How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost in Canada?

Three public website-pricing examples checked October 6, 2026

Provider	Displayed price	Published scope and qualifiers
SiteGuys	$1,499–$2,500 CAD	Typical five-page business website, as described on its pricing page.
Cresoft	Starter from $599 CAD	Five-page responsive Starter package.
Webtacular	$1,000 CAD pay-once	Starter for up to five pages; the page displayed 50% off and says prices are before HST.

Prices, promotions, taxes, and deliverables can change; confirm current details with each provider. This small, nonrepresentative snapshot does not establish a Canadian average, median, or quote for your project.

Two quotes for "a website" can differ substantially and both be fair. That is not dishonesty, it is scope. The word "website" covers everything from a one page brochure to a booking platform that runs your business. Before comparing quotes, confirm what each project includes.

Page count and structure

A 5 page site (home, about, services, reviews, contact) is a different project from a 30 page site with a page per service and per city. More pages means more design decisions, more writing, and more time. Many quotes are effectively priced per page, whether or not the proposal says so.

Custom design vs template

A customised template is a common approach to small business web design: a proven layout adapted with your colours and content. Fully custom design, where someone designs your pages from a blank canvas, can add substantial design work and revisions. It is worth considering when your brand genuinely competes on look and feel. For other businesses, compare the design work against their goals and budget.

Integrations and functionality

Online booking, e-commerce, payment processing, membership areas, CRM connections, quote calculators. Every system your website talks to adds build time and testing time. A brochure site and a site that takes appointments and deposits are different animals, and their prices reflect it.

Content writing

Somebody has to write the words, and this is the most common hidden cost in the business. If the quote assumes you will supply finished copy, you have either signed up for weeks of homework or a stalled project. Professionally written pages cost real money because they take real hours, and they are frequently the difference between a site that ranks and converts and one that just exists.

Photography and visuals

Stock photos can look generic. Original photography, custom graphics, video, and illustration may add work to a project; confirm who supplies and licenses each asset in the written scope.

The build price is not the full price. Every website carries running costs, and quotes rarely spell them out:

• Domain name. Confirm who registers it, whose account owns it, and how renewal is handled.
• Hosting. Confirm what infrastructure, support, backups, and usage limits are included, and who controls the account.
• Software updates and security. WordPress sites in particular need regular core and plugin updates. Skip them long enough and the question is not whether the site gets compromised, only when.
• Backups. Meaningless unless someone tests that they restore.
• Edits and small changes. New staff photo, updated hours, a seasonal banner. Either you learn to do these, or you pay someone per request, or you have a plan that includes them.

This is why care plans exist. Instead of hunting down your developer every time something needs patching or changing, a monthly plan covers hosting, updates, security, backups, and a set amount of edit work. We wrote a full breakdown of what these plans include and when they are worth it in our guide to website care plans explained.

For transparency, here are the only numbers North Star publishes for web work: our care plans are $149, $349, and $649 per month depending on tier, and clients who sign before December 1, 2026 lock in founding rates of $127, $297, and $552. Website builds are scoped as a fixed fee after a free call, because quoting a build without understanding scope is how the industry ends up with surprise invoices. You get one number in writing, and it only changes if the scope does.

There is no universally right answer, only a right answer for your situation. Be honest with yourself on four questions:

• How much does the website matter to revenue? If customers find and choose you elsewhere and the site is a digital business card, DIY is defensible. If people search for what you do and pick from the results, the site is a salesperson, and you would not staff that role with a template you built at midnight.
• What is your time worth? A first-time build can require substantial learning and hands-on work. Consider your experience, available time, and the cost of delegating before deciding.
• How complex are your needs? Simple brochure site: builders handle it well. Bookings, e-commerce, integrations, or serious local SEO: the builder ceiling arrives fast.
• Will you actually maintain it? A site nobody updates decays either way. If the answer is no, the maintenance question matters more than the build question.

We compare the two paths in detail, including where builders genuinely win, in website builder vs web designer. And if you want to see how we approach builds ourselves, our web design page covers process and scope.

• No written scope. If the quote does not list pages, features, and what happens when you ask for more, the price is not a price, it is an opening bid.
• "Unlimited revisions." Nobody profitable offers unlimited anything. It usually means the design phase is thin and revisions are how the project limps to the finish line.
• You do not own your own site. Some providers keep the site, the domain, or both on their accounts, so leaving them means starting over. Confirm in writing that the domain is registered to you and you can take the site elsewhere.
• A low upfront price with a long monthly commitment. Add the full contract term, included work, and exit terms before comparing it with a pay-once quote.
• No mention of what happens after launch. A quote that is silent on hosting, updates, and edits has simply deferred those costs, not eliminated them.
• Guaranteed rankings. Nobody can guarantee a Google position. A quote that promises "#1 on Google" is telling you how they handle the truth.

The fix for all of these is the same: get every quote as a written scope with a fixed number, and ask each provider the questions the others hoped you would not.