The real range
The honest answer is anywhere from $0 to $50,000 or more. That range is so wide it is almost useless, which is exactly why most small business owners feel confused when they start shopping. A free Wix site and a $30,000 agency build are fundamentally different products solving different problems.
What matters is understanding what you actually need. A five-page site for a local plumber has completely different requirements than an e-commerce store with 2,000 SKUs. Most small businesses in southern New Hampshire need something in the middle: a professional, fast, mobile-friendly site that shows up in search results and converts visitors into calls or form submissions. That is where the $750 to $5,000 range lives, and it is where most of the value sits.
DIY platforms
Squarespace, Wix, and similar builders typically run $16 to $50 per month, plus your time. They are genuinely good for someone who enjoys building things and has the hours to invest. The templates are polished, the drag-and-drop editors are intuitive, and you can launch something reasonable in a weekend.
The trade-offs show up over time. Performance scores tend to land in the 40 to 60 range on Google Lighthouse because these platforms load heavy JavaScript bundles regardless of what your page actually needs. Customization hits walls fast. And the monthly fees add up: $33 per month over three years is nearly $1,200, and you still do not own your code. If you leave the platform, you start from scratch.
WordPress agencies
The WordPress agency world is enormous and the pricing reflects that. You will find quotes ranging from $2,000 to $15,000 for a small business site, depending on the agency, the theme, and how many custom features you need. The average small business WordPress site with a premium theme and a handful of plugins lands around $3,000 to $5,000 for the initial build.
What gets overlooked is the ongoing cost. WordPress sites need hosting ($20 to $50 per month for managed hosting), plugin licenses ($100 to $500 per year), security monitoring, and regular updates. A plugin conflict after an update can break your site on a Tuesday morning when you should be focused on running your business. The three-year total cost of ownership for a WordPress site often exceeds $5,000 to $8,000.
Custom React sites
Custom-built React or Next.js sites from larger agencies typically start around $10,000 and climb quickly to $30,000 or more. These are fully bespoke builds with custom design, custom components, and tailored architecture. For businesses with complex needs, that investment makes sense.
But most small businesses do not need bespoke architecture. They need a fast, well-designed site that ranks in local search and gives customers the information they need to pick up the phone. The gap between a $500 template and a $30,000 custom build is where a lot of small businesses get stuck, overpaying for features they will never use or underpaying and getting something that hurts their credibility.
What drives cost up
Several factors push website costs higher, and not all of them add value for a small business. Custom illustrations and animations look impressive but rarely move the needle on conversions for a local service business. Complex CMS integrations add flexibility but also add maintenance burden. E-commerce functionality with inventory management, payment processing, and shipping calculations genuinely requires more engineering time.
The factors that should drive your investment are the ones that directly affect revenue: mobile responsiveness, page speed, SEO fundamentals, clear calls to action, and professional design that matches the quality of your actual business. Everything else is a nice-to-have that you can add later as your business grows.
How moss + method delivers at $750
We keep our pricing at $750 for a standard small business site by being deliberate about our process. We use React and TypeScript, which lets us build fast, lightweight sites without the overhead of a CMS or database. We have refined our workflow to eliminate the back-and-forth that inflates agency pricing. And we focus exclusively on small businesses, so we know exactly what works and what is unnecessary.
There is no bloated project management layer. No account managers scheduling meetings about meetings. You talk directly to the person building your site. We scope tightly, build efficiently, and deliver a site that scores 90 or above on Google Lighthouse. The $750 price point is not a loss leader or a stripped-down starter package. It is what a small business website should cost when the process is efficient.
What is included and what is not
At $750, you get a fully custom-designed site built with React and TypeScript: up to five pages, mobile-responsive design, on-page SEO fundamentals including meta tags and schema markup, a contact form, and deployment to a fast CDN. You own the code. There are no monthly platform fees from us.
What is not included at that price: e-commerce functionality, custom booking systems, ongoing content writing, or paid advertising management. These are add-ons we can quote separately. We also do not include stock photography because we have found that real photos of your business outperform generic stock images every time. We will guide you on what to shoot with your phone if a professional photographer is not in the budget.