For most local businesses in the Okanagan Shuswap, a professionally built small business website usually costs about $3,000 to $15,000 upfront, plus about $25 to $250 or more per month in ongoing costs. As a rough guide, a local business can plan to spend 1% to 3% of annual revenue on their website and related digital services, with 2% as the norm for many established businesses.
If the business is under about $500,000 CAD in annual revenue, a practical website-and-digital budget is often around $2,500 to $7,500 per year, or roughly 0.5% to 3% of revenue.
If the business is around $500,000 to $1.5 million in annual revenue, a practical website-and-digital budget is often around $7,500 to $25,000 per year, or roughly 0.5% to 5% of revenue depending on growth goals and lead needs.
If the business is above about $1.5 million in annual revenue, a practical website-and-digital budget is often around $20,000 to $50,000 or more per year, or roughly 0.7% to 3.3% or more of revenue depending on competition, complexity, and growth goals.
Quick answer: what a website costs
- DIY website builder: About $20 to $30 per month, with little or no upfront build cost
- Template-based professional website: About $1,500 to $3,000 upfront, plus about $25 to $100 per month
- Custom professional website: About $7,000 to $15,000 upfront, plus about $40 to $250 per month
- Advanced or business-critical website: About $20,000 to $35,000 or more upfront, plus about $120 to $500 per month
- Enterprise or highly custom system: Often $100,000 or more upfront, with ongoing costs that vary widely
Most local business owners are not deciding between a free website and a $100,000 enterprise build. They are usually deciding whether to build something themselves, invest in a modest professional site, build a stronger custom site, or budget for a website plus ongoing support and digital marketing.
Around Kelowna, Clutch listings show many agencies with hourly rates around $100 to $200 CAD per hour, and many agency minimum project sizes start around $10,000 to $25,000 or more. That helps explain why a good professional site often costs real money.
What most local businesses actually spend
The right price depends on how important the website is to the business. A simple brochure site for a smaller business costs much less than a website that needs to generate leads, support sales, handle bookings, or work as part of a larger marketing system.
For many local businesses, the website is not just a one-time design cost. It is part of a broader digital budget that may include hosting, maintenance, content updates, SEO, local SEO, and conversion improvements over time.
As a planning guide, businesses under about $500,000 in annual revenue often land in the $2,500 to $7,500 per year range for website and related digital work. Businesses around $500,000 to $1.5 million often land in the $7,500 to $25,000 per year range. Businesses above about $1.5 million or pushing hard for growth often land in the $20,000 to $50,000 or more range.
That does not mean every business should spend those amounts. It means that for many healthy businesses, website and digital costs are meaningful operating expenses, not side costs.
National benchmark from BDC
BDC reports that Canadian small businesses of all types with less than $2 million in annual sales spent an average of $19,652 on websites and $14,301 on online marketing over a three-year period. That works out to about $6,550 per year on websites and about $4,770 per year on online marketing, for a combined average of about $11,300 per year.
This is useful as a broad national benchmark, not a rule. It includes many kinds of businesses across a wide revenue range. Still, it supports the idea that websites and digital marketing are often real business expenses for SMB’s in Canada.
What drives website cost up or down
A website costs more when it needs to do more. A simple informational site is cheaper than a site that needs bookings, ecommerce, logins, custom forms, automation, multiple service lines, or location-specific SEO. Costs also rise when the business needs custom layouts, stronger messaging, a more polished design system, or faster turnaround.
Pricing is also shaped by how organized the project is. If the content is ready, the structure is clear, and the scope is simple, costs stay lower. If the business needs help with copy, content planning, SEO structure, product setup, or strategy, the price usually goes up.
The real question is not just what a website costs. It’s also what the website needs to safely support. The more revenue, trust, and day-to-day business responsibility it carries, the higher the cost tends to be.
DIY vs. hiring a professional
One of the biggest cost decisions is whether to build the website yourself or hire a professional.
DIY website builders make it possible to launch a site with little upfront cost. These platforms are designed to be user friendly and bundle hosting, security, and updates into a monthly fee. By building the site yourself, you avoid development costs, but you pay with your time. You are responsible for design choices, content structure, SEO setup, and working within the platform’s limits.
A professional build makes more sense when the website is not a side task but a business asset. It is usually the better investment when presentation and credibility matter, when search performance matters, when the site needs stronger structure or custom features, or when poor website performance would have real revenue consequences.
Ongoing costs of a website
Websites do not live on their own. They need hosting, domains, updates, backups, security, and occasional fixes. Even the simplest website has recurring costs if you want it to stay online, secure, and under your control.
DIY platforms bundle many of these costs into a subscription. Professional websites often pay for hosting and maintenance more directly. Either way, there is always an ongoing cost to keep a website online and working well.
