
Early in their entrepreneurial journey, aspiring site owners may wonder: How much does it cost to build a website? Web designers and developers get paid a lot, and some agencies won’t even listen to your website ideas unless the project is worth thousands of dollars.
While it might save you a few headaches to outsource your website to someone else, don’t break your budget by hiring a designer or developer for something you can actually do on your own.
That’s right, building your own website isn’t a scary, insurmountable task. Many web hosting plans offer very intuitive programs that help you create the website you’ve always wanted. Even better, they are extremely affordable. Read on to learn how you can get a top-quality website for as little as $2 to $10 per month, as well as a list of the companies that provide the tools that will help you.
Average Cost of Building a Website
Without a trusted hosting company and site builder in your corner, the cost of making a website can soar. Freelance designers typically charge $50 to $100 an hour to make a custom website. Adding the specific features you need, such as a shopping cart or PayPal, can multiply your costs dramatically. However, we’ve found the do-it-yourself website builders many premier web hosts offer are more than up for the task of creating a stunning site for a fraction of the cost.
Low-Cost Website Builder Plans
Some of our favorite hosts created their own site builder tools to help you make exactly the site you want for between $2 and $10 per month — without any coding or programming expertise.
These three hosts offer powerful and intuitive options to help you cook up your own website from scratch. What’s more, they give you at least 30 days to try out their services and get your money back. InMotion’s BoldGrid extends that money-back guarantee to 90 days.
Wix.com

Monthly Starting Price $0.00
- No coding skills needed with drag-and-drop builder
- 100s of templates with niche-specific designs
- Add features via the App Market and Wix Events
- Easily create ecommerce functionality easily
- Great way to build small sites on a budget
- Get started on Wix now.
WEBSITE BUILDER
RATING
★★★★★
Our Review
Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Website Builder Hosting Plans |
---|---|---|---|
14 days | 500 MB - 20 GB | Transfer | www.wix.com/site-builder |
iPage.com

Monthly Starting Price $1.99
- Choice of Weebly or WebsiteBuilder by iPage
- Mobile-optimized and easy-to-use setup wizards
- 100s of professionally designed themes
- FREE online store, shopping cart, and blogging
- Get +75% off your first month
- Get started on iPage now.
WEBSITE BUILDER
RATING
★★★★★
Our Review
Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Website Builder Hosting Plans |
---|---|---|---|
30 days | Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | www.ipage.com/site-builder |
HostGator.com

Monthly Starting Price $3.46
- Drag-and-drop design with the Gator™ site builder
- Hundreds of mobile-friendly templates
- FREE hosting, domain name, and SSL certificate
- Easily add a blog, store, and social media
- Analytics portal helps gauge site performance
- Get started on HostGator now.
WEBSITE BUILDER
RATING
★★★★★
Our Review
Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Website Builder Hosting Plans |
---|---|---|---|
45 days | Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | www.hostgator.com/site-builder |
Cheap Hosting with Free Website Builders
If your budget is extremely tight, these cheap hosts offer great value with their free domain, advertising credits, and site builder for $2 to $3 per month.
Your design options might be a touch more limited with these builders, but most of these plans include eCommerce functionality. By spending so little on hosting, you can maximize your profits.
Bluehost.com

Monthly Starting Price $2.95
- Known for high performance at a low price
- Endorsed by WordPress.org team
- FREE Weebly site builder and CloudFlare CDN
- FREE domain and unlimited storage
- Get 63% off today (was $7.99/month)
- Get started on Bluehost now.
CHEAP
RATING
★★★★★
Our Review
Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Cheap Hosting Plans |
---|---|---|---|
30 days | 50 GB - Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | www.bluehost.com/shared |
Hostinger.com

Monthly Starting Price $0.99
- Unlimited everything, from storage to databases
- FREE site builder & WP performance upgrades
- FREE daily or weekly backups
- Custom control panel and auto-installation scripts
- SSH access & SSL certificates
- Get started on Hostinger now.
CHEAP
RATING
★★★★★
Our Review
Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Cheap Hosting Plans |
---|---|---|---|
30 days | 10 GB SSD - 30 GB SSD | FREE (1 year) | www.hostinger.com/shared |
HostGator.com

