If you have searched for a website price recently, you have probably seen answers ranging from a few hundred dollars to six figures. Both ends are real, which is why the question feels impossible to answer. The useful answer is not one number. It is a breakdown of what you are actually paying for, so you can tell a fair quote from a risky one.
This guide explains how website pricing works for small and mid-sized businesses in Canada, what drives the cost up or down, the difference between one-time and monthly pricing, and the hidden costs that catch owners off guard. Where we use numbers, they are AIM Infotech's published Edmonton packages, not industry averages, so you can see exactly what each tier includes.
The short answer
For most Canadian small businesses, a professionally built website falls into one of three bands:
- A starter site for a new or very small business: a handful of pages, a contact form, mobile-friendly design and basic on-page SEO.
- A business site for an established company that needs service pages, a blog, stronger SEO foundations, integrations and room to grow.
- An e-commerce site that takes payments, manages products and inventory, calculates shipping and taxes, and sends order emails.
At AIM Infotech, those tiers are priced at $1,400, $2,200 and $4,500 CAD as one-time builds, or $129, $199 and $399 CAD per month on a monthly plan. Other agencies and freelancers will price differently, but the same three bands show up almost everywhere, and the reasons behind the price differences are the same.
What actually drives the cost of a website
Two quotes for "a website" can be very different projects. These are the factors that change the price the most.
1. Number and type of pages
A five-page brochure site and a thirty-page site with separate pages for each service and location are different amounts of work. Every page needs a purpose, a layout, written content, images, a title and meta description, and testing on mobile. Templated pages such as blog posts are cheaper per page than unique pages such as a home page or a detailed service page.
2. Custom design versus a template
A pre-built theme lowers the price because most of the layout decisions are already made. Custom design costs more because someone has to plan the structure, design for your brand and test it across devices. The right choice depends on how much your website needs to stand out and how specific your sales process is. We compare the trade-offs in more detail on our website design and development page.
3. Content: who writes it and who supplies the photos
Content is the most underestimated cost. If you supply finished text and photos, the build is faster. If the agency writes copy, researches keywords and sources images, the price rises, but so does the quality of what search engines and customers read. Projects often stall for weeks waiting on content, so decide early who owns it.
4. Features and integrations
Booking calendars, quote calculators, customer portals, CRM connections, multilingual pages, memberships and payment processing each add design, development and testing time. A contact form is simple. A form that creates a lead in your CRM, assigns it to a salesperson and sends a follow-up email is a small automation project.
5. E-commerce complexity
Selling online adds product data, variants, payment gateways, shipping rules, Canadian sales tax handling (GST, HST and PST vary by province), order notifications, returns and inventory. A shop with ten products and flat-rate shipping is very different from one with hundreds of SKUs and live carrier rates. If you are planning a store, our e-commerce checklist for Canadian stores walks through what to prepare.
6. SEO and performance work
A site can look finished and still be invisible on Google. Proper page titles, meta descriptions, heading structure, structured data (schema), image compression, clean URLs, an XML sitemap and redirects from old pages all take time. Skipping them makes the launch cheaper and growth much harder.
7. Who builds it
Freelancers, small agencies and large agencies carry different overheads, and the price usually reflects how much planning, project management, quality assurance and post-launch support are included. A lower quote is not automatically worse, but you should know what is left out.
One-time build or monthly plan?
Many Canadian agencies now offer both. Neither is always better. It depends on cash flow and how much ongoing help you want.
One-time build
- You pay for the project up front (often split into a deposit and a final payment).
- You usually own the site outright once it is paid for.
- Hosting, domain renewals, updates, backups and changes are billed separately or handled by you.
- Best for businesses with an internal person who can manage the site, or owners who prefer a single capital expense.
Monthly plan
- A lower entry cost spread across the year.
- Typically bundles hosting, security updates, backups and a set amount of edits or support.
- Good for owners who do not want to think about maintenance, plugins or server issues.
- Read the terms: check the minimum commitment, what happens if you leave, and who owns the design and content.
