In 2026 a good small business website does not need a large budget. With Q Studio, a one-page landing page starts at $150, a company website of up to 5 pages in one language at $350, the same in English and Arabic at $550, and up to 8 bilingual pages with a blog at $850, delivered in about 3 to 10 days. Yearly running costs are usually small: a domain name, hosting that is often free or low for a small site, and optional business email. Anything with customer accounts, bookings or online payments is a web app, priced from about $1,500.
Website prices look chaotic from the outside. A website builder advertises a monthly fee that seems tiny, a freelancer quotes a few hundred dollars, and an agency sends a proposal for many thousands. They are often not selling the same thing, and the total cost over three years can rank them in a different order from the first invoice.
This guide shows what each route costs, our own published prices with exactly what they include, the yearly costs nobody mentions in the quote, and the point where a "website" becomes a web application with a different budget.
Five ways to get a business website
| Route | What you pay | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself on a website builder | A monthly or yearly subscription, plus your time | Very small budgets, owners who enjoy editing | Template look, your hours, subscription forever, harder to move away |
| Template plus a freelancer | A one-off fee, usually modest | Simple sites with a clear brief | Quality varies widely; check who owns the accounts |
| Small studio | A fixed one-off price for a defined scope | Businesses that want a custom, fast, bilingual site in days | Check capacity and what's included |
| Agency | Larger one-off fees, often with retainers | Big brands, complex content, marketing campaigns bundled in | Much of the price pays for layers you may not need |
| Custom web application | Priced like software, not like a site | Bookings, accounts, payments, portals | Not needed if you only want enquiries |
None of these is wrong. A cake shop posting new products every day may be happiest with a builder it can edit itself. A contractor who wants a fast, professional bilingual site that brings WhatsApp enquiries usually gets more for the money from a small studio.
Our website prices, in full
We price in US dollars, with a written scope and a fixed price before you pay anything.
| Package | What you get | Price | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landing page | One long-scroll page with your content | $150 | About 3 days |
| Landing page plus | The above with a contact form, analytics and basic SEO | $250 | About 4 days |
| Bilingual landing page | English and Arabic versions, with motion | $400 | About 6 days |
| Company website | Up to 5 pages, one language | $350 | About 5 days |
| Bilingual company website | Up to 5 pages, English and Arabic | $550 | About 7 days |
| Bilingual website with blog | Up to 8 pages in both languages, plus a blog or news section | $850 | About 10 days |
For service businesses in Qatar and Oman there is a fixed package: up to 5 pages in Arabic and English for QAR 1,300 or OMR 135, with 50% to start and 50% at handover. Details are on the website package page.
Included in every website: design (you don't need designs to start), a mobile-first build, fast loading, contact options (form, WhatsApp button, map), page titles and descriptions, a sitemap, analytics, connection to your domain, revision rounds (typically 1–3 depending on the package), and a handover of code and accounts in your name.
Not included, and worth knowing up front: logo design and full brand identity, large amounts of copywriting, photography, running ads or social media, and online payments with a cart. We'll tell you plainly if your project needs one of these.
Why the bilingual site isn't double the price
Going from $350 to $550 for English and Arabic surprises some people in both directions. It isn't double, because the design, structure and build are shared. It isn't free either, because Arabic needs a mirrored right-to-left layout, Arabic fonts with the right line heights, careful handling of English names and numbers inside Arabic text, separate page addresses so both languages can rank, and a language switch. Done properly at the start, it's a modest addition. Done afterwards on a site built only for English, it touches every page. Our Arabic RTL checklist shows what "properly" means.
When a website stops being a website
The price jumps when visitors stop reading and start doing things that need a database. These features turn a site into a web application:
- Customer accounts and logins.
- Online booking with real availability.
- A shop with cart, checkout and online payments.
- Member areas, portals or dashboards.
- Anything where staff manage records in an admin panel.
These start from about $1,500, priced like a web app MVP, and take about 3 weeks for a first version. If what you need is enquiries, a WhatsApp button and a form will do the job for a fraction of the cost. If you sell products, compare a hosted store platform with a custom store on our e-commerce development page.
