How much does it cost to have someone make you a simple website?

Ask five people what a "simple website" costs to build, and you'll get five wildly different answers — and they'll all be right. The truth is that "simple" means something different depending on who you hire, and the price gap between those options is enormous.

At the freelance end of the market, industry pricing guides put a typical small business site at $500–$5,000, while a more recent 2026 study places freelance builds at $1,500–$8,000 per project — or $50–$150 per hour. Real-world examples back this up: one agency, VGo Designs, charges $1,000–$4,000 for most custom small-business websites, and a freelance marketplace listing offers a $1,500 fixed package for a single landing page with an inquiry form.

Climb the ladder and the numbers get steeper quickly:

• Boutique agencies charge $6,000–$12,000 upfront for a custom build
• Full-service agencies run $12,000–$35,000+, according to 2026 pricing research
• Large agencies charge $10,000–$100,000+ — described as out of scope for most small businesses
• Most professional builds land between $3,000 and $15,000, per OneLittleWeb's 2026 study

Timelines vary just as much. Freelance builds typically take two to eight weeks, and a typical five-page brochure site takes four to six weeks. That's a long wait for what many business owners assume is a quick job.

Here's what catches most buyers off guard: the build fee is only the entry ticket. Ongoing costs of $10–$30 per month apply regardless of who built the site, and overlooked annual expenses — hosting, SSL, plugins, backups, security monitoring, marketing tools — add $1,100–$5,000 per year even on simple sites. GoDaddy estimates small businesses pay $145–$640+ per year just to create and maintain a website.

There's also a question most buyers never think to ask: who handles the site after launch? A freelancer's work usually ends at handoff, and a WordPress build means inheriting updates, security, and backups yourself.

That's the gap AI Business Sites was built to close — a $1,497 one-time setup that sits at or below the low end of the freelance range, paired with a fully managed monthly service that covers hosting, maintenance, and everything after launch. The setup fee includes a custom website with 25–30 hand-built core pages plus 60 AI-generated SEO pages, a booking calendar, lead capture, CRM setup, and full Google Business Profile and Search Console configuration — all live within 7 days, not weeks.

The lesson from the market data is simple: compare the total picture, not just the upfront number. What "simple" costs depends less on the site and more on who's still standing behind it a year later.

The upfront price tag on a website build feels like the finish line — but it's really just the starting point. Many buyers focus solely on that initial quote, unaware that the real cost begins after launch. According to industry research, most small businesses face ongoing expenses of $10–$30 per month just for basic hosting and maintenance, with overlooked annual costs for security, backups, updates, and marketing tools adding $1,100–$5,000 per year even on simple sites. These aren't optional extras; they're essential to keep a site running, secure, and visible.

What gets buried in the fine print is who handles these tasks after the designer walks away. A freelance build often ends at launch, leaving the owner to manage WordPress updates, plugin conflicts, SSL renewals, and daily backups — or pay someone else to do it. Agency projects may include a short warranty, but ongoing support usually shifts to a separate retainer. Without clarity on post-launch responsibility, a seemingly affordable $1,500 freelance site can quickly accumulate hidden costs that rival or exceed the original build fee.

AI Business Sites flips this model by bundling everything into one transparent monthly fee. The $497/month covers not just hosting, but ongoing maintenance, security monitoring, automated backups, software updates, and the full AI-powered content engine that publishes 14+ new SEO pages each month. It also includes the CRM, chat and voice agents, job tracking invoicing, and Google Business Profile management — all monitored and optimized by our team. This eliminates the need to juggle multiple subscriptions or worry about technical decay. Instead of paying piecemeal for hosting, SSL, SEO tools, email marketing, and site maintenance — each adding up silently over time — clients get a single, all-inclusive system that stays current, secure, and effective without requiring their attention. The setup fee gets the site live in 7 days with 85+ pages; the monthly fee ensures it keeps working, growing, and protecting the business long after launch.

If you've ever gotten a website quote, you know the feeling: a build fee here, a hosting bill there, a mystery "maintenance package" on top. The research shows why — the traditional model fragments your investment across a dozen line items, and nobody tells you the total until the invoices start arriving.

Consider the math from a 2026 pricing study: even a simple site carries $1,100–$5,000 per year in overlooked costs — hosting ($24–$600), SSL certificates ($0–$250), plugins ($100–$500), backups ($240–$1,200), and security monitoring ($600–$1,800). Meanwhile, the question most buyers miss — who handles the site after launch? — is exactly where the real work begins. A freelancer delivers the site and walks away. A WordPress build hands you updates, security, and backups as your new part-time job.

AI Business Sites takes a different approach: one setup fee and one monthly fee, with everything bundled into a single predictable price. The model is a $1,497 one-time setup plus $497 per month — no tiers, no per-seat fees, no feature gates. Here's what that covers:

• A custom-built website with 85+ pages live at launch — 25–30 hand-crafted core pages plus 60 AI-generated SEO pages, each with schema markup
• Hosting, maintenance, and 14+ new SEO content pieces every month, produced by a 12-agent content pipeline
• A built-in CRM, 24/7 chat and voice on the site, booking, and lead capture — configured for you, not handed to you
• Full Google setup, including your Business Profile and Search Console

Compare that to the market. Freelance builds run $1,500–$8,000 per project, and even a modest five-page brochure site typically takes four to six weeks to deliver. The $1,497 setup sits at or below the low end of that range — while including far more than a freelancer's five pages. And instead of the $10–$30/month baseline that most small businesses pay just to keep the lights on, the monthly fee replaces the entire stack: hosting, SEO tools, email marketing, chat, and follow-up automation in one subscription.

The risk structure helps too. You start with a $500 deposit, and the remaining $997 isn't due until launch — you see the work before you pay the balance. Everything is month-to-month with 30 days' notice, and if you leave, you take the code, content, data, and domain with you.

Predictability is the point. One number to budget for the build, one number to budget for running it — and someone else answers the "who handles it after launch?" question for you. If you want to see whether that math works for your business, you can book a free 30-minute strategy call to talk it through.