Blog · 10 September 2026
How much should a small business website cost in Canada?
Nearly every quote you get will be a range with no working shown. Here are the real numbers — what the builders charge, what freelancers and agencies charge, and the costs that never make it onto the quote.
Most small business websites in Canada cost $1,500 to $5,000 to build. Below $1,500 you are usually buying a template with your words dropped in. Above $12,000 you are paying for an agency's office and staff, not for a better site. Building it yourself on Wix or Squarespace runs about $17 to $49 USD a month, plus 40 to 80 hours of your own time. That's the whole answer. The rest of this page shows you where each number comes from, so you can tell a fair quote from a padded one.
The short answer
| Who builds it | One-time cost |
|---|---|
| You, on a builder — best for testing an idea | $0 up front, $20–$60/mo |
| Freelancer, template — best for most small shops | $1,500–$4,000 |
| Freelancer or small studio, custom — if you sell or book online | $4,000–$12,000 |
| Established agency — bigger teams, bigger rules | $12,000–$40,000+ |
Ranges from Canadian web design guides published in 2026. Ottawa sits in the same bands as Toronto and Montreal.
What the builders really cost
Wix and Squarespace price in US dollars, even when you live here. That matters. A "$29 a month" plan is closer to $40 CAD once your card is charged.
Wix, on yearly billing: Light $17, Core $29, Business $39, Business Elite $159 — all USD per month. Squarespace, on yearly billing: Basic $19, Core $29, Plus $49, Advanced $99 USD. Pay month to month instead and Squarespace jumps to $25, $39, $65 and $139.
Shopify does price in Canadian dollars here. Basic is $49/mo, Shopify is $99/mo, Advanced is $399/mo. Pay for the year up front and those drop to about $37, $74 and $299 a month. On top of that, Shopify Payments takes 2.9% + 30¢ on every online sale on Basic. On $10,000 of sales that's about $290 gone. Fees are usually the bigger bill, not the plan.
The builders are not a trap. If you are still working out what you sell, a $19 plan and a weekend is the right move. The trap is staying there for three years while a slow, generic site quietly turns people away.
What people around Ottawa actually charge
Most agency sites hide their prices. A few don't. One Ottawa web design shop publishes packages at $999.99, $1,499.99 and $2,999.99. A 2026 Ottawa pricing guide puts template freelance builds at $1,500–$4,000, custom builds at $4,000–$12,000, and established agencies at $12,000–$40,000 and up.
Those numbers line up. So when someone quotes you $9,000 for a five-page site with stock photos, you now know that is high. And when someone quotes $400, you know what you're getting: a template, filled in fast, and nobody answering the phone in March.
The costs left off the quote
- Domain. A .ca is about $16 to $22 a year. Not $200. If someone charges you $200, ask why.
- Hosting. $150 to $600 a year is normal. Some modern sites host free on Cloudflare Pages. Ours do.
- Maintenance. $50 to $200 a month if the site runs on WordPress with plugins that need updating. A hand-coded site has almost nothing to update, so this line can be $0.
- Words. Copywriting is often $75 to $150 per page on top. Many quotes assume you will write it. Most people never do, and the site sits half-finished for months.
- Photos and video. A shoot runs $500 to $3,500. This is the line people skip, and it's the line that decides whether the site looks real.
Add those up and a "$2,000 website" is often $3,200 in year one. That's not a scam. It's just a quote that only counted the build.
What actually moves the price
Five things, in order of how much they matter.
1. Pages. Five pages is not five times the work of one, but ten pages is real work. Most small businesses need four to six.
2. Template or built by hand. A template is fast and cheap and looks like a template. Hand-built costs more and loads faster, which Google counts.
3. Who writes it. If you write the words, you save money and it takes longer. If they write the words, you pay more and it ships.
4. Selling or booking. A cart or a booking system adds $3,000 to $10,000. Skip it until you need it. A phone number and a form sell plenty.
5. Whether anyone will find it. A beautiful site with no SEO is a business card you paid $4,000 for. Ask what's included before you sign.
What we charge
Websites and SEO we quote per project, because a one-page site for a painter and a booking site for a clinic are not the same job, and pretending they are is how people get overcharged. Tell us the pages, the words, and whether you're selling online, and you get a number. Not a range — a number.
Everything else we do has a fixed price, published:
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Social media management | $799/month |
| Viral management (algorithm work) | $799/month |
| Content creation, single reel | $299 |
| Content creation, 10 reels a month | $1,799 |
| Content creation, 20 reels a month | $3,299 |
| Omnipresence | $299/month |
| Websites and SEO | Quoted per project |
Our sites are hand-coded, not dropped into a builder, and they go live in about 7 days. We know the video side works because we did it on our own brand first: @skuishcookies got 40 million views in two months with zero dollars in ads. Same hands build the sites. The full details are on our Ottawa website design page.
How to tell if you are overpaying
Ask these four questions before you pay anyone:
- Who writes the words? If the answer is "you," add two months to the timeline.
- What happens after launch? Get the monthly cost in writing, including $0 if it's $0.
- Who owns the domain? It should be in your name, in your account. Always.
- Can I see it on my phone before I pay the rest? Most people will visit on a phone. If it isn't right there, it isn't right.
One more thing worth saying plainly. A website does not bring people to you on its own. It catches people who already heard your name. The hearing-your-name part is social. If you're pricing that side too, we published those numbers as well: how much social media management costs in Ottawa.
What you should actually budget
If you're brand new and testing: $0 build, $20 to $60 a month on a builder, and put your money into content instead.
If you're an established local business with customers and no site: $1,500 to $5,000 is the honest band. Spend closer to $5,000 if people book you or buy from you online.
If you're being quoted over $12,000, ask exactly what costs that much. Sometimes the answer is good. Often the answer is staff.
And whatever you spend, budget something for photos and video. A $2,000 site with real footage of your work beats a $9,000 site full of stock photos every single time.
Want a package built around your budget?
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