What a new business website costs in 2026 — an Astro + Sanity breakdown
A new business website in 2026 ranges from a few hundred dollars a year on a DIY builder to $15,000+ at an agency. Here is what actually drives that spread — and exactly what a custom Astro + Sanity build costs.
A new business website in 2026 costs anywhere from about $200/year on a DIY builder to $15,000 or more at an agency, with most professional builds landing between $3,000 and $15,000. Where you fall on that range isn’t really about the platform — it’s about who designs it, how custom the design is, and who maintains it after launch. This post breaks down the three honest cost tiers, explains what drives the price, and tells you exactly what a custom Astro + Sanity build runs.
The short answer: three tiers, one real question
There are only three ways to get a new business website, and they map to three price bands:
- DIY website builder (Wix, Squarespace) — you do the work; the tool is cheap.
- Freelancer — one person builds it; price and quality track that one person.
- Agency / studio — a team builds it; you pay for the team.
The real question underneath all of them is how custom is the design, and who keeps the site running after launch. That single factor explains most of the price spread — more than the platform, the page count, or the logo on the invoice.
Tier 1 — DIY builders: cheap sticker, expensive time
DIY platforms like Wix and Squarespace charge roughly $16–$45/month, which works out to about $200–$600 a year covering hosting, SSL, and a template. That’s the lowest sticker price available, and for a solo operator who just needs something online, it’s a defensible start.
The cost you don’t see on the invoice is your time and a template every competitor can also buy. You’re the designer, the copywriter, and the person debugging why the mobile menu looks wrong. The output is rarely fast, rarely distinctive, and rarely built for the Core Web Vitals that influence search rankings. It’s the right call for the smallest budgets and the wrong call the moment the site has to sell for you.
Tier 2 — Freelancers: it depends entirely on the freelancer
Hire a freelancer and a template-based small-business site typically runs $3,000–$8,000. This is the broadest, most variable tier, because “freelancer” covers everything from a student with a theme to a senior engineer who used to run an agency.
The upside is a real human who customizes more than a DIY template and can hand you something tailored. The risk is concentration: one person’s availability, skill, and follow-through are the whole engagement. When the freelancer disappears, so does your support. Vet for code quality, references, and a clear maintenance plan — not just the lowest quote.
Tier 3 — Agencies: a team, and the overhead of one
A custom small-business site from a boutique agency generally runs $8,000–$15,000, with complex or e-commerce builds climbing well past that. You’re buying a team — designer, developer, project manager — and the process and accountability that come with it.
You’re also paying for the overhead that team carries: account management, sales, and office costs all sit inside that number. For a large or complex site that overhead buys real risk reduction. For a focused marketing site, much of it is paying for structure you don’t strictly need.
What buyers actually spend
The market backs up the “most builds are mid-range” picture. Per Clutch’s 2026 survey, 61% of small-business buyers spent under $10,000 on their most recent website, and 84% spent under $20,000 — though both figures have drifted up from 2023 as buyers demand more custom design and conversion-focused features. Translation: the bulk of real projects live in the $3,000–$15,000 band, and expectations for what that money buys are rising.
2026 new-website cost tiers for a small business. DIY shown as annual subscription; others as one-time build. Tier ranges: Digital Applied, Website Development Cost 2026; DIY monthly: Fit Small Business, Website Costs.
What actually drives the price: the design path
Strip away the tier labels and most of the cost difference comes down to one decision — the design path.
- Licensed premium theme. Start from a professionally designed, licensed template and customize it to your brand. Less design labor, faster delivery, lower cost. The trade-off is that the underlying layout exists elsewhere, so distinctiveness has a ceiling.
- Custom design. Design the site around your brand and conversion goals from a blank canvas. More design and engineering hours, higher cost, and a result nobody else has.
Neither is “better” in the abstract — they’re priced differently because they cost differently to produce. A licensed-theme build on a fast stack can outperform a sloppy custom one. What you’re really paying for at the top of the range is original design plus the engineering to make it fast, not the platform underneath.
Where Sitewright fits — and what we charge
We build on Astro + Sanity: static HTML that loads fast and ranks, paired with a CMS your team can edit without a developer. Because we run lean — no agency sales-and-account overhead — a real custom build lands below typical agency pricing. These are starting prices; the final quote comes after a free intro call where we scope the actual work.
- New build — from $4,500. A new marketing site on Astro + Sanity.
- Migrate — from $3,000. Move off WordPress without losing your rankings.
- Revamp — from $3,500. Rebuild an existing site’s design and performance.
- Care plan — $300/month. Ongoing updates, monitoring, and edits so the site doesn’t rot.
That puts a custom, fast, self-editable site near the bottom of the agency band and the top of the freelancer band — with a team behind it and no single-person risk. The care plan is the line item the cheap tiers hide: a site is a living thing, and the recurring cost of keeping one healthy is real whether or not anyone quotes it up front.
FAQ
How much does a new business website cost in 2026? Most professional small-business builds land between $3,000 and $15,000. DIY builders run about $200–$600/year, freelancers roughly $3,000–$8,000, and agencies $8,000–$15,000 or more. Per Clutch’s 2026 survey, 61% of buyers spent under $10,000 on their most recent site.
Why is there such a wide price range for the same “website”? Because “website” describes wildly different things. The biggest cost driver is the design path — a licensed premium theme is far cheaper to deliver than a fully custom design — followed by who maintains the site after launch. Platform and page count matter far less than those two.
What does a custom Astro + Sanity build cost at Sitewright? A new build starts at $4,500, a migration at $3,000, and a revamp at $3,500, with an optional $300/month care plan. These are starting prices; you get a fixed quote after a free intro call once we’ve scoped the real work.
Is a cheap DIY builder ever the right choice? Yes — if your budget is near zero, you have time to do it yourself, and the site doesn’t need to win you business. The moment the site has to load fast, rank, and convert, a template-and-your-spare-time approach usually costs more in lost opportunity than it saves on the invoice.
Why pick Sitewright over a full-service agency? You get a custom, fast, self-editable site without paying for agency sales and account-management overhead. A custom Astro + Sanity build from $4,500 sits below typical agency pricing while still giving you a team — not a single freelancer whose availability is your whole support plan.