Website quotes are hard to compare because every provider prices a different invisible scope, and “it depends” is technically true and practically useless. This estimator does the arithmetic from our published 2026 website cost guide: answer four questions about the site you actually need, and it returns realistic ranges for the three ways of building it. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is stored, and there’s no email gate between you and the number.
How big is the site?
What does it need to do? (pick all that apply)
Is the content ready (text and photos)?
Main job of the site?
DIY builder
Freelancer
One-time build, 2-6 weeks typical
Agency
Strategy, build, SEO foundation, support
How the estimate works
The base ranges come from the same 2026 market data as our cost guide: freelance builds from $1,500 and agency builds from $5,000 for a straightforward small-business site, scaling with page count. The feature options add what they genuinely add. An online store is the largest jump because products, payments, and shipping logic multiply the work; bookings, languages, and branding each add their real market increments. Choosing “need writing help” adds professional copywriting, which providers price at roughly $50-150 an hour, and which is also the most common reason projects run late when owners plan to write it themselves. The result is a planning band rather than a quote, which is the honest limit of any estimator: your market, your provider, and your specifics set the final number, but a proposal far outside these bands deserves questions in either direction.
Two costs no estimator shows and yours should include: running costs of $1,000-6,000 a year for hosting, maintenance, and licenses, and, in 2026, the AI-readiness work (server-rendered content, clean structure, schema) that separates a site machines can cite from one they skip. That second item costs little during a build and plenty to retrofit, and a builder whose proposal never mentions it is quoting a 2019 website. The interview checklist for that conversation is in our AI search checklist.
Frequently asked questions
How accurate is this estimator?
It’s a planning band built from published 2026 market ranges, accurate enough to budget with and to sanity-check proposals against. Quotes land inside these bands for most small-business projects; ones far below usually hide the scope cuts described in our cost guide, and ones far above should come with a specific justification.
Why is the DIY option shown as monthly?
Because that’s how builders charge: $10-99 a month covers the platform, hosting, and templates, with your hours as the real cost. It’s a legitimate route for a simple presence with ready content. The estimator flags when your selections (a store, multiple languages, lead generation) push past what DIY handles well.
What makes the price jump most?
An online store, by a distance: products, payments, shipping, and taxes multiply build and maintenance work. After that, page count and copywriting. Bookings and extra languages add moderate, predictable increments.
Does the estimate include running costs?
No, deliberately, because no build quote does either: budget $1,000-6,000 a year on top for hosting, maintenance, security, and licenses. A website is a running cost with a launch party, and the businesses that budget it that way stop being surprised by it.
Does this tool save or send my answers?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser, nothing is stored or transmitted, and no email is required. The same policy applies to all our tools.
From a range to a real number
An estimator can price the category; only a conversation prices your project. If the range above works for what the site needs to do, our pricing page shows where AxoVox builds start, and telling us about the project gets you a real quote with the scope written down, including the AI-search foundation as standard rather than as an upsell later.