Monthly Starting Price $2.64
- Get 62% off by buying 36 months up front
- Unmetered disk space & bandwidth
- Unlimited email addresses & free SSL certificate
- One-click WordPress install & free blog tools
- Free 1-year domain registration on select plans
- Get started on HostGator now.
CHEAP
RATING
★★★★★
Our Review
Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Cheap Hosting Plans |
---|---|---|---|
45 days | Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | www.hostgator.com/shared |
How Much Does It Cost to Build an Ecommerce Website?
Future ecommerce site owners have specific needs. They’re looking for inventory management, 1-click Magento installs, and help with marketing their products. Our top host for ecommerce store building offers all that and more — for as little as $3 a month.
This host sometimes offers free advertising credits, which will get your brand noticed and refine the traffic to your site by sending interested customers to your online store.
SiteGround.com

Monthly Starting Price $6.99
- Magento-optimized server with 1-click install
- FREE CDN with Railgun for top-notch performance
- SSD drives are standard across all plans
- Account isolation on servers protects your store
- Easy Magento version control with Git
- Get started on SiteGround now.
MAGENTO
RATING
★★★★★
Our Review
Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Magento Hosting Plans |
---|---|---|---|
30 days | 10 GB SSD - 30 GB SSD | New or Transfer | www.siteground.com/magento |
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Professional Website?
Maybe you’re worried a website that only costs you a few dollars to build and host can’t possibly have a professional look and feel to it. That’s where you’re wrong — The cost to build a sharp and powerful business website can still boil down to $5 to $10 a month.
The Bold Grid platform from InMotion is the only site builder that operates on WordPress, which is the Internet’s most-used content management system.
InMotionHosting.com

Monthly Starting Price $2.49
- FREE domain, backups, SSDs, and SSL certificate
- $250 in ad credits with Business Hosting plans
- Business-class hardware with SSH access
- Easy installs of CMSs, shopping carts, and apps
- SPAM Safe™ Email with IMAP support
- Get started on InMotion now.
ECOMMERCE
RATING
★★★★★
Our Review
Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Ecommerce Hosting Plans |
---|---|---|---|
90 days | Unlimited | New or Transfer | www.inmotionhosting.com/ecommerce |
What About the Cost of Building a Website for a Small Business?
If you’re a small- to medium-sized business owner, surely you’re thinking, ‘How much would it cost to build a website for a business with both beautiful designs and a startup budget in mind?’
Fret not. The cost of building a website for a small business with goals for growth is hard to beat with a host like HostGator. The company’s plans include the developed-in-house Gator site builder, unlimited storage and bandwidth, as well as around-the-clock support.
HostGator.com

Monthly Starting Price $2.64
- Get 62% off by buying 36 months up front
- Unmetered disk space & bandwidth
- Unlimited email addresses & free SSL certificate
- One-click WordPress install & free blog tools
- Free 1-year domain registration on select plans
- Get started on HostGator now.
CHEAP
RATING
★★★★★
Our Review
Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Cheap Hosting Plans |
---|---|---|---|
45 days | Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | www.hostgator.com/shared |
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Good Website?
As our options above show you, a good website doesn’t have to break the bank. Hosting providers and website builders, however, aren’t a one-size-fits-all decision — think about the kind of website you want and the amount of money you’re willing to spend.
You can put together a basic website for as little as $2 or $3 per month, but slightly more established ecommerce brands or small businesses might need to invest a little more to get the performance and added features. For those folks, you should expect to spend between $5 and $10 each month.
The Cost to Build and Maintain a Website is Offset By a Great Host
Don’t let the idea of building your own website scare you into hiring an expensive outside developer or designer. Take ownership of your online presence by creating something completely on your own — our favorite website builder hosts give you all the user-friendly tools that will show you the way.
HostingAdvice.com is a free online resource that offers valuable content and comparison services to users. To keep this resource 100% free, we receive compensation from many of the offers listed on the site. Along with key review factors, this compensation may impact how and where products appear across the site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). HostingAdvice.com does not include the entire universe of available offers. Editorial opinions expressed on the site are strictly our own and are not provided, endorsed, or approved by advertisers.
Our site is committed to publishing independent, accurate content guided by strict editorial guidelines. Before articles and reviews are published on our site, they undergo a thorough review process performed by a team of independent editors and subject-matter experts to ensure the content’s accuracy, timeliness, and impartiality. Our editorial team is separate and independent of our site’s advertisers, and the opinions they express on our site are their own. To read more about our team members and their editorial backgrounds, please visit our site’s About page.
Questions or Comments? Ask Laura!
Ask a question and Laura will respond to you. We strive to provide the best advice on the net and we are here to help you in any way we can.