How much does a professional website cost in 2026?

Updated 3 October 2026 · 9 min read

A professional website can cost anything from a few dollars a month to tens of thousands. The honest answer is that the price depends on three things: who builds it, how many pages it has, and who looks after it afterwards. This guide breaks the bill into its parts, gives the few figures that can be sourced and dated, shows how tax changes what you pay in the US, UK, Europe and India, and gives you a way to compare quotes by the total cost over three years rather than the headline price.

The short answer

Compare options by total cost over three years: set-up, yearly fees, extras, and your own time. A low monthly price that needs a lot of your time, or a project fee with a charge for every later edit, can cost more than it looks.
Pricing guides published in 2026 report US ranges of roughly $1,500 to $5,000 for a freelancer-built small-business site and $5,000 to $20,000 or more for a small agency. These come from web companies’ own guides, so treat them as a sense-check for a quote, not a standard.
A .com web address costs roughly $11 a year at the registry level from November 2026, before any registrar margin. Retail prices are higher and renewals often cost more than the first-year offer.
Tax changes the price you pay: prices are shown before tax in some countries and with it in others, and VAT or GST (20% for UK digital services, 18% for software in India) is added at checkout. If you are registered for VAT or GST you can usually reclaim it. Ask your accountant.
One page is much cheaper to build and keep accurate than ten. Most individual professionals do not need more.

The parts of the bill

Whichever route you take, a website is made of the same cost items. Each option simply hides some of them in a different place.

Your web address (domain name). A yearly fee, paid to a registrar, that you should hold in your own name.
The platform or hosting. The software and the computers that serve your pages: a subscription for a hosted builder, a hosting fee for WordPress.
Design and build. Your own time on a builder, a freelancer’s project fee, or an agency’s.
Words and photos. Free if you write them and take them yourself, or an extra cost for a copywriter and a photographer.
Extras. Bookings, forms, a mailing list, a shop, a professional email address, premium themes or plugins.
Upkeep. Updating details when they change, plus (on self-hosted systems) updates, backups and security.
Tax. VAT, GST or sales tax, depending on where you are and how the price is shown.

What it costs by route

What each route to a website costs
Route	What you pay	Where the cost hides
A social profile	Nothing	You do not own it, and it cannot do what a website does
A hosted builder (Wix, Squarespace and similar)	A monthly or yearly subscription; a free plan exists on some, with the builder’s address and branding	Your web address, premium add-ons, and your own hours designing and editing
A one-page builder for professionals	One subscription per website	Little, because the page is short and the set-up is done for you
WordPress	Hosting and a web address, plus a theme and plugins you may need to pay for	Updates, backups, security and fixes, which cost time or a developer’s fee
A freelancer	A one-off project fee	A maintenance fee, or a charge each time something changes
An agency	A larger project fee, often with a monthly retainer	Every edit and every extra page, and sometimes the ownership of what was built

Our guide to website builders compared describes each tool; the builders’ own pricing pages are the place to check current prices, since they change often.

What pricing guides report for a freelancer or agency

Pricing guides published by web companies in 2026 report ranges in US dollars for a small-business site of roughly five to eight pages: about $1,500 to $5,000 for a freelancer, and about $5,000 to $20,000 or more for a small agency, with boutique agencies charging more. Treat these with caution. They come from companies that sell web design, they describe the US market, and the same project can be quoted at half or double depending on the designer and the brief.

We have not found a reliable, current, independent source for comparable ranges in the UK, continental Europe or India, so we do not quote any. The way to learn what is normal where you live is to ask for three written quotes for the same brief, in your own currency, and compare them. A one-page site should come in well below the figures above, because there is far less to design and write.

Your web address

A .com address is the most common. Verisign, which runs the .com registry, charges registrars a wholesale fee that is due to rise from $10.26 to $10.97 per year on 1 November 2026, and ICANN adds a small per-year fee (reported at $0.20). So the floor is around $11 a year before the registrar adds its own margin. Retail prices are higher and vary. Registrars often discount the first year and charge the normal rate on renewal, so look at the renewal price. Country endings such as .co.uk, .eu, .in or .de have their own prices.

Whatever you pay, register the address in your own name and keep the login. If you pay a web designer to buy it for you, make sure you are listed as the owner.

How tax changes the price

The same product can show different prices in different countries, partly because of tax.

United Kingdom: VAT at the standard rate of 20% applies to most digital products and services sold to consumers. VAT-registered businesses are normally able to reclaim it.
Europe: VAT applies too, at rates set by each country. The price you see may or may not include it, so check at checkout.
India: GST at 18% applies to software and SaaS subscriptions. Businesses registered for GST can usually claim it back as input credit.
United States: sales tax varies by state, and many online software subscriptions are priced before tax, with any tax added at checkout.

