In short
- Start from what one customer is worth and how many the site should bring, not from a quote.
- Budget for three years: the build, the monthly running cost, and a small amount each year to improve it.
- For most small businesses that lands between $9,000 and $30,000 over three years, and the site should return several times that.
- Spend on copy, pages, speed and tracking. Save on animation, stock photos and features you will not use.
- 0% financing turns an $8,000 build into $2,000 down and $500 a month, which the first extra customer or two usually covers.
How most website budgets get set
There are three common methods, and none of them involves the customer. The first is the cheapest quote: get three, pick the lowest, call it the budget. The second is last time: the old site cost $3,000 in 2019, so $3,000 is what a website costs. The third is what is left: whatever remains in the marketing line after the truck wrap and the radio spot.
Each method produces a number. None produces the right one, because each ignores the only question that matters: what is the site supposed to earn? A website is the one marketing expense that can be tied to a result, call by call and form by form. Setting its budget without that result in view is like setting a hiring budget without asking what the hire will produce.
This guide works the other way around. Start from the customer, work out what the site should bring in, decide what share of that is worth spending, then look at quotes. The pillar guide on what a website costs gives the ranges; this one tells you which range you belong in.
The cheapest quote answers what a site costs. The budget answers what a site is worth. Only one of those is your number.
The three-year view: build, run, improve
The build is one line of the budget. Two more lines decide whether the site keeps earning. Running it is hosting, updates, backups, security and monitoring, which the maintenance costs guide prices by platform. Improving it is the small, steady work that turns a site that launched into a site that grows: a new service page, a better form, a faster home page, a review section. Sites that get none of this plateau in year one. Approximate three-year totals for a small business site by type follow.
Three-year cost of a small business website, approximate
| Type | Build | Run (3 yrs) | Improve (3 yrs) | Three-year total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder | $0–$500 plus your hours | $900–$3,600 in subscriptions and apps | Your hours | $1,000–$4,000 plus a great many evenings |
| Template shop | $1,500–$5,000 | $1,800–$7,200 on a managed plan | $1,000–$3,000 in hourly changes | $4,000–$15,000 |
| Custom small business site | $6,000–$20,000 | $1,800–$7,200 | $1,500–$6,000 | $9,000–$33,000 |
| Custom with store or app | $20,000 and up | $3,600–$10,000 | $3,000–$10,000 | $27,000 and up |
Run and improve figures are approximate market ranges. The rebuild that template and DIY sites often need in year two or three is not included and is the largest hidden cost on those rows.
Notice the totals are closer than the build prices suggest. The template shop's site, once you add a managed plan and three years of hourly changes, is not far from the low end of a custom build, and it usually needs replacing sooner. That is the case for buying the site you will still want in year three, and the redesign guide is the record of what happens otherwise.
A worked example
Say you run a residential HVAC company in a mid-sized Texas city. The numbers below are illustrative, not a client's, but they are the shape of the conversation.
- 1
What a customer is worth.
A repair call averages $450. About one in five repair customers becomes a system replacement within three years at $9,000, and a fair share sign up for a maintenance plan at $200 a year. Conservatively, a new customer is worth about $2,500 in revenue over three years.
- 2
What the site should produce.
A well-built site that ranks for the main services in the main towns, with tracking, should bring in something like six new customers a month that would not otherwise have called. Call it 70 a year, which is a modest figure for the trade.
- 3
What that is worth.
Seventy customers at $2,500 is $175,000 in revenue over their lifetime, of which roughly $60,000 lands in the first year. At a 40% margin, the site contributes about $24,000 in year one and considerably more over three.
- 4
The budget.
A build at $10,000 to $14,000 is well under half of first-year contribution. Add about $150 a month to run it and $2,000 a year to improve it: roughly $22,000 to $26,000 over three years against a contribution north of $100,000. That is the budget, and it was set by the customer, not the quote.
- 5
The check.
At a third of the estimate, 23 customers a year, the site still returns several times its three-year cost. At none, the problem is the site or the tracking, and a free audit will say which.
Run the same five steps for a law firm, a dental practice or a landscaper and the numbers change but the shape does not. The conversion guide is about making the second number bigger once the site exists.
Where to spend and where to save
Whatever the total, it can go to the right things or the wrong ones. The web industry's opinions on which is which tend to favor whatever looks good in a portfolio. Here is the honest allocation.
Spend here
- Copy. The words decide whether the pages rank and whether a stranger calls. If one line of the budget goes up, make it this one. The content guide explains what each page has to say.
