autoSite2026-06-01
How much does a small business website cost
"How much does a website cost" sounds like a simple question, but the answer depends less on the initial build and more on what happens to the site after launch. Let's break down what actually makes up the price.
One-time costs: build, domain, hosting
A domain costs $1 to $60 a year depending on the extension, hosting is usually a few dollars a month, and the build itself is the biggest line item — but also the one-time one: you pay once and get a site. The problem is that the spending almost never stops there.
The hidden cost: changes
A website lives for years, and businesses change: new prices, new services, seasonal promotions, different hours. Every one of those changes through a freelancer or agency is its own task, its own wait, and often its own invoice. That is where a website budget quietly grows past the original estimate.
How the math works with autoSite
autoSite keeps the pricing transparent: you buy the domain yourself and own it outright, hosting is either yours or ours, and changes aren't billed one by one — message as often as you need, with no limit on the number of edits. That changes the whole shape of the cost: instead of unpredictable one-off invoices, there's one clear monthly number.
The real cost of a website isn't what you pay at launch — it's what you pay every time something needs to change. That's the number worth calculating.