look like?

Putting the published plan prices together shows the shape of the range. These are plan prices only, on ongoing figures, as of 2026-10-06, and the domain and email are extra.

  • GoDaddy Starter: $119.88 a year, billed annually.
  • ZenBusiness website builder: $129 a year, or $180 if paid monthly.
  • Hostinger Premium: $131.88 a year at the ongoing price.
  • Wix Light: $213.24 a year at the yearly-subscription rate.
  • Squarespace Basic: $228 a year at the annual rate.

At the entry level, three of the five sit within about $12 of each other. The larger differences come from the tier a business needs, the billing term, and what has to be bought separately. A business that wants the top tier of any provider is no longer at the cheap end: GoDaddy Ultimate is $99.99 a month and Wix Business Elite is $159.77.

Can a free plan keep the cost at zero?

For testing, yes. The SBA notes that most DIY website builder platforms have a free plan or at least a free trial. Square Online has a free plan available, GoDaddy has a free tier, and ZenBusiness offers a 30-day free trial.

For a business that wants a professional presence, a free plan is usually a stepping stone. Free tiers typically carry a platform subdomain and platform branding, and GoDaddy's has no custom domain. The sensible path is to build the real pages on the free plan or trial, judge the editor, and then pay for the lowest plan that connects a custom domain.

What if the business has not been formed yet?

For a business that is still being set up, the website is one cost among several. Someone forming a company needs the entity, an EIN and a separate business account, and then books. The site sits downstream of those steps, and they have their own costs.

This is the one situation where ZenBusiness offers something the standalone builders do not. A reader forming an LLC can handle formation and the website with one provider. Starter formation is $0 plus state fees, Pro is $199 and Premium is $299. The state fee is set by the state, is not ZenBusiness's price, and varies, so it should be kept apart from those figures.

The EIN and operating agreement are included from Pro up and are $99 each on Starter. Registered agent service is $199 a year, and Pro and Premium renew at their annual prices. Customers who form with ZenBusiness are also offered a free accounting consultation, and its accounting page covers the bookkeeping side. A business that is already formed gets none of this and should budget the website on its own.

Will a cheaper plan hurt local search results?

A service business that depends on local customers may worry that a low-cost plan costs it visibility. Google's own documentation says local results are based on relevance, distance and prominence. None of those is something a website builder controls or can promise.

Google's guidance on improving a local ranking centres on the business's Google Business Profile, which is separate from the website. Its Business Profile Help pages explain how to claim and manage a profile. A site that loads reliably and carries the same business name, address and phone number as the profile is a sensible foundation.

That means a $129 plan and a $312 plan feed the same Google process. Paying more is not a route to a better ranking, and no builder can honestly promise one.

How can a business keep the annual cost down?

A short process avoids most expensive surprises:

  1. Start on a free plan or trial and build the real pages, not a demo.
  2. Convert every quoted price to a yearly total before comparing.
  3. Separate the promotional price from the ongoing price.
  4. Add the domain and email costs, and confirm them on each provider's own page.
  5. Check whether hosting and SSL are included or billed separately.
  6. Price the tier the business is likely to need in a year, not only the entry plan.

Steps three and four remove most of the distortion in headline numbers. Step six is the one most businesses skip, and it matters because the gap between an entry tier and a top tier can be large.

What is the short version?

The real annual cost of a small business website is the plan price plus the domain, any email, and whatever the price becomes at renewal. The SBA's under-$30-a-month benchmark for paid DIY plans, against $2,000 and up for custom work, is the useful anchor, and most entry plans sit well inside it. The figures that decide the total are the ongoing price, the billing term and what is bundled.

For a small business that wants a credible site with hosting, SSL and phone support at a predictable yearly price, ZenBusiness at $129 a year is a reasonable place to start. For one where design or apps matter more, Squarespace or Wix is the better fit at a higher budget. Each provider's own pricing page should be checked before buying.

Sources

This is general information rather than legal, tax or accounting advice, and requirements vary and change.