It depends on which of seven build types you need. Observed 2026 bands run from $3,000 to $8,000 for a freelancer template build, $8,000 to $15,000 for a custom small-business site, and $15,000 to $75,000 for a corporate marketing site with a median around $36,500. Applications and commerce go considerably higher.
What goes in, and what comes out
In: Build type, from template site through to production web application
In: Where in the band your scope sits, from lean to complex
In: Page or template count, and how much content needs writing
In: Maintenance tier
In: How many years of ownership to project
Out: A build cost range positioned inside the published band
Out: An annual maintenance figure
Out: Three-year total cost of ownership, with the build-multiple shown
Out: A shareable link that reproduces the estimate
The method, stated
This model places your project inside a published market band, adds a maintenance band, and projects both across the ownership period you choose. It returns a range, never a single number, because a single number for a website is always wrong. It models the inputs you entered; it is not a quote.
The formulas, in evaluation order
build_low, build_high = the published band for the build type you selected
maintenance_annual = the published maintenance band for your tier, positioned by the same complexity slider
tco_years = build_point + (maintenance_annual x years)
tco_multiple = tco_years / build_point
Every assumption this model bakes in
Bands are the observed 2026 market ranges published on this page. The complexity slider positions you inside a band; it does not invent a number outside one.
Maintenance is treated as a recurring annual cost from year one, not from year two. Hosting, certificates, dependency updates and content work all start on launch day.
The three-year total cost of ownership is calculated, not asserted. On the published bands it lands between roughly 2.0x and 3.4x the build cost, which is the range the market shows.
Content production is included in the complexity slider rather than priced separately, because agencies bundle it inconsistently. If your quote excludes copy and photography, add them.
Nothing here is adjusted for region. Offshore and onshore delivery differ by a multiple, and that difference lands mostly in the build line, not the maintenance line.
No paid media, no ongoing SEO retainer and no third-party SaaS subscriptions are included. Those are separate budget lines that frequently exceed the site itself.
What this model cannot tell you
It cannot scope your project. Two sites with the same page count can differ tenfold on integration and data requirements.
It does not model rebuild risk, which is the real driver of lifetime cost. A platform choice that forces a rebuild in year three doubles everything.
It says nothing about quality, and there is no relationship between spend and outcome that a calculator can express.
Commerce bands assume a standard catalogue. Bespoke pricing rules, B2B account structures and ERP integration sit outside them.
Website build cost, observed 2026 bands
These are observed 2026 market bands, published so you can locate yourself inside them. They are not TrainYourAgent quotes, and nothing here is a promise about what your project will cost.
Freelancer template build: $3,000 – $8,000 — An existing theme configured, branded and populated. Fast, and constrained by the theme.
Custom small-business site: $8,000 – $15,000 — Designed rather than themed, custom components, real content structure and a CMS.
Corporate marketing site: $15,000 – $75,000 (median $36,500) — Multi-stakeholder, design system, many templates, integrations and governance.
Shopify starter to standard: $8,000 – $25,000 — Theme-based storefront with custom sections and a normal catalogue.
Headless commerce: $90,000 – $250,000 — Decoupled front end over a commerce API. Highest ceiling in the commerce column.
SaaS MVP: $50,000 – $120,000 — A first sellable version of a product: auth, billing, core loop, nothing else.
Production web application: $150,000 – $500,000 — Multi-role application with real data, real permissions and real operational load.
Annual website maintenance, observed 2026 bands
These are observed 2026 market bands, published so you can locate yourself inside them. They are not TrainYourAgent quotes, and nothing here is a promise about what your project will cost.
Small business site: $3,600 – $12,720 / yr — Hosting, security patching, dependency updates, backups, small content changes.
Corporate or ecommerce: $12,600 – $50,400 / yr — The above plus performance work, monitoring, integration upkeep and a real support path.
Three-year total cost of ownership: 2.0x – 3.4x the build — Calculated from the bands above. The build is the smaller half of what a site costs to own.
Why do website quotes for the same brief differ by 10x?
Because a website is not one product. The word covers a five-page brochure built on a purchased theme and a multi-role application with a permissions model, and those are separated by two orders of magnitude of engineering. The first question to settle is which of the seven build types you are actually buying. A freelancer template build at $3,000 to $8,000 and a corporate marketing site at $15,000 to $75,000 are not competing quotes for the same job; they are quotes for different jobs, and if you are receiving both, the brief is ambiguous rather than the market. The second driver is what is included. Copywriting, photography, migration of existing content, redirects, analytics setup, accessibility remediation and training are each worth thousands, and each is bundled by some agencies and excluded by others. A cheaper quote that excludes four of them is not cheaper.
