Is $1,500 a good price for a website?

Short answer: $1,500 can be a fair price for a small business website. Whether it's a good price depends on what happens after launch day, and most quotes never say.

I build sites for Rockford service businesses, so I see these quotes a lot. Owners bring them to me and ask if they're getting ripped off. Usually they aren't. They just don't know what the number leaves out.

What $1,500 usually buys

A one-time build for a small business is usually somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000 for about five pages. You pay up front, the designer builds it, and then they hand it over.

That's a real price for real work. A good five-page site takes days to build, and the writing, photos and setup are most of it.

What it often leaves out

The build is the easy part to price. The part after it is where one-time quotes get vague.

Hosting, your domain renewal, security updates and every small change are either your job or a separate bill. A lot of those sites look great on day one and are out of date a year later because nobody is touching them.

None of that makes $1,500 a bad price. It means you should know who's doing those jobs, and what it costs, before you pay.

Four questions that tell you if it's a good price

• Who hosts it, and what does hosting cost per month after the first year?
• If I need to change my hours or add a photo, who does it and what does it cost?
• Do I own the code, the content and the domain, in my name?
• How soon do I see something real, before I pay?

If the designer answers all four plainly, $1,500 is probably fine. If the answers are vague, the price is the least of your problems.

How I do it differently

I don't charge up front. I build a real demo of your site first, so you see it on your phone before you pay anything. If you like it, it's $99 a month, and that covers the build, hosting, your domain, the lead tools and changes within 48 hours.

Over two years that's $2,376. That's more than a $1,500 quote, and I won't pretend otherwise. What the extra money buys is someone who keeps the site working. If you'd rather own it outright, I have a one-time option too, and I explain the math in website cost per month vs paying once.

You can see everything the monthly covers on the pricing page, or read the full breakdown in how much a business website costs in Rockford.

What to do next

If you have a quote in hand, send it to me. I'll tell you honestly whether it's fair. If you don't have a site yet, tell me about your business and I'll build you a demo first.