Ask whether a price includes tax. If you are registered for VAT or GST, ask your accountant whether you can reclaim it, since that lowers the real cost of the website.

The costs people forget

Renewals: the address and the subscription both renew, often at a higher price than the offer that got you in.
A professional email address at your own domain, if the builder does not include one.
Premium themes, plugins or add-ons that turn out to be needed.
Photography and copywriting, if you do not do them yourself.
Changes: some freelancers and agencies charge for every edit, even a new phone number.
Your own time: a free tool that takes 20 hours of your week is not free. Value an hour of your time at what you earn.
Fixes after a plugin update, a hack or an expired certificate, on self-hosted sites.
Out-of-date details: a site that shows an old price or phone number loses enquiries. The cost is invisible, but it is real.

Work out the three-year cost

Ask each option for the same four numbers, in your currency, and add them up. A simple version of the sum is:

Set-up: the one-off cost to get it live, including your time at an hourly value.
Yearly fees: the platform or hosting, the web address, and any add-ons, multiplied by three.
Changes: how many edits you expect in a year (prices, hours, new services), times what each costs or takes.
Tax: add it if you cannot reclaim it.

Here is an invented example, to show the method, not a quote. Option A is a freelancer: a project fee of 3,000 plus a maintenance plan of 40 a month. Over three years, that is 3,000 + (40 × 36) = 4,440, plus your time for briefing and checking. Option B is a one-page builder at a yearly fee of 100 and 10 hours of your own time at 50 an hour: 500 + (100 × 3) = 800. The right answer depends on what each gets you, but putting both on the same footing is what stops a low headline price from fooling you.

How to spend less without a worse result

Build one page, not ten. A single clear page covers who you are, what you offer, your prices and how to book.
Write the words yourself. You know your work best, and clients prefer your own voice to marketing language.
Use a phone photo taken near a window, upright and uncluttered, instead of paying for a shoot, then upgrade when you can.
Start with a template or a builder made for your profession, and avoid custom design until you know what you need.
Pick a route you can edit yourself in minutes, so changes are free.

How to read a quote

Does it say who owns the web address, the content and the design when it is finished?
Is hosting included, and for how long? What does it cost after that?
What does a later change cost, and how quickly is it made?
What is included for search and AI visibility: page titles, structured data, mobile speed, and a Google listing? See the best way to build a professional website.
How many rounds of revisions are included?
What happens if we part ways? Can I take everything with me?
Is tax included or added?

What BeVisible costs

Our price is set in your local currency and shown on the pricing page, with any tax shown next to it. You can build and preview free, and publish free for 7 days with no card needed. After that one yearly plan keeps a website online. One plan covers one website, and it includes hosting, a secure connection, unlimited edits, an inquiry inbox, visitor stats and a QR code for your card. Your page lives at bevisible.site/yourname; using your own domain name is not available yet, so if that matters to you, choose a builder that supports it.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a basic professional website cost?

It ranges from nothing (a social profile) to a yearly subscription for a hosted or one-page builder, to a project fee for a freelancer. US pricing guides report about $1,500 to $5,000 for a freelancer-built site of five to eight pages. A single page built with a builder costs far less. Compare options by the total over three years, including your own time.

Is it cheaper to build it myself or hire someone?

Building it yourself costs a subscription and your time; hiring costs a project fee and sometimes a charge for later edits. For a single page, building it yourself is usually cheaper and gives you control of changes. For a large or custom site, a professional is worth the cost.

How much does a web address cost per year?

A .com costs roughly $11 a year at the registry level from November 2026, before the registrar’s margin, so retail prices are higher. Registrars often discount the first year, so check the renewal price. Other endings, such as .co.uk or .in, have their own prices.

Why do website prices differ so much?

Because the work behind them differs: the number of pages, the custom design, the content, the integrations (bookings, payments), who looks after it, and what the supplier charges per hour. Two quotes for the same website can differ widely, so compare what is included.

Are there ongoing costs?

Yes. A web address renews yearly, a subscription or hosting renews monthly or yearly, and some suppliers charge for changes or maintenance. Self-hosted systems also need updates and backups.

Can I get a professional website for free?

You can build one on a free plan, but free plans typically use the builder’s address and branding, which looks less established. Most professionals pay for their own address and for removing the builder’s branding.

Does the price include tax?

It depends on the country and the seller. UK and European prices to consumers often include VAT; in the US, sales tax is usually added at checkout; in India GST at 18% is added to software subscriptions. Check at checkout, and ask your accountant whether you can reclaim it.