How Much Does a Website Cost for a Small Business in 2025?
If you've been putting off getting a real website for your small business, you're not alone. We did it too — ran our screen printing shop in Colorado for years knowing the site wasn't good, just kept pushing it down the list. There was always something more urgent. Until there wasn't.
Here's what we've learned building websites for small businesses across Colorado and beyond, and what you should actually expect to pay in 2025.
The honest answer: it depends on who builds it
Website pricing is all over the place, and that's not because someone's lying to you — it's because "a website" can mean a lot of different things.
Here's a realistic breakdown:
DIY builders (Squarespace, Wix, GoDaddy): $15–50/month
You build it yourself using their templates. Low cost upfront, but there's a catch most people don't talk about: doing it yourself takes real time, and making it look good, function right, and actually rank on Google is harder than the ads make it seem. A lot of small businesses end up with something that looks like every other business in their industry — generic, dated, and not doing much for them. That's not a knock on the platforms, it's just the reality of templates.
Freelancer (someone like us): $1,500–5,000 flat, or $100–300/month
This is where you get something built specifically for your business. A real designer who understands your brand, your customers, and what you're trying to accomplish. The range is wide because the work varies — a 4-page service site is different from a full e-commerce build. For small businesses in Colorado especially, having someone who understands your market makes a difference.
Agency: $10,000–35,000+
Full-service, full team, full price. Makes sense for larger businesses. Probably not where you are if you're reading this.
What we charge and why
At Goldwork Studio we keep it simple: $149/month to build your small business website and keep it running (we host it, maintain it, update it — all included), or $3,999 flat if you want to own it outright.
The monthly option exists because $3,999 upfront is real money for a small business. The flat rate exists because some people just want to pay once and be done. Both are legitimate — it depends on how you like to operate.
No hidden fees either way. We've seen too many small business owners get surprised by "maintenance fees" and "plugin costs" that weren't mentioned until after the site was built.
What actually determines the cost
A few things drive price more than anything else:
Complexity. A 5-page small business website (home, about, services, work, contact) is straightforward. An e-commerce store with inventory, checkout, and product pages is a different animal. Our Söz Bazaar build on Shopify took significantly more than a standard informational site.
Custom vs template. Template-based sites are faster and cheaper to build. Custom-designed sites take more time but look and perform better. We don't use templates — every site we build starts from scratch because your business isn't a template.
SEO and copy. A lot of builders will hand you a site and leave the words up to you. Writing good copy that actually converts visitors into customers, and setting up SEO properly so Google can find you — that's additional work that's worth paying for.
Ongoing maintenance. Websites aren't set-and-forget. They need updates, security patches, content changes. If you go the DIY route, that's on you. If you hire someone, make sure you know what happens after launch.
The question worth asking instead
Most small business owners ask "how much does a website cost?" when the better question is "how much is it costing me not to have a good one?"
Think about it this way: almost everyone looks something up online before they spend money. They find your business somehow, then they look you up. What do they find? If the answer is nothing, or something embarrassing, or a competitor who looks more professional — that's lost business. Every day.
We built our own sites because we knew they weren't pulling their weight. We'd built real businesses in Colorado but the websites weren't reflecting that. Once we fixed it, we stopped apologizing for sending people there.
That's what a good small business website actually does — it stops being something you have to explain around and starts being something that works for you.
What you should do next
If you're a small business with a real thing to offer and you've been putting the website off — stop putting it off. The cost of a good site is real but it's finite. The cost of a bad one (or none at all) keeps compounding.
If you want to talk through what makes sense for your business, the contact form on our site takes two minutes. We'll give you a straight answer about what you need and what it'll cost — no sales call required.
Ready to stop putting it off?
Tell us about your business. We'll tell you exactly what makes sense and what it'll cost.
Start the conversation →
Adam & Maggie
Goldwork Studio · Cotopaxi, Colorado