Guide · The monthly cost
How much does a website cost per month? And what you should be getting for it.
The short answer
Upwork's 2026 guide puts it at $20 to $100 a month for hosting, a platform plan and the domain, and $50 to $200 a month to have someone maintain it: updates, security monitoring and backups. So the real question is what your fee covers. Mine is $99 a month, and it covers hosting, security, updates, your Google listing and changes.
$20–$100
a month for hosting, a platform plan and the domain
Upwork, 2026
$50–$200
a month to have someone maintain it
Upwork, 2026
$15–$150
a month for hosting and apps
Forbes Advisor
01
What a monthly website fee pays for
Every website costs money every month, whoever built it. These are the parts. Some plans cover all of them, some cover one, and some leave the rest to you.
Hosting
The computer your site lives on, and the security certificate that puts the padlock in the address bar. Without it, the site is offline.The domain
Your address, like yourbusiness.com. Renewed every year, usually $10–$30 for a .com.Security and updates
Keeping the software under your site patched, so it doesn’t get broken into or quietly stop working.Backups
A copy of your site to restore if something goes wrong.Changes
New hours, a new service, a price, a photo. Who makes them, and how fast.Your Google listing
Your Google Business Profile: hours, photos, posts, replies to reviews. It’s where a lot of customers see you first.
What does it add up to? Upwork's 2026 guide says a website typically costs $20 to $100 per month for hosting, a platform plan, and a domain averaged over the year
, and that maintaining one costs $50 to $200 a month for updates, security monitoring and backups. Forbes Advisor puts hosting and apps at $15 to $150 a month.
Hosting and the domain are the parts you can't skip. The rest is the difference between a site that keeps working for you and one that slowly goes out of date.
02
What the website builders charge every month
If you build it yourself, the builder's plan is your monthly cost. These are the prices on each company's own page on 19 October 2026. Most of them are cheaper if you pay a year up front.
| Builder | Paid yearly | Paid month to month |
|---|---|---|
| Wix | $17–$159/mo | Not shown on Wix’s page |
| Squarespace | $19–$99/mo | $25–$139/mo |
| GoDaddy (Airo) | $9.99–$99.99/mo | $19.99–$199.99/mo |
| Hostinger | From $2.49/mo, 48 months paid up front | Renews at $10.99/mo |
Hostinger
from $2.49/mo, renews at $10.99/mo
GoDaddy (Airo), paid yearly
$9.99–$99.99/mo
Wix, paid yearly
$17–$159/mo
Squarespace, paid yearly
$19–$99/mo
Hosting and apps (Forbes Advisor)
$15–$150/mo
Hosting, plan and domain (Upwork)
$20–$100/mo
Someone to maintain it (Upwork)
$50–$200/mo
Ninewave Website Care
$99/mo
Two things to know
The cheapest plan often isn't the one you need: online booking starts on Wix's $29 plan and GoDaddy's $24.99 plan. And with a builder, the plan pays for the tool. The changes, the updates and your Google listing are still yours to do.
03
“He built it for free and charges $60 a month.”
Someone asked exactly that on Reddit in July: were they being ripped off? The $60 isn't the issue. What you need to know is what it buys, so ask:
Four questions for whoever you pay
- Is the domain in my name? Look it up yourself with ICANN's free lookup.
- What does the $60 cover besides hosting? Changes? Updates? Backups? My Google listing?
- How fast do changes get made? And are they included, or billed on top?
- If I leave, do I get a full copy of my site? If not, you're renting it.
If the answers are good, $60 can be a fair price. If nobody can answer them, that's worth fixing whatever you're paying.
04
Hosting only, or someone looking after it?
The short answer
Yes, that is how Ninewave works. I build the site for never more than $999, then look after it for $99 a month: changes made within 24 hours, ideas to make it work harder, your Google Business Profile, security, updates and hosting. Care is required, because your hosting is part of it. There's no minimum term, and leaving gets you a full export, free.
This is the real choice. Hosting only means your site stays online, and everything else is on you: the changes, the updates, the Google listing, noticing when the form stops working. That's fine if you have the time and you like doing it.
If you'd rather run your business, pay someone to look after it, and make sure you know exactly what “looking after it” means before you sign.
05
What my $99 a month covers, and what it doesn’t
I call it Website Care. In writing, it includes:
Hosting
With the security certificate.Security patches and software updates
The software under your site, kept patched.A check of your site every week
And a response to any outage within 24 hours of it being found or reported.Backups
Restored if you ever need one.Changes within 24 hours
Text, photos, prices, hours, services and new sections, made within 24 hours on business days.Your Google Business Profile
Set up and kept current. You own it; I’m added as a manager.A short note every month
Visits, form enquiries, and what changed.A real person when you call
Me.
What it doesn't cover: a whole rebuild, an online store, new integrations or new features. If you ask for something outside Care, I tell you first and give you a fixed price in writing. You're never billed for anything you didn't approve.
The price goes down the longer you stay. For my first 99 clients it's $99 a month in year one, then $9 less every year, until it's free from year twelve, everything included.
Care is required, and you can leave
It's required while I host your site, because your hosting is part of it. There's no minimum term: give me 30 days' notice, the site comes off my hosting, and you get a full export of the code and content, free. It's custom code, so running it somewhere else means a developer setting it up.
Want the build side too? Read what a small business website costs in 2026, or what to ask a web designer before you hire one.
