What a websitereally costsin Canada.

Ask three web designers to quote the same five-page site and you can get three numbers that look unrelated. Here's how to tell what's fair, and what you'll keep paying after launch.

The short version: One Canadian host's 2026 guide puts a DIY site at $200 to $1,500+ in the first year plus your time, and a basic professional site at $1,500 to $5,000. Custom builds and online stores run from $5,000 into the tens of thousands. For most service businesses, the $1,500 to $5,000 range is the right one. The surprise is usually the monthly costs, so price those before you pick.

What are your options, and what do they cost?

There are four common routes. These are planning ranges in Canadian dollars, not fixed quotes:

Other Canadian guides land in similar places. One puts the full range at $1,500 to $50,000+ depending on the site and the partner.

Our take: don't spend $10,000 on your first website unless you already know it'll pay for itself. Most small businesses need five to ten clear pages, good photos and a contact form that works. You can grow from there.

Where does the money actually go?

Mostly into content and decisions, not code. The price climbs with the number of pages, who writes the words, whether you need photos, and features like booking, an online store or a client login.

Connecting other tools adds cost too. That means your email marketing app, a CRM (the software that keeps track of your customers and leads), or a scheduling tool.

What we'd tell a client: show up with your text, photos and logo ready and you'll pay less and launch sooner. If you need someone to write the copy, budget for it, because it's real work and it's what makes a site sell.

What will you pay every month?

This is where DIY looks cheaper than it is. A few real prices, checked November 4, 2026:

Do the three-year math before you choose. Shopify Basic on yearly billing is CA$1,332 over three years, before a single card fee. A DIY site isn't free. It's a payment plan.

Payment fees matter too. An $840 invoice we sent through Stripe this fall paid out $807.61 after the card fee, the invoicing fee and an optional climate contribution. On bigger invoices, pre-authorized debit costs less than a card.

Do you actually own your website?

Ask this before you sign anything. Some providers offer a site for little or nothing upfront and a monthly fee after, and one Canadian company argues a local service site should cost $79 to $299 a month on that model. That can be a fair deal. Just find out what you keep if you stop paying.

Three things should always be yours: the domain, registered in your name; your text, photos and logo; and the logins to everything. If a provider won't put that in writing, walk away.

WordPress, a site builder or hand-coded?

It comes down to who makes the edits.

A site builder like Squarespace or Wix lets you change things yourself, but you're renting the platform and working inside its templates. WordPress is flexible and you can still edit it yourself, but its plugins and updates need regular care to stay secure. A hand-coded site is fast, has no platform fee and has very little to hack, but you need someone for changes.

We moved our own site off WordPress to hand-coded pages in October, and that's how we build new client sites now. The trade-off is real: clients email us for edits instead of logging in. For a business that changes its site twice a year, that's fine. For one that posts new products every week, a builder or WordPress makes more sense.

How do you compare website quotes?

Put every quote side by side and ask the same six questions:

1. How many pages, and who writes the copy?
2. Is hosting included, and what does it cost after the first year?
3. Is the domain registered in my name, and do I get the files and logins?
4. How many rounds of changes are included?
5. What happens if the scope grows? Do I approve new costs in writing first?
6. What does an edit cost after launch?

A quote that can't answer these clearly is a bigger risk than a high price.

What does Loud Launch charge?

We put our prices on the site because we think every agency should. Websites start at $1,600. Our Liftoff package is $1,800 one time and covers a site of up to 10 pages with copywriting, a contact form and basic SEO, plus three logo concepts, a brand guide, and social channels set up with two posts. Care is $30 a month for hosting and up to an hour of edits, and extra edits are $30 an hour. Every project gets one fixed price before we start.

That puts us in the freelancer and small studio range above. If you're ready for a site, or you want a second opinion on a quote you already have, book a free call. We'll tell you honestly if a $20-a-month builder is the better fit.

Drafted with AI help from our notes and checked against the sources above.

This post is general information and our own take, not legal, financial or professional advice for your situation. Prices, features and survey results change, so check the linked sources before you act. Accurate as of November 4, 2026. See our terms.