Ask five agencies what a website costs and you will get five non-answers about how it depends. It does depend — but not so much that nobody can give you a range, and the vagueness is usually there to leave room for whatever number they think you will pay.
So here are real ranges for a small business in metro Detroit, with the reasons behind them.
The four tiers
DIY builder: $0 – $500 a year
Squarespace, Wix, Google Sites. You do everything. It will look acceptable and work adequately, and for a brand new business with no budget it beats having no website at all.
The real cost is your weekends and the ceiling on what it can do. You will usually be slower than a custom build, and you will be limited on the technical SEO work that gets a local business into the map pack.
Reasonable when: you are pre-revenue, or the site is genuinely just a digital business card.
Freelancer or template customization: $800 – $2,500
Someone installs a theme, drops in your logo and colors, and writes or pastes your content. Faster than DIY and usually better looking.
Watch for three things: whether copywriting is included (usually not), what happens when the freelancer disappears, and whether the theme is bloated enough to make the site slow before it launches.
Reasonable when: you need something presentable quickly and can supply your own content.
Custom small business site: $2,400 – $8,000
Designed for your business rather than adapted from a template. Copywriting included, real technical SEO groundwork, speed enforced, analytics configured, and someone accountable after launch.
This is the range most established local businesses should be in. We quote each project individually rather than publishing a number — ask us what yours would cost and you will have a fixed figure in writing within two business days.
Reasonable when: the website is a real source of customers and downtime or invisibility costs you money.
Agency retainer: $10,000+
Multi-location, e-commerce at volume, custom integrations, or a brand that needs a full design system. Real work, and worth it at that scale.
If you are a single-location local business and someone quotes you $15,000 for a brochure site, you are being priced on what they think you can pay.
What actually moves the number
Page count, but less than you would think — pages five through twelve reuse the same design system, so they cost far less than the first four.
Whether copy is included. This is the biggest hidden variable in every quote you will compare. A $1,800 quote where you write everything and a $3,200 quote where they do is often the same project, and the second one actually launches.
Photography. Stock is free and looks it. A half day with a local photographer runs $500 to $900 and does more for a home services business than another $2,000 of design.
Functionality. Booking, payments, member logins, inventory. Each is real engineering, and each should be a separate line on the quote.
Migration and redirects. If you have an existing site with any traffic, mapping old URLs to new ones is not optional. Skipping it is how businesses lose half their search traffic overnight in a redesign.
Four red flags in a quote
"Free website, just pay monthly hosting." You are leasing. Stop paying and the site vanishes, and the total over three years is usually double a purchased site.
No line items. A single number with no breakdown means you cannot compare it to anything, and it means scope disputes later are unwinnable.
Guaranteed number one on Google. Nobody can promise placement Google does not sell. A firm that says this either does not understand search or is willing to mislead you, and neither is who you want.
You do not own the domain. The domain should be registered in your business name with you as the administrative contact, always. If an agency holds it, they hold your business.
What to ask before signing
- Is copywriting included, or am I writing it?
- Who owns the domain, the code and the content when we finish?
- What is the total, including hosting, for the first three years?
- What happens if I want to leave — what do I get, and what does it cost?
- Can I see three sites you built, and will those owners take a call?
The answers to those five questions tell you more than any portfolio.
Our honest advice
Buy the tier that matches what the website is worth to you. Work out what one new customer is worth, then divide the quote by that number — if the site pays for itself inside a few months, it is the right spend. For businesses where a single customer is worth four figures, almost any competent site in the custom range clears that bar quickly.
What does not pay for itself is a cheap site nobody can find. That is the only version of this where you genuinely lose the money.
Want a real number for your specific situation? Tell us what you have now and we will send a fixed written quote in two business days — or tell you honestly if you do not need us yet.