What you pay every year
The build is paid once. A website then has a few running costs, all of which should be in your name:
| Item | Required? | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | Yes | A yearly renewal; a .com is usually inexpensive, country domains vary |
| Hosting | Yes | Often free or low for a small business site on modern platforms such as Vercel |
| SSL certificate (the padlock) | Yes | Included free with most modern hosting |
| Business email at your domain | Optional but recommended | A monthly fee per mailbox from your email provider |
| Content changes and new pages | When needed | Small changes from $40; larger additions quoted upfront |
Websites built with modern frameworks such as Next.js don't need the constant plugin and security updates that some content management systems do, so the cost of keeping them healthy is usually low.
Comparing the three-year cost
A fair comparison looks at three years, not the first invoice. Take your builder's real plan price and multiply by 36 months; for example, a plan at $30 a month comes to $1,080 over three years, before any paid add-ons, and you still built it yourself. A $550 bilingual site with near-free hosting costs the build plus your domain and email over the same period. The builder may still be right for you if you want to edit daily, but compare like with like.
How to read a website quote
Whoever you ask, check that the quote answers these questions in writing:
- How many pages, in which languages? "A website" isn't a scope.
- Who writes the content? If you do, when is it needed?
- How many revision rounds, and what counts as a revision?
- Is mobile design, SEO setup and analytics included, or extra?
- Whose name are the domain, hosting and code in? It should be yours.
- What does a small change cost after launch?
- What is the timeline, and when do you see a first working version?
A quote far below everyone else's usually leaves out one of these. A quote far above usually includes things you didn't ask for, such as branding, content production or a monthly retainer. Both are fine if you know it.
Real sites you can open
- Verkan Stone (Saudi Arabia): a marble and granite company with a project gallery, in English and Arabic.
- Veneto Paints (UAE): a bilingual brand and product catalog.
- QS Audio & Visual (Oman): a B2B site for an audio-visual and surveillance integrator.
- Strathclyde International College (UK): programs, certificate verification and enquiries.
- Best Service El Gouna (Egypt): concierge and property care with a mobile request form.
When we're not the best value
- You want to rebuild the site yourself every month. A website builder suits that better.
- You need logo design, a brand identity, ads or social media management. We focus on building; pair us with a branding or marketing partner.
- You need a large store with hundreds of products and daily stock changes. A hosted store platform may cost less to run.
Where to go from here
- Need a single page for a launch or campaign? See landing page design.
- Want to see how we plan and build business sites? Visit our website development company page.
- Going live soon? Use our launch checklist, which has a section just for websites.
- Or tell us your business, pages and languages in the project planner, and you'll get a written scope and fixed price within 24 hours.
FAQ
How much should a small business website cost?
For most small businesses, a fast, professional site of up to 5 pages is a few hundred dollars, not thousands: from $350 with us for one language, or $550 in English and Arabic. Pay more when you need more pages, a blog, special functionality or bundled services such as branding, and know which of those you're paying for.
Is a $150 website realistic?
For a single landing page with your content, yes. It's one long page that explains your offer and gets people to contact you, built in about 3 days. It isn't a multi-page company website; that starts at $350.
Do I have to pay monthly for my website?
Not to us. You pay once for the build. The monthly or yearly costs are third-party ones in your name: the domain, hosting (often free or low for small sites) and optional business email. Later changes are quoted when you need them.
How much does a website redesign cost?
A redesign follows the same packages as a new site, because most of the work is the same. It can go faster if your content is already good. If you're replacing an old site, we also set up redirects from old page addresses so you keep the search traffic you've built.
Can I edit the website myself after launch?
Small company sites change rarely, so many owners send occasional updates to us. If you'll publish often, the $850 package includes a blog or news section designed for regular posting. Tell us how often you expect to edit and we'll suggest the simplest setup.
Will a cheap website hurt my Google ranking?
Price isn't the issue; quality is. A slow site, missing titles, no mobile layout or a "noindex" left on from development will hurt. Every site we build is fast, mobile-first and search-ready, but rankings also depend on your content, reviews and competition over time.
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