What a website really costs in BC, the 2026 guide.

"How much does a website cost?" is the first question every business owner asks, and the answers online are all over the map. Here's a straight, transparent look at what a website actually involves in British Columbia in 2026, what you're really paying for, and how we make a proper custom site genuinely affordable.

The short answer

Most business websites fall into a few types. Here's what to expect, and where we fit:

• DIY builders (around $20 to $60/month): Wix, Squarespace and similar. Fine for testing an idea, but limiting once you need to rank locally or stand out, and you never really own it.
• Template sites (a few hundred dollars): a pre-made theme with your logo and colours. Fast and cheap, but you'll share a design with thousands of other sites and inherit their bloat.
• Custom professional site: designed around your business, hand-built and SEO-ready, the kind that actually gets found and converts. Traditionally the priciest route at most agencies, which is exactly why we made ours affordable. With us, a custom site is $69/month, or $1,499 for a one-time build.

How we keep custom affordable

Here's the honest part most agencies won't put on their own blog: a proper custom website does not have to mean a big upfront cheque. We built our pricing specifically for small businesses that want a professional, custom, SEO-ready site without breaking the bank:

• Monthly plans from $69/month: your custom design, domain, hosting, security and ongoing edits, all rolled into one predictable payment. No large deposit, and the site stays looked after.
• One-time custom build from $1,499: if you'd rather own it outright, we build the same quality custom site at a fraction of the usual cost.

Same custom work, same SEO foundation, same full ownership of your domain and code, just structured so a small business can actually afford it. See our full plans and pricing.

What the money actually buys

A professional quote isn't just "design." It covers discovery (understanding your customers and competitors), copywriting and content structure, design revisions, development and testing across devices, technical SEO, analytics, and launch. When a quote is dramatically cheaper, one or more of those is missing, usually discovery and SEO, the two that determine whether the site ever earns its money back.

Red flags in cheap quotes

• No questions about your customers or goals before the price
• "Unlimited pages" (means: a template with your text poured in)
• No mention of mobile performance or page speed
• You don't own the domain, hosting or code at the end
• SEO sold as a mysterious monthly add-on with no specifics

Ongoing costs to budget for

Beyond the build: domain (~$20/year), hosting ($5 to $30/month for most small sites), and optionally a care plan for updates and improvements. Be wary of agencies that lock essential fixes behind expensive retainers.

Questions to ask before you sign

• Who owns the website, domain and content when we're done?
• What exactly is included, and what costs extra later?
• How will the site be structured to rank in local search?
• What happens if something breaks after launch?

A good studio answers all four in writing without flinching.