- A page for each search that matters. Every service and every main town, done properly. Pages are how a site earns.
- Speed on a phone. Engineered, not hoped for. The speed guide explains what a second costs.
- Tracking. A few hundred dollars once, so every later decision is made with a number.
- Real photos. A day with a phone and good light, or a photographer for a morning. The cheapest trust there is; the trust guide explains why it works.
- A platform that will last three years. Paying a little more to avoid the rebuild is the best return in the budget.
Save here
- Animation and video heroes. They slow the page and prove nothing.
- Stock photography. A customer can tell, and it costs trust as well as money.
- Features you will not use. The blog you will not write, the chat you will not answer, the portal for customers who prefer to call.
- Logo redesigns and brand decks bundled into the website project. Do them separately if you need them at all.
- Premium templates sold as custom. If the layout existed before the shop met you, do not pay custom prices for it.
- Extra pages with nothing to say. Forty town pages with the same paragraph cost money and hurt rankings.
The 0% financing math
The three-year view says buy the site that will still be right in year three. Cash flow says buy the one you can afford this quarter. Financing is how the two stop arguing.
Our terms: 25% down, then equal monthly payments at 0% interest. Any project qualifies for up to 12 months, projects from $15,000 for 24, and projects from $20,000 for 36. The monthly payment is simply the balance divided by the months.
An $8,000 site is $2,000 down and $500 a month for 12 months. A $15,000 site is $3,750 down and $468.75 a month for 24. A $20,000 site is $5,000 down and $416.67 a month for 36. Set those against the worked example, where one new customer is worth about $2,500: the first customer the site brings in each month covers the payment, and every customer after that is the return.
Financed sites are hosted on our platform for the length of the plan, so the run line of the budget is settled for that period too. The financing calculator gives the monthly figure for any amount. If the site is part of a larger push with local marketing and SEO, the grow package finances the whole program on the same terms, with no long contract on the monthly work.
$500/mo
An $8,000 site over 12 months, after $2,000 down
$468.75/mo
A $15,000 site over 24 months, after $3,750 down
$416.67/mo
A $20,000 site over 36 months, after $5,000 down
Start now. Pay monthly. Add nothing for interest.
Any project up to 12 months, 24 months from $15,000, 36 months from $20,000. The total you pay is the price on the proposal. The calculator shows your monthly number.
Want a real number instead of a range?
Tell us what the site has to do and we will send back a fixed price with the pages listed. No call required, and the number is yours to shop around.
Which of these sounds like you? (pick any)
Questions people ask
Straight answers
Set it from what the site should earn rather than from a quote. Estimate what a customer is worth, how many the site should bring in a year, and your margin; a build costing between a fifth and a half of the site's first-year contribution is comfortable because the site keeps producing for years. For most small businesses that lands at $6,000 to $20,000 for the build and $9,000 to $30,000 over three years including running and improving it.
There is no fixed percentage, but a useful frame is that the build should cost a fraction of what the site contributes in its first year, and the site keeps contributing after that. A business expecting the site to bring $60,000 in first-year revenue at a 40% margin can justify a $10,000 to $12,000 build without strain. Work it from your own numbers rather than an industry rule.
Yes, as a separate line. Hosting, updates, backups, security and monitoring run from about $20 a month on a builder to $50 to $300 a month on a managed plan, depending on the platform. Add a small annual amount for improvements such as new pages and form changes. A site with no run or improve budget stops earning sooner than one with a modest amount of both.
Fix the site first. Advertising sends people to the site, and a slow or unclear site wastes every dollar that sends them. Once the site converts visitors into calls at a decent rate, marketing spend has something to work with. The right order is a site that converts, then tracking, then search work, then paid traffic.
You pay 25% down and the balance in equal monthly payments with no interest. Any project can be spread over 12 months; projects from $15,000 can go to 24 months and projects from $20,000 to 36. An $8,000 site is $2,000 down and $500 a month for a year. Financed sites are hosted on DataCram's platform for the length of the plan.
Bring the copy and the photos yourself, keep the page list to the services and towns that matter, skip animation and features you will not use, and pay for speed, structure and tracking. That produces a site that earns at the low end of the custom range, and financing spreads even that over a year. Cheaper than that usually means a rebuild in two years.
Where to go from here
The next step down the road
- Work out your monthly figure0% financing calculator, 25% down, up to 36 months
- See how a fixed-price quote is builtSo the budget and the quote speak the same language
- Website, local marketing and SEO from one teamOne program, one monthly figure, 0% financed
- Talk the numbers through with a personUsually within hours, no pitch