Most small business websites in Metro Atlanta cost between $2,500 and $12,000. Below that you’re in template territory, which is a real option for some businesses and a waste of money for others. Above about $10,000 you’re paying for a full agency with a discovery phase and a copywriter. This post explains what separates those bands, what the ongoing costs actually are, and what we charge — because almost nobody in this market will tell you.
The short version
- $250–$660 gets you a template site built fast. Fine for some businesses, genuinely limiting for others.
- $2,500–$12,000 is where most small business sites land when someone is actually designing for your business.
- $10,000–$40,000 buys a full agency process — discovery, copywriting, custom design, 8–16 weeks.
- Budget $1,100–$5,000 a year on top for hosting, maintenance, and tools. This is the number people forget.
Why quotes come back so far apart
If you ask five people in Metro Atlanta what a website costs, you’ll get answers ranging from $350 to $35,000. That isn’t because someone is ripping you off. It’s because “website” describes two almost completely separate markets that happen to share a word.
At the bottom there are shops advertising sites from $250 to $660, live in seven to ten days. They work from a template, drop in your logo and copy, and move on to the next one. The economics only work at volume, which means the process has to be identical every time.
At the top, a local agency will quote $10,000 to $40,000 over eight to sixteen weeks. That price includes a discovery phase, a copywriter, custom design, and someone managing the project. For a business with real complexity — multiple locations, a booking system, an actual content strategy — that’s money well spent.
The gap between $660 and $10,000 is where most small businesses actually belong, and it’s the part nobody writes about.
What you get at each price
- $250–$660 — the template tier. A working site, quickly. You get a layout someone else designed, limited say in structure, and usually no ongoing relationship. Best for a business that mainly needs to exist online and be findable.
- $2,500–$5,000 — a standard build. Roughly 5–15 pages, designed around what your business actually does, written for your customers rather than filled with placeholder text. This is the realistic entry point for a business that expects the site to bring in work.
- $5,000–$9,500 — custom design. Bespoke layouts, custom sections and forms, more pages, more thought about how someone moves from landing to enquiry.
- $6,500–$12,000 — e-commerce. Selling online adds payment flows, product data, shipping rules, and tax. Costs scale with catalogue complexity more than page count.
- $10,000+ — full agency. Discovery, research, copywriting, integrations, ongoing optimisation.
The costs nobody puts in the quote
A website isn’t a one-time purchase, and the quote you’re comparing usually only covers the build. Running a small business site typically costs $1,100 to $5,000 a year once you add everything up:
- Hosting — anywhere from $60 to $1,800 a year depending on whether it’s shared or managed.
- Maintenance — updates, backups, security monitoring. Typically $30 to $300 a month.
- Domain — $15 to $25 a year, and it should be in your name, not your developer’s.
- Plugins and tools — forms, booking, SEO, backups. This creeps up quietly.
The most expensive version of this is the site that gets built, handed over, and then left alone for three years. Plugins go out of date, something breaks, and the fix costs more than the maintenance would have. Roughly nine in ten hacked WordPress sites were running outdated software.
The honest bit
Sometimes the $350 site is the right answer. If you’re a one-person operation, most of your work comes from referrals, and you just need somewhere for people to check that you’re real — spend the $350, put your phone number at the top, and put the rest of the money into your van or your tools.
Paying $5,000 for a site makes sense when the site has a job: bringing in enquiries you wouldn’t otherwise get. If it doesn’t have that job yet, you’re buying a brochure. We’d rather tell you that than take the work.
What we charge
Our prices are on the website, which shouldn’t be remarkable but is. Every one of these is a starting point — the final number depends on page count and how much is custom.
- Standard website — from $2,500. Up to 15 pages, built on WordPress.
- Bespoke website — from $5,000. Custom design, custom sections and forms.
- Enterprise website — from $9,500. High volume, large amounts of content.
- E-commerce — from $6,500, or from $12,000 for a larger catalogue.
Hosting starts at $29 a month and website care starts at $70 a month, both without a contract. And if you take our local SEO plan at $1,500 a month, a standard website is included at no extra cost — because the SEO work doesn’t do much if it’s pointing at a site that can’t convert.
Questions people actually ask
Why is one quote $800 and another $6,000 for the same thing?
Because they’re not the same thing. The $800 version is a template with your details in it. The $6,000 version involves someone deciding what your site should say, how it should be structured, and what happens when a visitor lands on it. Both are legitimate — they’re just answering different questions.
How long does a small business website take?
Template builds go live in one to two weeks. A standard custom build is usually four to eight weeks. Full agency projects run eight to sixteen. The single biggest cause of delay is content — photos and copy from your side.
Do I own the website?
You should. Make sure the domain is registered in your name and that you can get a copy of the site if you leave. Ask before you sign — some arrangements keep you on a platform you can’t take with you.
Is a cheap website bad for SEO?
Not inherently. What hurts is a slow site, thin content, and no local signals — and you can have all three at any price. A well-built template site with real content will out-rank an expensive site that nobody maintains.
