Ask five web people what a website costs and you'll get five answers, most of them "it depends". Fair enough — it does depend. But you deserve actual numbers before you talk to anyone, so here are mine, published openly, the same ones I quote clients.
The short answer
For a small New Zealand business in 2026:
- From $900 — a sharp one-page website. Your story, services, photos, contact form, map. Perfect for trades, home businesses and anyone whose customers mostly need to find them and get in touch.
- From $1,700 — a full multi-page website. Separate pages for your services or products, an about page, galleries, and an admin area where you edit your own text, photos and prices.
- From $2,400 — an advanced website with real functionality: an online shop with card payments, booking or ordering systems, memberships, quote calculators — whatever your business runs on.
Every price is fixed before work begins. You approve the quote, and that's the number — no hourly surprises, and payment isn't due until the site is finished and you're happy with it.
Agencies typically charge two to four times these figures for comparable work. That's not a dig — agencies carry offices, account managers and project overhead. I don't, and the price reflects it.
What actually moves the price
When a quote lands at the higher end, it's almost always one of these:
- Number of pages and amount of content. Ten service pages take longer than three.
- Functionality. A contact form is simple; an online shop with payment processing, order emails and stock management is a different animal.
- Self-editing. An admin area where you change your own content adds build time — and pays for itself the first month you don't need to email a developer to fix a typo.
- Content readiness. If your text and photos exist, great. If they need wrangling, that's time.
What doesn't move my price: logos you already have, "can we change the colour", or asking questions. Ask away.
The ongoing costs nobody mentions upfront
A website is never quite one-and-done, so let's be straight about the running costs:
- Hosting: about $71.40 a year including GST, paid directly to the NZ host — I've broken down why I host on NZ servers separately.
- Domain: $29.99 + GST a year (≈ $35) for your
.co.nzname.
That's it — roughly $106 a year, paid to providers in your own name. I charge no monthly fee, no "maintenance retainer", no platform subscription. The website is yours: code, content, accounts, everything.
The comparison everyone should do: three-year cost
DIY builders look cheap on day one, which is exactly how they're designed to look. Run the numbers over three years:
- Wix / Squarespace: $30–$60 per month for a plan that can actually run a business (custom domain, no ads, basic e-commerce). Over three years: $1,080 – $2,160 — and after all that, you still don't own a website. Stop paying, and it's gone.
- Hand-built site: $900–$2,400 once, plus ~$106/year for hosting and domain. Over three years: $1,218 – $2,718 — and the asset is yours, portable to any host, forever.
Similar money. Completely different outcome. And that's before the builder platforms' other problems — performance, lock-in, cookie-cutter SEO — which I've covered properly in the case against drag-and-drop builders.
"Can't I just get a cheap website overseas?"
You can find $200 websites on freelancing platforms. Sometimes they even work out. What the price usually doesn't include: someone who answers in your time zone next year, hosting set up in your name rather than theirs, NZ-relevant SEO, and anyone accountable if it breaks. Most of the "rescue jobs" I take on started life as one of these.
What you should expect for your money — from anyone
Whoever builds your site, at these prices you should be getting:
- A fixed quote before any work starts.
- A site that's fast and mobile-friendly — most of your visitors are on phones.
- Ownership — domain and hosting registered in your name, and the code handed over. (It amazes me how rare this is. It's in my terms, in writing.)
- The basics of being found: proper page titles, descriptions, a sitemap, and structured data — the things Google reads. More on that in how customers actually find your website.
- A privacy policy page — legally expected under the NZ Privacy Act if your site collects so much as a contact-form message.
Get an actual number
Benchmarks are helpful; a real figure for your business is better. My quote form takes about five minutes, and you'll get a fixed price with no obligation — and no salesperson ringing you every Tuesday afterwards.