Short answer
Most Chicago small business websites land between $3,000 and $12,000 for a designer or small studio build. DIY on Squarespace or Wix runs $200 to $600 a year plus your own time. Large agencies start around $25,000. The number moves with page count, custom design, and whether you need ecommerce or booking.
In detail
What each price band actually buys
Price ranges only help if you know what changes between them. Here is the honest version, based on what small businesses in Chicago are quoted today.
- $0 to $600 a year, DIY: Squarespace, Wix, or Google Sites. You pick a template and do the work. Fine for a first site, and it will look like a template.
- $1,000 to $3,000, freelancer or template setup: someone installs a theme and puts your content in it. Fast, cheap, and usually not built around your business specifically.
- $3,000 to $12,000, independent studio: custom design, hand-built pages, real local SEO structure, and someone accountable for the result. This is where most established small businesses land.
- $12,000 to $25,000: bigger sites with ecommerce, member areas, multi-location content, or integrations with the software you run on.
- $25,000 and up, agency: account managers, strategy decks, and a team. Worth it at a certain size, and heavy for a neighbourhood business.
What actually drives the number
Page count matters less than people expect. Five well-built pages take more thought than twenty thin ones.
The real cost drivers are custom design versus template, whether copy and photography are ready, and how many outside systems have to connect: booking, ordering, inventory, payments, or a CRM.
The costs most quotes leave out
A quote that only covers design and build is not the whole picture. Ask about these before you sign anything.
- Domain: $12 to $25 a year.
- Hosting: $0 to $50 a month depending on how the site is built.
- Content: copywriting and photography, if you do not already have them.
- Maintenance: updates, backups, and fixes. Some studios bill hourly, some sell a plan, some do neither and disappear.
- Ownership: whether you keep the site and its code if you stop paying. If the answer is no, you are renting.
Monthly website plans, read the fine print
Plenty of local companies sell a website for $150 to $400 a month with no upfront cost. That can work, but in most of those agreements you never own the site. Stop paying and it goes dark, and you start over.
If you take a monthly deal, get in writing what happens to the site, the domain, and the content when the agreement ends.
How we price it
We quote a fixed price per project after a short conversation, with no hourly billing and no surprise line items. You own the finished site and its code.
That means the estimate reflects your actual scope rather than a package that was priced before we met you.
The short version
Budget $3,000 to $12,000 for a custom small business site in Chicago.
Design complexity and integrations move the price more than page count.
Always ask who owns the site and what maintenance costs after launch.
Related questions
Is a custom website worth it over Squarespace?
If your business runs on trust and repeat customers, usually yes. A template says you are one of many. A custom site can carry a reputation you spent years building. If you are testing a brand new idea, start on a template and upgrade later.
How long does a small business website take?
A few weeks for most small business sites, once content and photos are ready. Waiting on copy is the single most common delay.
Do I pay all at once?
We split projects into a deposit and a balance at launch. You know the total before we start.