A professionally built small business website in Southwest Florida costs $450 to $1,800 in 2026. A five-page site is $450 here, a ten-page business site $900, and a full Shopify store $1,350. Local agencies commonly quote $3,000 to $8,000 for the same scope, and most of them will not tell you the number until you sit through a call.
What the four options actually cost
| Who builds it | Typical cost | What you get | What is missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY website builder | $16–$49/mo forever | A page you assemble yourself over a weekend | SEO structure, schema, service pages, your time |
| This studio | $450–$1,350 once | 5–10 pages on Shopify, on-page SEO, schema, forms | Bespoke illustration, ongoing account management |
| Freelancer | $1,500–$4,000 | Custom design, one person's full attention | Varies hugely; SEO often an add-on, timelines slip |
| Local agency | $3,000–$8,000 | Design team, project manager, strategy sessions | Six weeks minimum, and a quote call before any number |
None of those tiers is wrong. They are different amounts of human labour. The reason our number sits where it does is that AI drafts the repetitive work — layouts, first-draft copy, schema markup, meta tags, image alt text — and a person reviews and finishes every page. Fewer hours for the same finished pages.
What actually changes the price
- Page count. The single biggest factor. Five pages versus ten is the difference between $450 and $900.
- Selling online. A Shopify store with a catalog, payments and gift cards is $1,350 because there is genuinely more to build.
- Who writes the copy. Supplying your own is free. Having it written is $72 a page.
- Design depth. The standard build is clean and consistent; a bespoke visual pass is $300.
- Search work. On-page SEO is included in a build. Ongoing map-pack and AI-search work is separate, from $360 a month.
The costs people forget
Every website has running costs no matter who builds it. Shopify's plan starts around $39 a month and covers hosting, security and updates. A domain is about $15 a year. Those go directly to the providers.
What you should not be paying for is a mandatory maintenance retainer on a simple marketing site. If a builder requires one, ask precisely what they do each month. Sometimes the answer is good. Often it is "we keep it online", which is what the hosting already does.
How to tell a cheap site from a bad one
Price is a poor signal of quality in either direction. These three checks are better, and you can run them on any site a builder shows you:
- View the page source and search for "schema" or "application/ld+json". If nothing comes back, search engines and AI assistants are reading that site with far less to go on.
- Count the service pages. One "Services" page competes for one search term. Five service pages compete for five.
- Read the first two sentences of any page. If they do not answer the question the page is about, AI assistants have nothing quotable to pull.
So what should you budget?
For most Fort Myers, Cape Coral and Naples small businesses: $450 to $900 for the build, about $40 a month in hosting and domain, and optionally $360 a month once you want to actively compete in local and AI search. That is a complete first-year number of roughly $930 to $1,380 without ongoing search work.
Every price we charge is published in full, down to $72 for a page of copywriting, so you can build the whole estimate yourself before speaking to anyone.
Questions people ask before they hire us
Is a $450 website too cheap to be any good?
It is a fair question. The reason it is not too cheap is that the hours went down, not the scope: AI drafts layouts, copy, schema and meta tags, and a person reviews and corrects every page. What you should be wary of is a cheap site with no heading structure, no schema and no service pages — ask any builder to show you those three things before you pay.
What is not included in the price?
Shopify's own plan, from about $39 a month, and your domain at roughly $15 a year. Both are billed by those providers directly and we never mark them up. Occasionally a build needs one small third-party app — a scheduling tool, for instance — and we flag that before it is needed, never after.
How much should I budget for ongoing costs?
Hosting plus domain is the floor, so roughly $40 a month. Ongoing search work is optional and starts at $360 a month. Anyone charging you a mandatory maintenance retainer on a five-page marketing site should explain exactly what they do each month for it.
Does a more expensive website rank better?
No. Google ranks pages on structure, content and relevance, none of which correlate with the invoice. A $6,000 site with one Services page will lose to a $900 site with eight service pages and clean schema. Price buys design polish and account management; structure buys rankings.
What makes the price go up?
Page count, mostly. After that: selling online (a Shopify store is more work than a marketing site), custom design work beyond the standard build, and content — if you want the copy written for you, that is $72 a page rather than you supplying it.
Can I start small and add later?
Yes, and most people should. Start with five pages, see which ones bring enquiries, then add pages at $90 each where the demand actually is. Because every build is on Shopify, adding products, a blog or gift cards later never means a rebuild.