For a simple professional website, ongoing costs often land around $25 to $100 per month. For stronger custom sites, managed websites, or higher-risk business sites, ongoing costs often land around $100 to $250 or more per month. If SEO, content updates, local SEO, or ongoing improvements are included, the monthly budget can rise significantly.
Level 1: DIY website builders
Build cost: $0 upfront
Ongoing costs: $15 to $40 per month ($180 to $500 per year)
Common DIY website building platforms include Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy Website Builder, Cargo, and Durable. These platforms are best for early-stage businesses, side projects, or temporary sites. You get a low build and operating cost in exchange for investing your own time and accepting limits on creative and technical control.
Prices are usually shown as monthly amounts, but most plans require annual payment upfront to get the advertised price. True month-to-month billing is typically more expensive than committing to a year in advance. Many providers also offer a discounted rate for the first twelve months when paid annually, with prices increasing after the initial term. The prices below reflect the eventual, non-promotional base pricing for standard entry-level plans as of February 2026.
- Squarespace (partner affiliate): Basic plan is $252/year (works out to $21 CAD/month) or $30/month CAD on monthly billing
- Wix: Light plan is $252/year (works out to $21 CAD/month) or $30/month CAD on monthly billing
- GoDaddy Website Builder: Basic plan is C$264/year (works out to $22 CAD/month) or $30/month CAD on monthly billing
The monthly fee usually covers hosting, the website builder itself, basic security, and ongoing platform updates. At this level, you get pre-made templates, basic mobile responsiveness, built-in forms, and limited SEO controls.
You are still responsible for design decisions, content structure, copywriting, SEO setup, and troubleshooting. Hidden costs often include time spent learning the system, limited customization, platform lock-in, and the need to rebuild later if the site becomes more important to the business.
Level 2: Template-based professional site
Build cost: $1,500 to $3,000 CAD one time
Ongoing costs: $25 to $100 per month ($300 to $1,200 per year)
This is the first real done-for-you tier. A professional sets up the site and launches it on solid hosting, but keeps design and development costs lower by starting with a template or pre-built theme.
At this stage, platforms often shift away from simple drag-and-drop builders toward systems that offer more ownership, flexibility, performance, and long-term control. Common examples include WordPress.org, Shopify, Webflow, Astro, and Craft CMS.
This level usually includes professional setup, theme-based design, mobile responsiveness, basic SEO setup, contact forms, and a more stable technical foundation. It works well for smaller service businesses that want a professional web presence without custom functionality or a large build budget.
Level 3: Custom design on a professional platform
Build cost: $7,000 to $15,000 upfront build
Ongoing costs: $40 to $250 per month
This is where the website starts to look and read like the business it represents. The structure, page layouts, messaging, and content flow are designed on purpose to build trust and drive calls, forms, bookings, or sales.
Build work at this level often includes discovery, a clearer sitemap, custom page templates, revisions, speed improvements, accessibility basics, and deeper on-page SEO. Functionality often stays within standard platform tools, but the design and strategy become much more intentional.
This tier makes sense when the website carries real revenue weight and needs to do more than simply exist online.
Level 4: Advanced professional business-critical site
Build cost: $20,000 to $35,000+ upfront build
Ongoing costs: $120 to $500 per month
This level supports larger content, more users, more workflows, and more business risk. Expect deeper planning, stronger design systems, more templates, more revisions, more testing, and often more integration work.
The site may include memberships, gated content, advanced forms, automation, CRM connections, inventory logic, multi-location SEO, or more advanced operational needs. Ongoing costs rise because more complexity means more maintenance responsibility and more risk when something breaks.
Level 5: Enterprise site with complex systems
Build cost: $100,000+ upfront build
Ongoing costs: Vary widely
This tier covers large organizations and high-risk systems where downtime, security issues, or bad data cause real damage. The site may be a custom application, a headless CMS, or a heavily customized commerce system. At this level, businesses are paying as much for reliability, testing, and risk control as for design and development.
Costs not included in standard website pricing
Not all website-related work fits neatly into a fixed project price. Some services are usually quoted separately because they involve ongoing effort, specialized expertise, or costs controlled by third parties.
Full copywriting is often separate because it involves research, writing, editing, and approvals rather than simply formatting existing content. Ecommerce product management is often separate because it includes product setup, variations, pricing, inventory rules, and ongoing updates. Ongoing marketing campaigns are also separate because they involve continuous strategy, execution, testing, and reporting beyond the website build itself. Third-party software licenses are usually billed separately because pricing and renewal terms are controlled by outside providers.
Quoting these items separately keeps website pricing clearer and prevents variable long-term costs from being hidden inside a one-time build fee.