How much does a website really cost?

01 · The benchmarks

What the industry says a website costs

Upwork's cost guide — one of the most-cited independent references — breaks it down by site type and by line item. These are build costs, before ongoing fees.¹

Notice the two columns that never stop: maintenance & security ($50–$200/mo) and marketing/SEO tools ($100–$500/mo). A build is a one-time number; these are forever.

02 · The renewal trap

Why builders look cheap — until year two

The advertised price is a first-year promotion. The renewal rate is the real rate, and it's published right in each provider's own terms. These are their listed prices, verified July 2026.

Kept three years, a "cheap" builder site commonly runs $500–$1,100 — and you still built and wrote it yourself. Stop paying, and the site goes dark.

03 · Try the math

What will it actually cost you?

Pick your situation. The estimate uses the sourced figures above — a genuine range, not a sales number.

Estimates are ranges built from the cited sources; your real number depends on scope. Our own prices are fixed, quoted before work starts, and listed in full below — from $500 once, domain year-one included.

04 · What we charge

The whole ladder, in public

Five tiers, each a fixed price paid once. Every one leaves you owning the site outright — the design, the files, the content and the domain. Nothing here renews unless you choose Care.

Prices in US dollars. Cost follows the number of distinct page designs, not the page count — fifty pages sharing one design is a small job. Schools, mosques and registered non-profits: ask about our community rate.

05 · The Care question

What about ongoing upkeep?

Every live site needs hosting, updates, and the occasional edit. The market rate for maintenance alone is $50–$200/month.¹ Our optional Care plans start at $49/month — and they aren't maintenance-only:

And Care is optional. Skip it, and your $500 site still stays yours — you just handle updates yourself or email us for a quote.

06 · Common cost questions

The questions people actually ask

The cost question arrives worded a dozen ways — per month or per year, maintenance, redesign, restaurant sites, and what the builders cost once the first-year pricing ends. Straight answers, using the figures already sourced above.

How much does a website cost per month vs. per year?

It depends how it's built. A DIY builder runs about $17–$25 a month by year two — roughly $204–$300 a year^2,5 — and paying someone to maintain a site adds $50–$200 a month on market rates.¹ A site you own outright carries no monthly rent: with Safina, $500 or $800 is paid once, and without Care the only recurring cost is the domain, $15 a year from the second year.

How much does website maintenance cost?

On the open market, $50–$200 a month for maintenance and security alone is the going rate.¹ It keeps a site updated and safe; it doesn't build anything new. Safina's optional Care plan is $49 a month and covers more than maintenance: hosting, domain renewal, a daily check that the site is up, every version saved, up to 4 small edits a month, and a monthly traffic summary. Care can be cancelled anytime, and without it the site is still yours.

How much does a website redesign cost?

A redesign is priced like a build, because the work is the same: new design, rewritten pages, and moving over whatever's worth keeping. On the market rates above, that means the same $500–$2,000 small-business range, more if the old site is large or messy. With Safina, a rebuild is quoted at the same flat prices as a new build — $500 for one page, $800 for up to five — and your domain and content carry over.

How much does a restaurant website cost?

A restaurant site showing the menu, hours and a phone number lands in the small-business range: $500–$2,000 to build on the figures above, or $800 flat with us (Growth covers up to five pages plus a booking or lead form). Add real online ordering and you're in e-commerce territory — $1,000–$5,000+ to build plus ongoing fees — which we don't build. One honest shortcut: if your point-of-sale system already runs your menu and ordering, a site can mirror the menu and link straight to ordering instead of rebuilding a store.

What do Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy cost in year two?

The first year is the cheap one. GoDaddy's basic builder is promoted near $10 a month and auto-renews around $16.99 — about $204 a year — with its commerce plan at $419.88 a year.² Wix prices its plans by region, so check its pricing page for yours.⁴ Squarespace's entry plan, Basic, runs $25 a month or $19 billed annually — $228 a year — and the free first-year domain renews at its standard rate.⁵ Kept three years, that's the $500–$1,100 totals from the table above — and stop paying, and the site goes dark. A Safina site renews at $15 a year for the domain, and nothing else unless you choose Care.