A simple way to compare: add up the one-time price plus your realistic yearly costs for hosting, maintenance and small changes, then compare that with twelve to twenty-four months of the monthly plan. The cheaper option on day one is not always cheaper by year two.
Costs people forget to budget for
These rarely appear in the headline price but almost every business pays them.
- Domain name: renewed every year. Choose a .ca if your customers are in Canada; registration requires meeting the Canadian Presence Requirements.
- Hosting: shared hosting is inexpensive; managed or cloud hosting costs more but is faster and better supported.
- Business email: Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 are billed per user, per month.
- Premium plugins, themes and apps: many are annual subscriptions, especially on WordPress and Shopify.
- Payment processing fees: every online sale has a processor fee.
- Maintenance: software updates, security patches, backups and uptime monitoring.
- Content updates and new pages: your business will change, and the site has to keep up.
- Marketing after launch: SEO, Google Business Profile management and ads are what bring visitors to the site.
Why very cheap websites often cost more
A very low quote is tempting, especially for a new business. Before you accept one, check for these common gaps:
- The site is built on a page builder or platform you cannot easily move away from.
- The agency registers the domain in its own name instead of yours.
- There is no mobile testing, no speed optimisation and no basic SEO setup.
- Old URLs are not redirected, so existing Google rankings are lost on launch day.
- No backups or security updates are included, leaving the site exposed.
- Every small change after launch is billed at an hourly rate.
None of these are visible on launch day. They show up months later as lost leads, a hacked site or a rebuild.
How to get an accurate quote
You will get faster, more comparable quotes if you prepare a one-page brief before contacting anyone. Include:
- Your goal: more calls, more quote requests, online sales, bookings or recruitment.
- Your audience: who they are, where they are (Edmonton, Alberta, all of Canada) and what they need to know before contacting you.
- Your page list: even a rough one, including each service you want to rank for.
- Must-have features: forms, booking, payments, portals, integrations.
- Content status: what you already have and what you need written.
- Examples: two or three websites you like and why.
- Budget and timeline: a range is fine and helps the agency propose the right scope.
Then ask every provider the same questions so you can compare like for like: Who owns the site and domain? What is included after launch? How is SEO handled? What happens to my existing pages? What will changes cost later?
Is the cost different in Edmonton than elsewhere in Canada?
Pricing is set by each provider rather than by city, and many Canadian businesses hire agencies outside their own province. The advantage of a local Edmonton or Alberta agency is practical: meetings in your time zone, familiarity with local search competition and the ability to build pages that target the neighbourhoods and cities you actually serve. If local search matters to you, combine the website project with local SEO and digital marketing from the start rather than adding it later.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a basic website cost in Canada?
A basic small-business website from a professional agency usually sits in the entry tier. AIM Infotech's Starter website is $1,400 CAD one-time or $129 CAD per month. Freelancers and DIY builders can be cheaper, but check what is included for SEO, mobile testing and support.
How much does a website cost per month?
It depends on whether the monthly fee covers only hosting or a full managed plan. A managed plan typically includes hosting, updates, backups and a set amount of changes. AIM Infotech's monthly plans are $129, $199 and $399 CAD depending on the tier.
How long does it take to build a website?
Timelines depend mostly on page count, features and how quickly content and feedback are provided. A small site moves fastest; e-commerce and custom integrations take longer. Ask any provider for a written timeline with milestones before you start.
Is a custom website better than a template?
Not always. Templates are cost-effective for simple needs. Custom builds make sense when your brand, user experience or sales process needs to stand out, or when you need specific integrations. Many projects combine a solid framework with custom design.
Do I own my website after it is built?
You should. Confirm in writing that the domain is registered in your name and that you own the content and design once paid for. On monthly plans, ask what happens to the site if you cancel.
Get a clear, fixed quote for your website
If you are planning a new website or a rebuild, we will give you a straightforward scope and price based on your goals, not a guess. Our packages are published on our pricing page, and we will tell you honestly which tier fits, or if you need something different.
