What a small business website costs in Canada, and what the monthly part pays for

You can pay C$60 a year or C$5,000 up front. The difference is mostly two things: who does the work, and whether you pay once or every month for as long as the site is up.

You build it yourself: about C$5 to C$45 a month

WordPress.com, Squarespace, Wix and Shopify sell a plan and a drag-and-drop editor. On their yearly plans the cheapest tier runs from about C$5 a month (WordPress.com Personal) to about C$44 a month (Shopify Basic, built for selling products). Wix's cheapest paid tier showed C$21 a month on a yearly plan, Squarespace's US$15.

What you're paying for is hosting and the editor. What you're not paying for is your time. You build the first version, and every later change is yours to make.

A company builds it, and you pay every month: about C$97 to C$279 a month

A web agency in Canada priced at C$97 a month for four pages up to C$279 for sixteen, with hosting included. That is C$1,164 to C$3,348 a year, every year the site is up. Someone else does the building and the changes, usually within an allowance.

A person builds it, and you pay once: about C$1,000 to C$5,000

Small studios charge a one-time price. A Canadian studio's published packages ran from $999 for 5 pages to $4,999 for unlimited. A Kelowna agency's started at $1,499. After that you pay hosting and, usually, each change.

What the monthly part pays for

When a price has a monthly part, ask what it covers. It's usually one of four things:

1. Hosting, the computer your site runs on.
2. Software, the editor or platform you use.
3. Changes, someone to edit the site when your prices, hours or photos change.
4. Peace of mind, which means somebody checks that it still works.

For a business whose prices and hours change, the changes are the part you feel. A cheap site that goes stale costs more than it seems: the customer who sees last year's price doesn't phone.

What I charge

The rebuild is free, so you can see the site before paying anything. After that it's $99 a month. That covers hosting on Cloudflare and unlimited changes, including new pages, each done within 24 hours. Online booking or a shop, a whole new look, or tracking that shows which ad or search brings in your calls costs extra, and I tell you the price before I start.

If you're weighing a few options, text me what you have now and I'll tell you which row you're in.

Written by Mackenzie Bowes in Vernon, BC. October 26, 2026.