Most Canadian small business websites cost between $2,000 and $10,000 CAD to build, plus $500 to $2,000 a year to run. This guide explains why the range is that wide and how to work out which end of it you belong at.
All figures are Canadian dollars and reflect 2026 market rates.
The Short Answer
Here is the 2026 picture across Canada, drawn from published agency pricing and industry data.
- DIY on Wix, Squarespace or Shopify: $15 to $50 a month, so roughly $200 to $1,200 a year, plus 10 to 40 hours of your own time.
- Freelancer: $1,500 to $5,000 one time for a small business site.
- Boutique studio or small agency: $2,500 to $8,000.
- Established agency: $6,000 to $15,000.
- Custom or enterprise build: $15,000 to $75,000 and up.
Most established small businesses that want the site to actually produce enquiries land between $3,000 and $6,000. Below about $1,500 you are almost always buying a template with your logo dropped into it, whatever the proposal calls it.
Why 2 Quotes Can Differ by 10x
You can send the same brief to 2 providers and get $1,200 and $12,000 back, and both can be honest quotes. The difference is almost never design quality. It is scope you did not know you were asking about.
These are the variables that actually move the number:
- Who writes the content. If you write it, the quote drops. If they write it, add $500 to $2,000.
- Template or built from scratch. A purchased theme with your colours takes days. A custom build takes weeks.
- Page count, which is the number most quotes are actually based on.
- Whether SEO structure is included or bolted on later.
- Integrations: booking systems, payment, CRM, inventory. Each one is real development time.
- Who does revisions and how many are included. Unlimited revisions is either priced in or a trap.
- Photography. Almost never included, and it changes how the finished site looks more than the design does.
The test: if a quote does not tell you the page count, who writes the content, and how many revision rounds are included, it is not a quote. It is a number.
The 5 Ways to Get a Website Built
Most guides list 3 options. There are really 5, and the 2 missing ones are where people get surprised.
1. DIY builders
Wix, Squarespace or Shopify at $15 to $50 a month. Genuinely fine if you need under 5 pages, you are testing a business idea, and you will maintain it yourself. The real cost is your time, which most people forget to count.
2. Freelancer
$1,500 to $5,000, at hourly rates of roughly $35 to $90. Good value when the scope is clear and you can judge a portfolio. The risk is availability. A year from now you may need a change and find the freelancer has taken a full time job.
3. Template agency
$1,500 to $4,000, and this is the tier most people do not realise exists. It looks like an agency, has a process and a contract, and delivers a purchased theme with your content in it. Not dishonest and often good value, but you should know that is what you bought, because it determines what happens in year 3.
4. Custom studio or agency
$2,500 to $15,000 depending on size. Built from scratch for your content, with strategy and search structure decided before design starts. This is where most businesses that treat the website as a real channel end up.
5. Managed subscription
$100 to $400 a month with no build fee. Attractive cash flow, and worth reading the contract closely. Ask 2 questions: do you own the site if you stop paying, and what does it cost to leave.
Why Vancouver and Toronto Cost More
Location matters more than most Canadians expect. Toronto pricing runs roughly 15% to 30% above the national average, and Vancouver is Canada’s second most expensive web development market, with agencies billing around $100 to $220 an hour.
The same 8-page site quoted at $3,500 in a smaller Canadian city can be $6,000 in Vancouver. Some of that is genuine cost of doing business and some is what the market will bear.
Which cuts both ways. You can hire outside your city and it often works fine, since the work is remote either way. What you lose is someone who knows your local market, and for a business whose customers are all within 30 kilometres, that knowledge is usually worth more than the discount.
What the First Year Actually Costs
The build price is not the budget. Here is what a typical Canadian small business site costs in year 1, custom build included.
- Build: $3,000 to $6,000
- Domain: $15 to $25
- Hosting: $150 to $400
- Plugin or app licences: $100 to $300
- Business email: $85 to $180 per user
- Photography, if you need it: $300 to $1,500
- Maintenance, if you outsource it: $300 to $2,400
So a $4,000 build realistically becomes $4,700 to $6,500 in the first year. Ongoing costs after that typically run $500 to $2,000 a year, or up to $5,000 for larger sites with more moving parts. We break the maintenance side down separately in website care plans, and the hosting side in our comparison of cheap and premium WordPress hosting.
The 3-Year Number Nobody Shows You
Every cost guide compares build prices. Almost none compare what you have actually spent by year 3, which is where the ranking changes.
Take a small business site, roughly 8 pages, no store.
- DIY builder: about $1,000 in subscriptions over 3 years, plus somewhere between 30 and 120 hours of your time. At $50 an hour for your time, that is $2,500 to $7,000 all in.
