How much does a website cost for a small business in Maine? Most owners land somewhere between a few hundred dollars a year for a do-it-yourself builder and several thousand dollars (or more) for a professionally designed site, with ongoing costs for hosting, domain, and upkeep on top.
That range is wide on purpose. A one-page site for a seasonal lobster shack in Ogunquit and a booking-ready site for a 20-room inn in Bar Harbor are not the same project, and pricing them the same way would shortchange one of them.
This guide walks you through what drives the price, what the published market ranges look like, which ongoing costs to budget for, and how to get a quote you can actually trust. We’ll keep it plain and practical, the way you’d want it explained over coffee in Portland.
How Much Does a Website Cost? The Short Answer by Type
The fastest way to make sense of pricing is to sort websites into a few buckets. Each bucket has a different mix of your time, your money, and what you get at the end.
The ranges below come from published industry pricing guides and official platform pricing pages. They are market ranges, not Morellis prices. Morellis doesn’t publish a price list, because every project is quoted after a free consultation.
| Option | Typical market range | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| DIY website builder (Squarespace, Wix) | Roughly $17 to $160 per month, depending on plan | Very small budgets, owners who enjoy doing it themselves |
| Freelance designer | About $500 to $5,000+ | Simple brochure sites with a clear scope |
| Small local business site (basic informational) | About $650 to $15,000 | Restaurants, trades, salons, professional offices |
| Modern custom small business site | About $5,000 to $10,000, rising toward $20,000 with more pages | Businesses that rely on the site for leads |
| Agency build for a standard business site | About $15,000 to $50,000 | Larger teams and complex needs |
| E-commerce site | About $17,500 to $95,000, depending on complexity | Stores selling many products online |
The builder figures come from the official Squarespace pricing page and Wix plans page. The design ranges come from a Blacksmith Agency website design cost guide updated in 2026. Prices change, so treat these as ballpark numbers rather than quotes.
Notice how much the ranges overlap. A “small business website” can cost $1,000 or $15,000, and both can be fair prices. The difference is almost always in scope, not in the hourly rate.
What Actually Drives the Price of a Website?
If you’re asking how much does a website cost for your specific business, the answer comes down to a handful of factors. When two quotes for “a website” come back thousands of dollars apart, it usually means the two designers are picturing different projects. These are the factors that move the number the most.
1. Number of pages and amount of content
A five-page site (Home, About, Services, Gallery, Contact) is a very different job from a 30-page site with a page for every service and every town you cover. More pages mean more design, more writing, more photos, and more testing.
Content is the sleeper cost here. If you hand over finished text and good photos, the project moves faster. If the designer has to write copy from scratch or organize a photo shoot, that time shows up in the price.
2. Template vs custom design
A template-based site starts from a pre-made layout and adjusts colors, fonts, and photos. A custom design starts from your brand, your customers, and your goals, and builds the layout around them.
Templates are cheaper and faster. Custom design costs more but tends to fit your business better, especially when the site needs to guide visitors toward a specific action like booking a table or requesting an estimate.
3. Features and functionality
Every feature beyond basic pages adds time. Common ones for Maine small businesses include:
- Online booking or reservations (inns, salons, tour operators)
- Online ordering or gift card sales (restaurants, cafes)
- Quote request forms with photo uploads (contractors, landscapers)
- Event calendars (breweries, venues, galleries)
- Product catalogs and checkout (retail, makers, farms)
- Member logins, client portals, or custom integrations
Some of these plug in easily through existing tools. Others need custom development and careful testing. That gap is why the same feature can add a small amount to one quote and a large amount to another.
4. E-commerce
Selling online is its own category. You need product pages, a cart, payment processing, shipping and tax settings, and a way to manage orders. The Blacksmith guide puts full e-commerce builds in a much higher range than informational sites, and notes that adding a store to an existing site can cost anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to tens of thousands.
If you sell a handful of items, like a farm selling CSA shares or a shop selling gift cards, a light setup may be enough. If you sell hundreds of products with variations, plan for a bigger investment.
5. SEO, copywriting, and strategy
A site that looks nice but doesn’t show up on Google won’t bring in much business. Basic on-page SEO, like clear page titles, sensible page structure, and fast loading, should be part of any professional build.
Deeper work, such as keyword research, local SEO for multiple towns, and ongoing content, is often priced separately. If you’re curious how search is shifting with AI tools, it’s worth reading up on that before you set a budget.
