A small business website in 2026 costs anything from a builder subscription you set up yourself to several thousand dollars for a custom build. Among Long Beach agencies that publish prices, custom sites start at $1,500 for a single page and $3,500 for five pages. Page count, custom features, ecommerce, who writes the content and ongoing care move the price most.
Published website prices in Long Beach
Most agencies don’t put website prices online, because the scope of one project rarely matches the next. Of the Long Beach and Orange County agencies whose published prices we reviewed in October 2026, one web design firm lists website prices: custom sites from $1,500 for a single page and from $3,500 for five pages, with support after launch billed at $100 an hour. Treat those as starting points for a simple brochure site. A quote for an online store, or for a site with bookings, logins or software connections, is normally scoped individually after a discovery call.
Here is what each level of website typically includes, so you can tell which kind of quote you are reading:
| Option | What you get | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Website builder, done yourself | A template you fill in, paid as a monthly or yearly subscription | New businesses testing an idea, with time to write and build |
| Template site set up for you | A ready-made theme fitted with your logo, colors, photos and text | Owners who need a professional site fast and can accept a standard layout |
| Custom small business site | Pages designed around your services, with forms, call tracking and SEO foundations | Service businesses that depend on calls and quote requests |
| Custom site with ecommerce or integrations | A product catalog and checkout, online booking, member logins or CRM connections | Stores and businesses that take orders or bookings online |
Ongoing marketing is a separate line. Long Beach and Orange County agencies that publish prices list monthly retainers of about $2,000 to $7,500 for ongoing marketing work, which our guide to SEO costs breaks down. Keep the build and any retainer apart when you compare quotes.
What changes the price
Two quotes for “a five-page website” can be far apart because they describe different projects. These are the factors that move the number:
- Number of pages. Each service, location and team page needs its own layout, copy and testing. Ten service pages cost more than one page listing ten services, and they also give each service a better chance to rank.
- Custom design or a template. A custom design is planned around your buyers and the action you want them to take. A template is faster and cheaper, and other businesses may be using the same one.
- Content. Someone has to write every page and supply the photos. Copywriting, a photo shoot or video adds cost. Supplying your own text saves money, though content that arrives late delays the launch.
- Features. Online booking, quote calculators, multi-step forms, CRM connections, member areas and pages in more than one language each add design, build and testing time.
- Ecommerce. Product count, variants, payment options, shipping and tax rules, and syncing stock with a point-of-sale system all add work.
- Replacing an old site. Mapping old URLs to new ones and setting up redirects protects the rankings and links the old site earned. Moving blog posts or products takes time too.
- Accessibility. Building to the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA means planning contrast, headings, keyboard use and form labels from the start, which costs less than fixing them later.
- Timeline. A rush job pushes other work aside. For reference, TLG builds a typical small business website in about two weeks from kickoff to launch. Larger sites take longer.
Costs that sit outside the build quote
The build is rarely the whole bill. Ask each agency which of these it includes, which it can arrange and which you will pay directly:
- Domain name. Renewed every year through a registrar. Register it in your business’s name, under a login you control.
- Hosting. Billed monthly or yearly. Managed hosting costs more than basic shared hosting and usually adds backups, security and support.
- Software licenses. WordPress itself is free, open-source software, but premium themes, plugins, form tools and booking apps often renew every year.
- Ecommerce fees. Hosted store platforms charge a subscription, and payment processors charge a fee on each sale. Check both on the providers’ own pricing pages.
- Fonts, photos and video. Licenses need to cover use on a website, and some are priced per site or by traffic.
- Maintenance. Updates, backups, security monitoring and small edits. Some firms bill by the hour and others offer a monthly plan, such as our website maintenance service.
What a complete quote should cover
A price only means something next to its scope. When we studied 203 independent Long Beach business websites in October 2026, only 45% of the 142 that loaded had a tap-to-call phone link, only 36% had a contact, inquiry or signup form, and 30% had no call link, form or booking link at all. The full study has the details. Make sure any quote you accept includes the basics that turn a visit into a lead:
- A page list with the purpose of each page
- Mockups of the key pages before development, and the number of revision rounds
- Tap-to-call links, working forms and a clear next step on every page
- Google Analytics 4, with form submissions, call clicks and bookings recorded as key events
- SEO foundations: page titles, descriptions, headings, an XML sitemap, LocalBusiness structured data and redirects from old URLs
- Speed and phone testing before launch
- Training so your team can edit pages
- Your name on the domain, hosting account, site files and content, with every login handed over at launch
Red flags in a website quote
- One number and no scope. If the quote doesn’t list pages, features and deliverables, you can’t tell what you are buying or compare it with anything.
- A site you rent. A low monthly price can mean the agency keeps the site, and sometimes the domain, when you stop paying. Ask what you walk away with if you cancel.
- The domain in the agency’s name. Whoever controls the domain controls your website address and your email.
- No redirect plan. Replacing a site without redirecting old URLs throws away the search traffic those pages earned.
- An overlay widget sold as accessibility compliance. In 2025 the FTC finalized an order requiring one overlay vendor to pay $1 million over claims that its AI tool could make any website conform to WCAG.
- Rankings promised with the launch. A well-built site gives search engines a good start. Google’s own guidance on hiring an SEO states that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
- A price far below the rest. Find out what is missing. Look first at content, tracking, revision rounds and redirects.
How to compare website quotes
- Write a one-page brief: your services, the pages you think you need, must-have features, sites you like, your deadline and a budget range.
- Send the same brief to every agency, so each quote answers the same question.
- Line the quotes up by page count, who writes the content, features, revision rounds, tracking, timeline and support after launch.
- Ask who will design and build the site, and whether they are employees, contractors or an outsourced team.
- Open two or three live sites each agency built on your own phone. Check how fast they load, tap the phone number and try the form.
- Confirm in writing that you own the domain, site and content, and what you receive if you leave.
- Add up the first-year cost: the build plus hosting, licenses and maintenance.
Not every business needs a custom site on day one. If you are testing a new idea, a builder template you set up yourself is a sensible start, and you can replace it once you know what customers ask for. When the website needs to bring in calls and quote requests, our website design team can review your brief and send a proposal with the scope spelled out.
Budget for care after launch
The build price is only part of the long-term budget. Use our website maintenance cost guide to compare hosting, updates, backups, support and content edits, and identify what needs a separate project quote.