The honest answer is that there is no single number, and anyone who hands you one before they know your business is selling, not answering. But I can tell you how the market really prices this, because I watch it every week here on the South Shore.
Broadly, you are choosing between two models. The first is the big upfront build. A designer or an agency charges you a lump sum, usually a few thousand dollars and sometimes a lot more, to design and launch a site. You pay it, the site goes live, and then it is yours to keep current. The second is the monthly care model. You pay little or nothing to start, then a flat monthly fee that covers hosting and every change you need after launch. Same website either way. What differs is who carries the work after the confetti settles.
That word, after, is the whole ballgame, and it is where most of the money quietly disappears.
What to actually look for
Before you compare prices, get clear on what you are buying. A website is not a one-time object like a sign out front. It is closer to a storefront: the lights have to stay on, the hours need updating, the seasonal stuff gets swapped out. So the real question is not what a website costs, it is what a website costs to keep working for a year, and then for three.
Ask any quote four plain things. Who hosts it, and is that in the price? When I need my hours changed the week before a holiday, who does it, how fast, and what does each change cost me? If I want to leave, do I own the site and can I take it with me? And who actually answers when I call? A quote that cannot answer those cleanly is hiding the part that gets expensive.
Where the traps are
Two traps catch owners the most.
The first is the site that ships, then goes stale. The upfront build looks like a deal until you notice that every small edit, a new phone number, a fresh photo, a holiday hours change, is now either your homework or a billable request at fifty or a hundred dollars a pop. A year later the site still lists last summer's hours and a service you stopped offering, because keeping it current was never anyone's job. A stale site is worse than no site.
The second is scare-number selling. Watch for anyone who opens with a frightening statistic to rush you toward a check. Here is one worth knowing, and I will name the source so you can weigh it yourself: Gartner's 2024 B2B buyer research found that 72 percent of buyers expect to see pricing on a vendor's own site. Yet a 2024 to 2026 G2 marketplace audit found that only about 4 percent of business profiles actually list a real number. In other words, most of this industry hides its price on purpose. When someone will not put a figure in front of you, that is information. Make them show it before you spend another minute.
What we charge, and why
I would rather just tell you ours. We build your site for $0 down. After it launches, you pay $179 a month on a care plan that covers hosting and every edit you ask for, big or small. There is a three month minimum, and after that you are month to month for as long as it keeps earning its place. You can buy the site out and take it with you whenever you want.
It is built this way because of the trap above. A flat monthly fee that includes the edits means keeping your site current is my job, not a favor you have to remember to ask for. If you want the whole front office handled together, the website plus your reviews plus a phone that gets answered runs $499 a month, versus $577 bought separately. Start with the site and add the rest whenever you are ready. It is the same studio behind all of it.
So, how much should a website cost? Enough that the person you hire is still there in month eleven, and structured so a slow month does not leave you paying for a site nobody is tending. Whatever you choose, hold the quote up to those four questions. The number matters less than who is on the hook after launch.