6. Who builds it
A solo freelancer, a small local agency, and a large agency all have different overhead and different ways of working. Lower prices aren’t automatically a bad deal, and higher prices aren’t automatically better. What matters is whether the scope, timeline, and support match what your business needs.
DIY Builder vs Freelancer vs Agency: Which Fits Your Budget?
Here’s how the three main paths compare for a typical Maine small business owner.
| DIY builder | Freelancer | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | Low | Low to moderate | Moderate to high |
| Your time | High | Moderate | Lower |
| Design quality | Depends on you | Varies widely | Usually consistent |
| SEO and strategy | Up to you | Sometimes included | Often included or available |
| Ongoing support | Platform help desk | Depends on availability | Usually offered as a plan |
| Ownership and flexibility | Tied to the platform | Varies | Varies; ask before signing |
When a DIY builder makes sense
A builder like Squarespace or Wix can be a fine starting point if your budget is tight and you’re comfortable spending evenings on it. According to Squarespace’s pricing page, plans start around $19 per month billed annually, and their lowest plan adds a 2% fee on online store sales. Wix lists paid plans from about $17 per month on yearly billing.
The hidden cost is your time. If you bill $75 an hour running your plumbing business, 30 hours fiddling with a website is a real expense, even if it never shows up on an invoice.
When a freelancer makes sense
A good freelancer can be a great fit for a simple, well-defined site. The risk is availability. If your freelancer takes a full-time job or moves on, you may be left with a site nobody else knows how to update.
When an agency makes sense
An agency is usually the better fit when your website is a key source of leads or bookings, when you want design, SEO, and marketing handled together, or when you want someone accountable for hosting, security, and updates long term. You can see the kinds of work an agency like Morellis handles on our web design and marketing services page.
Ongoing Website Costs to Budget Every Year
The build is only part of the picture. A website is closer to a vehicle than a piece of furniture. It needs fuel and maintenance to keep running.
Here are the recurring costs most small businesses should plan for:
- Domain name: Usually a modest yearly fee. Watch out for cheap first-year promotions that renew at a higher price.
- Hosting: Where your site lives. Cheap shared hosting and managed hosting differ a lot in speed, security, and support.
- SSL certificate: The padlock in the browser bar. Many hosts include it; some charge extra.
- Software and plugins: Premium themes, booking tools, form builders, and other add-ons often carry yearly licenses.
- Maintenance and updates: Core software updates, plugin updates, backups, and security monitoring.
- Content updates: New menus, seasonal hours, staff changes, and fresh photos.
- Marketing: SEO, ads, email, and social media, if you want the site to bring in steady traffic.
The Blacksmith guide lists small-site maintenance packages starting around $50 per month and mid-sized business maintenance around $100 to $250 per month. Premium plugins, it notes, often run $30 to $200 each.
A practical rule: when you compare quotes, ask each designer what the site will cost to run for the first year, not just to build. That number tells you much more than the launch price.
Why Cheap Websites Can End Up Costing More
There are good budget websites out there. But the lowest price often leaves out things you’ll end up paying for later. Common examples include:
- No mobile testing. Many of your customers will find you on a phone, often while standing in a parking lot deciding where to eat.
- Slow loading. Google’s Core Web Vitals guidance on web.dev sets a “good” target of 2.5 seconds or less for the main content to load. Heavy, unoptimized sites miss that mark.
- Weak SEO basics. Missing page titles, no local information, and thin content make it harder for nearby customers to find you.
- You don’t own it. Some providers keep the domain or the site files in their name. If you leave, you may have to start over.
- No updates or backups. An outdated site is an easier target for hackers, and without backups a bad day can wipe out your work.
None of this means you need the most expensive option. It means the cheapest quote and the best value are often two different things.
Website Pricing Examples for Maine Businesses
To make this more concrete, here are a few common types of Maine businesses and what their websites usually need. We’re describing typical scope here, not quoting prices.
Restaurant or cafe
Menu pages that are easy to update, hours (including seasonal changes), location and parking info, online ordering or a link to your ordering system, and a gift card option for the holidays. Mobile performance matters a lot, since most diners check you out on their phone.
Contractor, plumber, or landscaper
Service pages for each type of work, a service area section listing the towns you cover, a photo gallery of past projects, and a simple quote request form. A click-to-call button at the top of the mobile site is often the most important feature on the page.