- Template agency build: $2,500 up front, plus roughly $1,500 in hosting and licences over 3 years, plus a likely rebuild in year 3 when the theme stops being updated. Call it $6,000 to $7,000.
- Custom build: $4,000 up front, plus about $1,800 running costs over 3 years, with no forced rebuild. Around $5,800.
The cheapest option on day 1 is frequently not the cheapest by year 3. That is not an argument for spending more. It is an argument for knowing which of the 5 tiers you are actually buying before you sign.
How to Compare 2 Quotes Properly
If you have quotes in front of you, ask both providers the same 8 questions. The answers will explain the price gap faster than any guide can.
- How many pages, and what happens if I need a 9th?
- Is this built on a purchased theme or from scratch?
- Who writes the text, and is that in the price?
- How many revision rounds are included, and what does an extra one cost?
- Whose name is on the domain and the hosting account?
- What happens to my existing Google rankings when this launches?
- What is the ongoing cost, in dollars, per year?
- If I leave in 2 years, what do I take with me?
Question 6 is the one that separates a build from a rebuild. If you already have a site with traffic, the redirect work is not optional and it is not free. We cover that in detail under website redesign.
Red Flags in a Cheap Quote
- No page count. The scope will expand and so will the invoice.
- The domain registered in their name. This is how businesses get held hostage. It should always be yours.
- Hosting bundled with no way to leave. Ask what happens if you switch providers.
- “Unlimited revisions” with no timeline. Either it is priced in or the project never ends.
- SEO promised as included with no explanation of what that means. Setting a page title is not SEO. Our SEO pricing page shows what ongoing work actually costs.
- No written scope. If it is not in writing before you pay a deposit, it is not in the project.
What Budget Fits Your Situation
Rough guidance rather than rules.
Under $1,000: build it yourself on a DIY platform. A custom build at this price is a template, and you would be paying someone to do what you could do in a weekend.
$1,500 to $3,000: a freelancer or a lean studio, for a focused site of 3 to 6 pages. Realistic for a new business or a single service.
$3,000 to $6,000: a custom build of 6 to 12 pages with search structure planned in. This is where most established small businesses should be, and where the site starts behaving like a channel rather than a brochure.
$6,000 to $15,000: larger sites, online stores, or builds with real integrations. Store costs work differently and we cover them under e-commerce web design.
Above $15,000: custom applications, multi-location businesses, or projects with unusual requirements. If you are being quoted this for an 8-page brochure site, ask what exactly is taking that long.
For reference, our own published pricing starts at $1,300 for a 3 to 5 page site and $2,300 for a 6 to 12 page build, which is below the Canadian agency average because we are a small studio rather than a team you are paying overhead for. The full breakdown is on our web design page.
Working Out Your Number
Write down 3 things before you talk to anyone: how many pages you need, who is writing the content, and what the site has to do that a Facebook page cannot. Those 3 answers set your budget more accurately than any calculator will.
If you want a second opinion on a quote you already have, send it over. We will tell you whether the price is fair for what is in it, even if the answer is that you should take the other one.
Common Questions
How much does a small business website cost in Canada?
Between $2,000 and $10,000 CAD for most Canadian small businesses in 2026, with the majority landing at $3,000 to $6,000 for a custom build of 6 to 12 pages. Freelancers sit at the lower end, established agencies at the higher end, and the gap is usually explained by page count, who writes the content, and whether the site is built from a template.
Is a $500 website worth it?
Rarely, unless you are buying a DIY builder subscription and doing the work yourself. At $500 for a built site you are getting a free template with your logo added, no search structure, and usually no support after launch. It is not a scam, it is just a much smaller product than the buyer expects.
Why do web designers not publish their prices?
Some price every project individually because scope genuinely varies. Others want to know your budget before naming a number. Neither is automatically dishonest, but it makes comparing options harder, which is why a growing number of Canadian studios now publish fixed starting prices.
What are the ongoing costs after the site is built?
Expect $500 to $2,000 a year for a small business site. That covers hosting at $150 to $400, a domain at $15 to $25, plugin or app licences at $100 to $300, and maintenance if you outsource it. Larger sites with more integrations run higher.
Does it cost more to hire a web designer in Vancouver?
Yes. Vancouver is Canada’s second most expensive web development market after Toronto, with agency rates around $100 to $220 an hour. The same brief can cost 20% to 30% more here than in a smaller Canadian city. Hiring remotely is a legitimate way around it, at the cost of local market knowledge.
Should I pay monthly or pay once?
Paying once and owning the site is usually cheaper over 3 years and always safer, because the asset is yours. Monthly plans help cash flow, but read what happens if you stop paying. If the answer is that the site disappears, you were renting rather than buying.
