Affordable website design for small business runs from $0 if you build it yourself, to around $500 for a cheap freelancer build. Both are genuinely affordable. Only one of them is still affordable in a year.
What affordable actually costs
| Option | To start | Per month | Finished in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build it yourself | $0 | $17 to $49 | 10 to 30 of your hours |
| Cheap freelancer | $300 to $1,500 | $0 to $30 | 2 to 6 weeks |
| Overseas marketplace | $100 to $500 | $0 to $30 | Days, with revisions |
Every row is a real way to get a cheap website for small business use, and none of them is a scam. Inexpensive is not the same as bad. The question is not which is cheapest today. It is which one still has a working, current website attached to it next March.
The three kinds of cheap
Whether you search for cheap small business website design or affordable web design for small business, you land on the same problem: the word does three different jobs, and mixing them up is what costs people money.
- Cheap to buy. A low number today. A $300 build, or a free plan. Easiest to compare and the least useful on its own.
- Cheap to run. What leaves your account every month once the site exists. Hosting, the domain, an email address, any plugin somebody added.
- Cheap to own. What it costs to keep it true. Changing prices, adding a service, fixing the hours, replacing a photo. This is the one nobody quotes and the one that decides everything.
A $300 website that nobody will ever update is not cheap. It is a one time payment for a thing that starts going out of date the week it launches.
Why cheap website design usually fails
Not because the people are bad at it. Most cheap builds look perfectly fine on day one. They fail for two boring structural reasons.
The relationship ends at handover. A cheap build is priced as a project, so when the project is done, so is the arrangement. In March you need the service area changed and there is no one to ask, or it is $150 an hour, or you wait nine days. So the site freezes.
Nobody wrote the words. The cheapest builds are cheap because they are a template with your logo dropped in. The layout is not the hard part. Your services page is the hard part, and if it was written by somebody who has never done your job, it reads like it.
The most expensive website is the half finished one. Someone signs up on a Sunday, builds four pages, stalls at the services copy, and six weeks later it is still not live while the subscription runs. That site costs the subscription, the weekend, and every customer who searched, found nothing convincing, and called somebody else.
What you should never pay for
Being cheap about the right things is fine. These are the ones worth refusing.
- A setup fee you cannot get back. $500 to $2,000 before month one is common and it exists to lock you in. If there is a fee, ask whether it is refundable and what happens if you leave in month two.
- A domain in somebody else's name. If the person who built your site registered your domain under their account, leaving them becomes a negotiation. It should be in your name from day one.
- A long contract for a cheap site. A low monthly price with a twelve month lock is not a cheap website. It is an expensive website with a payment plan.
- Per page pricing. A local business needs five to ten pages. Charging per page turns a normal site into an upsell conversation.
- Paying for SSL. The padlock is standard and free nearly everywhere. If it is a line item, ask why.
How to buy cheap without getting burned
Five questions. Ask them of anyone, including us, and the answers tell you more than the price does.
- Who makes changes after it launches, and how fast? "Submit a ticket" and "text me and it is done" are very different products at similar prices.
- Whose name is the domain in? Yours, or you do not own your address.
- Where do enquiries go? An email notification is the bare minimum. A place you can actually search and work through is better.
- Is there a contract, and is there a setup fee? Month to month with no fee means they have to keep earning it.
- Who writes the words? If the answer is you, add ten hours to whatever they quoted.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest way to get a website for a small business?
A free builder plan, at $0. You cannot put your own domain on it, so it is the cheapest way to have a website and not the cheapest way to look like a real business.
Is cheap website design worth it?
Cheap website design is worth it when the price is low because the work is efficient rather than because something is missing. It is not, when cheap means nobody wrote your copy and nobody will change anything after launch.
How much should a small business pay for a website?
Somewhere between $17 and $50 a month, or a few hundred once for a simple freelancer build. Five figures is an agency price and a local service business rarely needs one.
Are there affordable web designers for small business near me?
Almost certainly, and local is worth something for photos and knowing the area. Ask the five questions above before the price, because a cheap local build with no aftercare has the same ending as a cheap remote one.
The short version
Affordable website design for a small business is $0 and your weekend, or a few hundred once for a cheap build with no aftercare.
Cheap to buy is easy to compare. Cheap to own is what you are actually deciding. Ask who makes the changes, whose name the domain is in, and where the enquiries go, and the right answer usually becomes obvious before the price does.
About the prices on this page. Figures quoted for freelancers, studios, agencies and website builders describe what those companies charge. They are not LeedAgent prices and should not be attributed to LeedAgent.