TL;DR: A professionally built five-page website in the Hudson Valley runs $1,500 to $2,500 up front from a local designer, and that's the number everybody quotes. The number nobody quotes is the maintenance retainer that follows it: $99 to $500 a month, billed separately, for hosting, updates, security, and edits. Over five years, that retainer usually costs more than the website did, and then the site needs a redesign, which is another build fee. Priced the way most designers price it, a $2,000 website is a $13,000 decision. There's a way to buy one where the whole thing, redesign included, is $99 a month.
Three designers, three quotes, three different products
If you've asked three web designers what a website costs and gotten three wildly different answers, you're not crazy. You're getting quotes for three different things, and only one of them is the website.
The first quote is the build: somebody designs and launches the site. The second is the care plan, sometimes called a maintenance retainer, which is what keeps the site online, updated, and editable after launch. The third, which nobody quotes because it's years away, is the redesign, when the site has aged out and the whole thing gets built again. Most designers put a big number on the first, a small number on the second, and never mention the third. The trick is that the second and third are where most of the money goes.
What the build costs in the Hudson Valley
Local pricing is more consistent than you'd think. A Hudson Valley web shop publishes its own map: $1,500 to $2,500 for a polished four-to-six-page site with custom design, mobile layout, basic SEO, and a contact form; $2,500 to $5,000 for eight to fifteen pages with a blog, stronger SEO, and copywriting; $5,000 to $15,000 and up for e-commerce, custom features, and integrations. That matches what we see. A freelancer might come in a little under; an agency will come in over, often with a $1,500 to $3,000 project minimum. And if you go the GoDaddy route, their design service is quoted by phone, typically $1,000 to $5,000, on top of hosting you rent separately. (We priced that one out in full here.)
So for a normal small business, the honest build number is about $2,000. Fine. That's not the expensive part.
The retainer nobody mentions
Here's the part of the conversation that happens after you've said yes. A website isn't a brochure; it runs on software that needs updating every month, it gets attacked, it needs backups, and the day you want to change the hours on the contact page, somebody has to do it. So the designer offers a care plan. Sensible. Necessary, even. And it's where the real pricing lives.
Published 2026 guides put small-business maintenance at $50 to $500 a month, with most full-service plans landing at $100 to $200 a month for a simple site and climbing fast for anything with bookings, a store, or integrations. Agency retainers run $250 to $2,500 a month. The Hudson Valley shop above lists care plans at $99 to $500 a month, billed separately from the build. And if you skip the plan and call when something breaks, emergency work from a freelancer runs $150 to $300 an hour with no guaranteed response time.
Most owners underestimate this. As one maintenance guide puts it, you pay to build the website and assume the hard part is over, and then the invoices start arriving. Over five years, ongoing maintenance often exceeds what you originally paid to build the site. Read that again. The $2,000 website is not the purchase. It's the down payment.
Then the redesign
Websites age. Google changes what a fast, healthy site has to be (it did in 2021 with Core Web Vitals, and sites that didn't keep up lost rankings without knowing why). Your business changes. Design that looked current in 2022 looks like 2022. So somewhere in year three or four, the designer who built the site, or the next one, quotes a redesign, and it's a build fee all over again: $1,500 to $2,500 for the same five pages, or more if you've grown. The care plan you've been paying doesn't cover it. Care plans cover edits. Nobody's care plan covers starting over.
The five-year math
Same five-page business site, three ways to buy it, five years. The middle column is how most local designers price it; the numbers are the low end of the published ranges, so this is generous to them.
| Cost | GoDaddy (rent it) | Local designer (build + retainer) | EvolveWeb Starter (subscribe) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build | $1,000–$5,000, quoted by phone | $2,000 | $0 |
| Monthly (hosting, security, updates, edits) | $670–$790/yr after year one, edits extra | $150/mo care plan = $1,800/yr | $99/mo = $1,188/yr, edits unlimited |
| Redesign in year four | New quote | $2,000 | Included |
| Five-year total | $4,700–$9,200+, before edits | $13,000 | $5,940 |
That middle column is the one to sit with: $2,000 to build, $9,000 in retainer over five years, $2,000 to rebuild. Thirteen thousand dollars for a five-page site, and at the end of it the designer owns the relationship and you own a site that's about to need another redesign.
Why we don't price it that way
Our EvolveWeb plans are the third column on purpose. One monthly price includes the design, hosting, security, backups, unlimited edits, and the redesign when it's time, and the price you sign at is the price you keep for as long as you're a customer. No build fee. No retainer on top. No redesign invoice. Starter is $99 a month for a five-page site; over five years that's $5,940 with everything in it, less than half of what the build-plus-retainer model costs for the same site, and the redesign is already paid for.
It works because we're pricing for the next twenty years, not for launch day. Our first client on this plan signed up ten years ago, has had two complete redesigns since, and still pays her original rate. A project-fee designer can't offer that, because their business only makes money when the site is being built. Ours makes money when it's being kept.
How to read a website quote
- Ask for all three numbers. The build, the monthly care plan, and what a redesign will cost in year four. If they can't answer the third, assume another build fee.
- Ask what "edits" means. Some plans include two hours a month; some include none and bill $150 an hour. "Unlimited" should mean unlimited.
- Ask who owns the site if you leave. Builder platforms like Wix and GoDaddy's can't be moved. A designer should hand you the files. (Our answer is on the EvolveWeb page: your payments build equity toward buying it.)
- Multiply by five. Whatever the monthly number is, times sixty, plus the build, plus a redesign. That's the real price. Compare that.
QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK
Website Cost FAQ
About $1,500 to $2,500 to build a four-to-six-page site with a local designer, plus a care plan of $99 to $500 a month afterward, plus a redesign every three or four years. Over five years that's roughly $13,000 for a five-page site. On a subscription plan like EvolveWeb, the same site is $99 a month, $5,940 over five years, with the redesign included.
Published 2026 guides put it at $50 to $500 a month for a small business, with most full-service plans at $100 to $200 a month for a simple site and more for stores or bookings. Agency retainers run $250 to $2,500. Without a plan, emergency fixes cost $150 to $300 an hour.
Yes. Software updates, security, backups, and edits have to happen or the site breaks, gets hacked, or goes stale. The question isn't whether to pay for maintenance; it's whether to pay for it on top of a build fee or inside one monthly price that also covers the next redesign.
A build fee pays once for the site and leaves you to pay separately for everything after, including the next site. A subscription like EvolveWeb charges one monthly price that includes the build, hosting, security, unlimited edits, and redesigns, locked at the rate you sign at. Over five years the subscription is usually less than half the cost.
Ask for all three numbers (build, monthly care, redesign), ask what "edits" includes, ask who owns the site if you leave, and multiply the monthly number by sixty before you compare anything.
We're based in Monticello, NY and serve businesses and nonprofits across Sullivan County, Orange County, and the Hudson Valley, by appointment.