Inn, B&B, or vacation rental
Strong photography, room or property pages, a booking engine that ties into your reservation system, local area guides, and policies. Direct bookings can help you rely less on third-party listing sites, so the booking experience deserves real attention.
Salon, spa, or wellness practice
Service menus with pricing, staff bios, online booking, and gift cards. A clean, calming design that matches your space goes a long way.
Retail shop or maker
Product pages, a cart and checkout, shipping settings, and inventory management. Some Maine makers also want wholesale order forms or a way to show which local shops carry their goods.
How to Get an Accurate Website Quote
The best way to get a reliable number is to show up to the conversation prepared. You don’t need a formal plan. A short list of notes will save time and money.
- Write down your main goal. More phone calls? More bookings? Online sales? Pick the one that matters most.
- List the pages you think you need. It’s fine if the list changes later.
- Note the features you need now, and the ones that can wait. Phasing features over time is a smart way to manage a budget.
- Gather three to five websites you like. Competitors, businesses in other states, anything that catches your eye. Note what you like about each.
- Take stock of your content. Do you have a logo, photos, and written descriptions? Or will you need help with those?
- Know who owns what today. Find your domain registrar login and hosting account before the project starts.
- Set a realistic budget range. Sharing a range helps a designer suggest the right scope instead of guessing.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What exactly is included in this price, and what would cost extra?
- Who will own the domain, the hosting account, and the site files?
- Will the site be built on a platform I can update myself, such as WordPress?
- What happens after launch? Is there a maintenance or support plan?
- How will you handle SEO basics and site speed?
- What is the timeline, and what do you need from me to stay on schedule?
On the platform question: WordPress.org describes WordPress as open-source software, licensed under the GPL, which means you’re not locked into one company to keep your site running. That’s one reason Morellis builds most sites on WordPress.
How Morellis Prices Website Projects
Morellis is a web design and marketing agency in Westbrook, Maine. We don’t publish a price list, because a fixed price for “a website” would either overcharge a simple site or underdeliver on a complex one.
Instead, every project starts with a free 30-minute consultation. We talk through your goals, your customers, the features you need, and your budget. After that, you get a written quote with a clear scope, so you know exactly what’s included before any work begins.
Our builds typically include custom WordPress design, responsive mobile layouts, and SEO basics. If you want ongoing help, we also offer hosting with SSL and backups, SEO, paid ads, social media, and email marketing. You can pick what fits your budget now and add more later.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a website cost for a basic small business?
Published market guides put basic informational sites for small local businesses anywhere from several hundred dollars to around $15,000, depending on pages, features, and who builds it. DIY builders cost less upfront but take more of your own time. The best way to know your real number is to get a quote based on a clear scope.
Is it cheaper to build my own website?
In cash, usually yes. Builder plans can run under $20 to over $100 a month, depending on features. In total cost, it depends on how much your time is worth and whether the finished site brings in customers. Many owners start with DIY and later hire a professional once the business grows.
What are the yearly costs of owning a website?
Plan for a domain renewal, hosting, any premium plugins or software, and maintenance like updates and backups. Small-site maintenance packages often start around $50 a month in published guides. If you want ongoing marketing, such as SEO or ads, budget for that separately.
How long does it take to build a small business website?
A simple site can come together in a few weeks, while larger or custom projects often take a couple of months. The biggest factor is usually content. Projects move fastest when text, photos, and decisions are ready on time.
Why don’t web designers just list a price?
Because two “small business websites” can be completely different projects. A flat price either leaves out features you need or charges you for ones you don’t. A short consultation lets a designer match the scope to your goals and budget.
Does Morellis offer payment plans or phased projects?
Every Morellis project is scoped and quoted after a free consultation, and we’re happy to talk about phasing features over time to fit your budget. Bring your priorities to the call and we’ll work out a plan together.
Ready to Get a Real Number for Your Website?
If you’ve read this far, you know the honest answer to the cost question is “it depends,” and that’s frustrating when you’re trying to plan. The good news is that a short conversation clears it up quickly. Book a free 30-minute consultation with Morellis and we’ll talk through your goals, your must-have features, and your budget, then send you a clear written quote. Whether you run a cafe in Portland, a contracting crew in Lewiston, or an inn on the Midcoast, we’ll help you build a website that fits your Maine business and pays its way.