Which build type do I actually need?
Work down from the behaviour your site has to support, not up from your budget. If your site publishes information and captures enquiries, you are in the template or custom small-business band, $3,000 to $15,000. If multiple internal stakeholders need to publish independently into a governed design system across many page types, you are in the corporate band, $15,000 to $75,000, with a median around $36,500. If you sell products, the platform decides the band. A themed Shopify storefront runs $8,000 to $25,000, Shopify Plus with custom checkout and enterprise integration runs $25,000 to $90,000, and a headless build over a commerce API runs $90,000 to $250,000. Going headless is a decision about front-end control and performance, and it roughly quadruples the floor. If people log in and do work, you have left the website market entirely. A SaaS MVP runs $50,000 to $120,000 and a production web application $150,000 to $500,000, and the difference between those two is not features, it is the operational maturity of the thing you are shipping.
Which build type do I actually need? — in detail
Publishes and captures enquiries: template or custom small-business build
Many editors, many templates, governance: corporate marketing site
Sells a normal catalogue: Shopify starter to standard
Enterprise commerce, custom checkout, ERP: Shopify Plus or headless
People log in and do work: SaaS MVP, then production application
What does a website cost to maintain each year?
Observed bands put small-business maintenance at $3,600 to $12,720 a year, and corporate or ecommerce maintenance at $12,600 to $50,400 a year. Those are the numbers most budgets forget. Maintenance is not optional in the way it sounds. It is hosting, TLS certificates, framework and dependency updates, security patches, backups that have actually been tested, uptime monitoring, and the small content changes that arrive weekly whether or not anyone budgeted for them. Skipping it does not save money; it converts a recurring cost into a rebuild. The reason to model it explicitly is that it changes which quote is cheaper. A build that is $6,000 more expensive but sits on a platform with half the maintenance burden is cheaper within three years, and that comparison is invisible if you only look at the build line.
What is the three-year total cost of owning a website?
On the published bands, three-year total cost of ownership works out at roughly 2.0x to 3.4x the build cost. That multiple is calculated from the maintenance bands above, not asserted, and the calculator shows you your own multiple as you move the inputs. Put concretely: a $12,000 custom small-business site with maintenance in the middle of its band is about $36,000 over three years. A $36,500 corporate site with corporate-tier maintenance is roughly $130,000. The build is the smaller half of the decision in both cases. Three years is the right horizon because it is roughly how long a well-built site lasts before design and platform drift force a significant refresh. If you are choosing between a cheap build you expect to replace in eighteen months and a more expensive one you expect to keep for four years, run the model twice with different year counts and compare the annualised figures.
What actually drives the cost inside a band?
Within any one band, the cost drivers are consistent and none of them are visual. Integrations are the largest. Every system the site must read from or write to, whether a CRM, a booking engine, an inventory feed or a payment provider, adds specification, build, error handling and a permanent maintenance obligation. A site with four integrations is not slightly more expensive than a site with none. Content is second. Migrating three hundred existing pages with their redirects and their images is a real project, and writing forty new pages is a bigger one. Both are routinely underestimated because neither looks like engineering. Third is the number of distinct templates, which is not the same as the number of pages. Two hundred pages across five templates is cheap. Twenty pages across fifteen bespoke layouts is not. Fourth is stakeholder count. Every additional approver adds review cycles, and review cycles are the least visible and most reliable source of overrun in the entire category.
How much should a small business website cost in 2026?
Observed bands are $3,000 to $8,000 for a freelancer template build and $8,000 to $15,000 for a custom small-business site. The gap between them is design and content structure, not page count.
What is the median cost of a corporate marketing website?
The observed corporate band is $15,000 to $75,000, with a median around $36,500. The spread is driven by template count, integrations and the number of internal stakeholders who must approve.
How much does a Shopify store cost?
$8,000 to $25,000 for a themed starter-to-standard storefront and $25,000 to $90,000 for Shopify Plus with custom checkout and enterprise integration. Headless commerce is a different band entirely at $90,000 to $250,000.
What does website maintenance cost per year?
$3,600 to $12,720 a year for a small-business site, and $12,600 to $50,400 for corporate or ecommerce. It covers hosting, patching, dependency updates, backups, monitoring and routine content changes.