How much to charge a local business for a website

What people charge up front

The most common build fee is $500, asked 162 times out of 301. The median is $500 and the average $481. 12 prices (4%) had no build fee at all, trading the up-front money for a monthly charge.

What people charge per month

The most common monthly charge is $50 a month (134 prices). The median is $50. The monthly covers hosting, the domain setup and small changes, and it is where the long-term money is: a $50 monthly is $600 a year from each owner who stays.

What the deals that closed looked like

Only 10 of these prices have been paid by the owner so far, too few to report a reliable closed price. In the first months, the deals that closed skewed toward a small monthly charge with little or nothing up front. This section fills in as more owners pay.

How to use these numbers

• If you want the owner to say yes today, a small monthly (around $20 to $50) with little or no build fee is the easiest offer to accept.
• If you want cash now, $500 up front is what most builders ask, and owners are used to hearing it.
• Price the result, not the hours. With the site already built before the owner sees it, the work is done; the question is only what it is worth to them.
• More on the conversation itself in how to pitch a business without a website.

How we count

• Every build fee and monthly charge a builder set when sending a finished site to a business owner through Pindrop's client billing. One price per site sent.
• U.S. dollars only. 12 prices set in Canadian dollars, pounds, euros or Australian dollars are left out of the dollar figures.
• Asking prices include every price sent, paid or not. Closed deals are the ones where the owner has paid at least once.
• Pindrop's own test accounts are excluded. The median is the middle value; $0 counts as no build fee.
• Quote these freely with the date shown and a link to this page.