How much does it cost to have a website for 1 year?

A one-page site on Carrd can cost as little as $9 per year. A large custom build can run $15,000 or more in the first year. That's not a typo — it's the actual range of "how much a website costs," and it's why the question deserves a better answer than a price tag.

The honest answer is that the number you see advertised is never the whole number. As one web designer with 70+ client sites puts it, "the advertised monthly rate is just the start of how much it costs to have and run a website." Hidden costs — premium plugins, security, maintenance, content — typically add 10–20% to any website budget, before you've spent a dollar on marketing.

Even the "cheap" options come with fine print. A GoDaddy cost breakdown puts a small business website at $145–$640+ per year, but that figure covers only the basics. The moment you want professional SEO, regular content, or proper maintenance, you're into separate line items — and separate subscriptions.

Here's what tends to hide behind the sticker price:

• Maintenance plans running $50–$200 per month, even for simple sites
• Content at $100–$300 per blog post if you hire writers
• Professional SEO retainers of $500–$2,500+ per month
• Premium plugins at $50–$200 per year, each

There's also a timing trap. Introductory rates increase significantly at renewal, and builder pricing like Hostinger's $10.99/month applies only to the first year. The 2026 cost data from Upwork is blunt about it: a basic DIY website runs $300–$500 in year one, but year two rarely looks the same.

The deeper issue is what the low prices exclude. A $17-a-month builder plan gets you a website that exists — not one that writes content, follows up with leads, or ranks in search. Those are all billed separately, which is why many small business owners end up stitching together five or six subscriptions and still doing the work themselves. That's the gap a fully managed service like AI Business Sites is built around: one flat monthly price that includes hosting, maintenance, content, and SEO, instead of a website plus a pile of add-ons.

So the real question isn't "what does a website cost?" It's what does a website cost to own — for twelve months, with everything it needs to actually perform. That's the number we'll break down next.

There are really only four ways to get a business website: build it yourself on a software-as-a-service platform, assemble a DIY WordPress site, hire a freelancer, or sign with an agency. Each path carries a very different price tag — and, as the research shows, the cheapest option often hides the most work.

Here's how the four paths compare on cost:

• SaaS website builders (Wix, Squarespace, Shopify) bundle hosting and security into one monthly fee — typically $15–$50/month standard, or $30–$300/month for eCommerce, according to Elementor's cost breakdown. Specific plans range from Wix Light at $17/month to Shopify Advanced at $299/month, per Tooltester's pricing comparison.
• DIY WordPress is the cheapest flexible route: $300–$500 in the first year for a basic build, per Upwork's 2026 cost guide. But you assemble everything yourself — hosting, theme, plugins, security.
• Freelancers charge $2,000–$8,000 for a business site, and $5,000–$15,000 if you add eCommerce, at rates of $75–$150/hour.
• Agencies run $10,000–$35,000 for a small business site, and $20,000–$55,000+ for eCommerce — likely your most expensive option, as GoDaddy's own cost guide notes.

Here's the catch: the sticker price is never the whole price. Hidden costs — premium plugins, stock photography, maintenance — add 10–20% to any budget, and separate line items like maintenance ($50–$200/month), professional SEO ($500–$2,500+/month), and content ($100–$300 per blog post) sit on top of every "cheap" build. As web designer Katelyn Dekle puts it, "the advertised monthly rate is just the start of how much it costs to have and run a website."

The DIY and SaaS routes also carry structural risk. With SaaS builders, you never stop paying — stop, and your site disappears. Outgrowing a cheap builder can force a costly migration or a full rebuild, and platform shutdowns are real: Builder.ai went from a $1.5 billion unicorn to Chapter 7 bankruptcy within months.

That trade-off — low sticker price, high hidden cost in time and risk — is exactly why managed done-for-you services exist. A service like AI Business Sites sits between the freelancer and agency ranges while folding hosting, maintenance, content, and SEO into one monthly fee, so the owner never has to bolt the pieces together themselves. The right question isn't just "what does it cost to build?" — it's "what does it cost to run, and who does the running?"

That "$16/month" builder plan looks cheap until you total the receipt. As one experienced web designer puts it, "the advertised monthly rate is just the start of how much it costs to have and run a website."

The line items stack up fast. Industry cost breakdowns show maintenance plans running $50–$200/month, professional SEO retainers at $500–$2,500+/month, and content at $100–$300 per blog post. Premium plugins add $50–$200 per year each, while advanced security like WAF and malware scanning runs $10–$30/month.

Here's what most buyers forget to budget:

• Maintenance — $50–$200/month for updates, backups, and fixes
• SEO retainers — $500–$2,500+/month if you actually want rankings
• Content — $100–$300 per post, and Google rewards consistency, not one-time publishing
• Premium plugins and themes — $50–$200/year each, quietly recurring
• SSL and security — $5.49–$28.99/month at GoDaddy if you don't get free options

According to Elementor's cost analysis, these hidden costs add 10–20% to any website budget — and that's before the post-launch expenses that continue indefinitely.

The subscription trap makes it worse. With SaaS builders, you never stop paying — stop the subscription and your site disappears. And that attractive intro rate? Introductory rates increase significantly at renewal, so year two costs more than year one for the identical product.

Then there's the outgrowing problem. Businesses that outgrow cheap builders face costly migrations, and SaaS platforms often make migration impossible, forcing a full rebuild — meaning every dollar you spent is sunk. Tooltester warns that with Squarespace, "if you need more features or flexibility, you'll have to upgrade — and that's when it starts getting pricey."

This is why ownership matters more than sticker price. A done-for-you service like AI Business Sites bundles hosting, maintenance, content, and SEO into one predictable monthly fee — and because you own the code, content, and domain outright, outgrowing never means starting over.

A budget that looks cheap in month one can quietly double by month twelve. That is the pattern the research shows over and over: the advertised rate is just the start, and hidden costs — premium plugins, security, maintenance, content — add another 10–20% to any plan, according to Elementor's cost breakdown.

To budget honestly, build your year-one estimate from the components, not the sticker price:

• Domain and hosting — a domain runs $10–$30 per year, while hosting ranges from $2–$10 per month for shared plans to $30–$75 for managed WordPress
• Maintenance and security — maintenance plans typically cost $50–$200 per month, plus $10–$30 monthly for advanced security
• Content and SEO — blog posts run $100–$300 each, and professional SEO retainers start at $500–$2,500 per month

Add those up and the picture changes fast. A basic DIY build might cost $300–$500 in year one, per Upwork's 2026 pricing data — but once you add ongoing maintenance, content, and SEO as separate line items, you are well beyond the $145–$640 annual range GoDaddy reports for a small business site. Hiring a freelancer or agency pushes the build itself to $2,000–$35,000 before a single month of upkeep.

There is also a year-two problem. Introductory rates rise significantly at renewal across domains and hosting, and builder prices like Hostinger's $10.99 per month apply only to the first year. Any budget worth making compares year one against year two, not just month one against month twelve.

This is where the math behind a done-for-you option becomes easier to defend. A service like AI Business Sites charges $1,497 to build and $497 per month — roughly $7,461 in year one — with hosting, maintenance, ongoing content, SEO, and a built-in CRM bundled into that single price. Purchased separately, those same components would exceed that total for most small businesses. It also removes the renewal trap: the price does not jump after year one.

Finally, check what you actually own. With most website builders, if you stop paying, your site disappears — and migrating off a closed platform can mean a full rebuild. Before committing to any option, ask three questions: Who holds the domain? Can I export my content and data? Can another developer take over the code? If the answers are not clearly yes, the low monthly price is renting, not owning — and ownership is the part of the budget no invoice ever shows.