Free tool · 2026 cost benchmark
Website Cost Calculator
A personalized range, plus the public, sourced benchmark it's built from — GoDaddy, Clutch, WebFX, and OneLittleWeb, every figure linked. No email, no signup.
A 1-5 page DIY builder site
$100 - $1,600
Source: OneLittleWeb
For comparison — RateGather's own price, not part of the neutral benchmark above
RateGather builds a comparable custom site for $397 one-time (30-day money-back guarantee) or $33/month, $0 down, cancel anytime — built in 48 hours.
All four build methods, same pages and e-commerce settings you picked above:
DIY (Wix/Squarespace/GoDaddy)
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Freelancer
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Agency, template
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Agency, custom
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The public benchmark
The 2026 Website Cost Benchmark
This is the same data driving your estimate above, published in full so you can check it — every row links to its source.
$500-$30,000+ is the full range across every source below. Most small-business sites land in the $2,000-$10,000 band.
Sources: WebFX, Clutch, OneLittleWeb, GoDaddy
| Build method | Typical build cost | Hourly rate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder You build it yourself on a drag-and-drop platform. Lowest cash cost, highest time cost. | $100-$1,600 | — | OneLittleWeb |
| Freelancer An independent designer or developer builds it for you, usually project-priced. | $500-$10,000+ | — | WebFX |
| Agency (template-based) A small-to-mid agency builds on an existing platform (Wix, WordPress, Squarespace, Webflow, Shopify) rather than writing custom code. | $2,000-$10,000 | $25-$49/hr | Clutch |
| Agency (custom build) A full custom build, usually with its own design system and code. Clutch's all-sizes average of $38,105 (range $2,000-$100,000) is pulled up heavily by enterprise projects and isn't representative of a small-business build. | $3,000-$30,000+ | $100-$149/hr | WebFX |
By Business Size (GoDaddy's Own Segmentation)
| Business type | Web designer (one-time) | Website builder (annual) | WordPress (annual) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small business | $640+ one-time | $119.88/yr | $150+/yr |
| Small-to-medium e-commerce | $5,000+/yr | $179.88/yr | $200+/yr |
| Large-scale e-commerce | $10,000+/yr | $251.88/yr | $350+/yr |
| Large bespoke site | $15,000+/yr | $251.88/yr | $350+/yr |
Source: GoDaddy — How much does a website cost in 2026?, published 2026-02-27. Accessed July 2026.
DIY Builder Subscription Pricing (Cheapest Floor)
| Builder | Cheapest plan (annual billing) | Cheapest plan (monthly billing) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wix | $17/mo (Light) | $24/mo | Craftybase, Website Builder Expert |
| Squarespace | $16/mo (Basic) | $25/mo | Website Builder Expert, Jaks Digital |
| GoDaddy Website Builder | $9.99/mo (Basic) | Not separately confirmed | GoDaddy |
Where RateGather sits: $397 one-time (30-day money-back guarantee) or $0 down, $33/month (cancel anytime, no contract, no setup fee), built in 48 hours. This is our own published price, listed here as one point of comparison — not a neutral third-party figure like the rows above.
Citing this data on your own site?
Website cost benchmark data via RateGather (https://rategather.com/tools/website-cost-calculator) — sourced from GoDaddy, Clutch, WebFX, and OneLittleWeb. Accessed July 2026. Methodology: every figure above comes from a directly fetched, named, dated source (linked inline) — no invented averages. Where two sources disagreed we published the range rather than picking one. Forbes Advisor and Upwork figures found during research were excluded here because direct verification of those pages was blocked (403) at time of publish. Page-count and e-commerce adjustments in the calculator above are RateGather's own transparent scaling applied to these sourced base ranges, not independently sourced figures themselves. Benchmark last checked Accessed July 2026.
Honest Limitations
Website cost data is messy — sources disagree by 3-10x depending on what's counted, and nobody publishes figures broken out by exact page count or industry. Rather than inventing a single precise-looking average, this tool publishes the actual range and names every source, and it's explicit about which parts of your estimate are sourced (build method, e-commerce) versus RateGather's own transparent scaling assumption (page count).
Two often-quoted sources — Forbes Advisor and Upwork hourly-rate figures — were dropped entirely from this benchmark because direct verification of those source pages was blocked (403) at time of publish. We'd rather publish fewer, verified numbers than pad the table with figures we couldn't confirm ourselves.
Want the full breakdown, in plain English?
Read the guide for what drives the price up or down, hidden costs most estimates skip, and which option actually makes sense for a business like yours — see How Much Does a Website Cost in 2026?
Straight answers
Frequently asked questions
Directly-fetched, named, dated sources: GoDaddy's own 2026 cost guide, Clutch's agency pricing guide (methodology disclosed, 79,260+ agencies), WebFX's cost breakdown, and OneLittleWeb's market analysis, plus independent trackers for Wix and Squarespace's own list prices. Every figure links to its source in the table above — see the full benchmark table.
Most website cost calculators (including the market leader) show you a private number and stop there — some gate even that behind a contact form. We'd rather show our work: the same sourced data driving your personalized range, cited and linked, so you can check it yourself instead of taking our word for it.
No — the business-type dropdown personalizes the wording, but none of our sourced data is granular enough to honestly price by industry, so we don't invent an industry multiplier. The number changes based on build method, page count, and e-commerce, which the sourced data does support.
WebFX puts the added cost of basic e-commerce functionality at $3,000-$10,000+ (more for larger stores) — roughly doubling a comparable small-business build in the custom tier. The calculator applies a 2x multiplier when e-commerce is selected; that multiplier is our own transparent scaling on top of the sourced base ranges — see the methodology note under the benchmark table.
No, and we say so on the page: none of our sources publish cost broken out by page count, so the page-count multiplier is our own transparent scaling assumption applied to the sourced base range, not an independent citation. The build-method ranges and the e-commerce multiplier are sourced; the page-count scaling is our own honest estimate layered on top.
No. This tool has no gate anywhere — no email, no phone number, no "unlock your results" step. Pick your options and the estimate updates instantly, client-side, in your browser.
RateGather builds a comparable custom site for $397 one-time (30-day money-back guarantee) or $33/month with $0 down — cheaper than every sourced freelancer and agency floor above. It's not cheaper than a bare-bones DIY builder subscription in raw monthly dollars (Wix and Squarespace both start under $20/mo) — but a DIY builder is work you do yourself, and RateGather is done for you.
Skip the guesswork — get a real site, done for you.
$397 one-time with a 30-day money-back guarantee, or $33/month with $0 down. Built in 48 hours either way.
No contract, no setup fee.