Useful planning ranges
| Project | Typical scope | Planning range |
|---|---|---|
| Focused landing page | One offer, conversion copy, form, basic SEO | $500–$1,500 |
| Small business website | 4–7 pages, copy support, responsive build, analytics | $1,500–$6,000 |
| Growth website | Strategy, deeper content, integrations, SEO, conversion work | $5,000–$15,000+ |
| Ecommerce or custom system | Products, payments, accounts, complex integrations | Often $8,000+ |
What changes the price?
- Strategy: customer research, positioning, sitemap, and conversion planning.
- Content: interviews, copywriting, photography, video, and original illustrations.
- Functionality: bookings, payments, CRM, memberships, calculators, portals, or multilingual content.
- Migration: preserving existing URLs, redirects, content, and analytics.
- Risk: accessibility, privacy, security, regulated data, and payment requirements.
- Support: training, updates, backups, monitoring, and ongoing improvement.
Recurring costs
Budget separately for the domain, hosting, email, form or CRM software, payment fees, maintenance, backups, security monitoring, analytics tools, and ongoing content. Ask which fees are optional, which are required, and who owns every account.
Warning signs
- The provider guarantees a number-one Google ranking.
- The domain or analytics account remains under the provider’s control.
- The proposal does not define pages, revisions, ownership, support, or acceptance.
- The price excludes necessary hosting or software but never explains the future cost.
- Testimonials, portfolio projects, or performance claims cannot be verified.
How to compare proposals
Compare outcomes and responsibilities, not only price. A useful proposal explains discovery, content, design, development, SEO, testing, accessibility, security, launch, ownership, and support. If one quote is dramatically cheaper, identify which work has been removed.
Why the ranges above are wider than what we charge
The planning ranges in that table reflect the U.S. market broadly, including agencies with account managers, project managers, and designers who never speak to you. Our own published pricing sits below those ranges — $300 for a landing page, $650 for a brochure site, $1,200 for a full business site — because Zyco AI Studio is one operator with no sales layer and a defined scope.
That is a real trade-off, not a trick. You get a lower price and faster turnaround; you do not get a large team, a dedicated account manager, or unlimited discovery workshops. For most local service businesses that trade is worth making. For a company that needs a 40-page migration with custom integrations, it is not, and an agency in the $8,000+ band is the honest recommendation.
The five questions that actually protect you
Whatever you spend, ask these before signing. The answers matter more than the number:
- Who owns the domain? It should be registered in your name, on your account, with you as registrant. If the provider "handles" it, you can be held hostage at renewal.
- What happens if we part ways? You should be able to take the files, the domain, and the analytics history with no exit fee and no negotiation.
- What exactly is in scope? Number of pages, number of revision rounds, who writes the copy, who sources the photos, and what counts as "done."
- What are the recurring costs? Domain renewal, hosting, email, forms, and any software — with the real annual figure, not "a small monthly fee."
- Can I contact a past client? Not just view a portfolio — actually reach someone. Anyone doing honest work can arrange this.
Where the money goes on a small project
On a typical small business site, design and build are rarely the largest cost driver. Content is. Gathering your services, hours, service area, photos, and FAQs — and writing them so a customer understands them in ten seconds — is where most projects stall and where most budget overruns come from.
You can lower your cost meaningfully by preparing that content before the build starts. That is exactly why we publish a project guide and a structured intake form rather than charging you for the back-and-forth.
Cheap sites: when they work and when they don't
A $300 landing page is genuinely enough if you need one clear offer, a phone number, and a form that reaches you — a trades business, a solo practitioner, a new venture testing demand. It is not enough if you need bookings, payments, a product catalogue, multi-location pages, or content you plan to update weekly. Choosing a cheap site for a job that needs more usually means paying twice.
The failure mode to avoid is not "cheap." It is cheap with no foundation — no HTTPS, no mobile layout, no ownership, no way to update it. Those sites cost the least and lose the most.
Common questions
How much does a small business website cost? Most small business websites in the U.S. fall between $1,500 and $6,000 for a 4–7 page site. Simple landing pages start lower — ours are $300 — and sites with bookings, payments, or complex integrations commonly exceed $8,000.
Is a monthly website subscription cheaper? Usually not over time. A $99/month plan is roughly $3,600 over three years, and you typically do not own the site at the end. Compare the three-year total, and always check who owns the domain and files.
What are the ongoing costs after launch? At minimum a domain (about $11–$20 a year) and hosting (roughly $15–$30 a year self-hosted, or a flat monthly fee if someone hosts it for you). Email, forms, and analytics can be free at small scale.
How long should a small business website take? A landing page can be live in 2–3 days, a brochure site in 4–6 days, and a full business site in 7–10 days — provided the content is ready. Agencies typically quote 6–12 weeks because discovery and approval cycles are longer.
Do I need to pay for SEO separately? Basic on-page SEO — titles, descriptions, structured data, a sitemap, fast loading — should be included in any competent build. Ongoing local SEO, Google Business Profile work, and content production are separate services.