Most small businesses in Chico pay one of three ways: about $16–$46 a month to build it themselves on Wix or Squarespace, about $500–$5,000 upfront to hire a freelancer (more for an agency), or a flat $59–$99 a month for a subscription service that builds and maintains it for them.
If you run a landscaping crew, a detail shop or a fence company in Chico, you’ve probably wondered whether a website is worth the money, and what that money even is. Prices online range from free to tens of thousands of dollars, which doesn’t help. Here’s a plain breakdown of what small businesses around Chico actually pay, and what you get for it.
The four ways to get a website
| Upfront | Monthly | Who does the work | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder Wix, Squarespace | $0 | About $16–$46 | You |
| Freelancer | About $500–$5,000 | About $50–$150 for hosting and upkeep, if offered | Them, then usually you |
| Agency | About $5,000–$15,000+ | About $100+ for a maintenance plan | Them, with changes billed |
| Subscription like Sitewell | $0 | $59–$99, everything included | Them, changes included |
Typical prices as of October 2026. DIY prices are Wix and Squarespace’s main plans; freelancer and agency prices vary widely.
1. Build it yourself (Wix, Squarespace)
The cheapest option in dollars. Wix’s main plans run about $17–$39 a month when billed yearly (more if you pay month to month), and Squarespace is in the same range. You get templates and drag-and-drop tools. You also get all the work: picking a template, writing every page, taking photos, setting up your contact form and fixing it when something breaks.
2. Hire a freelancer
A freelancer will usually charge about $500 to $5,000 to build a small business site, depending on how many pages and how custom it is. After launch, some offer hosting and upkeep for roughly $50–$150 a month; others hand you the site and move on, so updates fall back on you.
3. Hire an agency
Agencies typically start around $5,000–$15,000 for a small business site and go up from there, plus monthly maintenance. You get a team and a polished process. For most one- or two-person service businesses, it’s more than they need.
4. A website subscription
A newer option: no upfront cost, one monthly price that covers the design, hosting, security and ongoing changes. At Sitewell, that’s $59 a month for up to 5 pages or $99 for up to 10, with a free demo before you pay anything. The trade-off is that you keep paying monthly for as long as you keep the site.
What it really costs in year one
Monthly prices are hard to compare against one-time fees, so here’s a rough first-year total for each:
| Option | Rough first-year cost | What it usually leaves out |
|---|---|---|
| DIY (Wix Core, billed yearly) | About $350, plus your time | Design, writing, updates and fixing things when they break |
| Freelancer | About $1,100–$6,800 | Changes after launch are often billed separately |
| Agency | About $6,200–$27,000 | Usually nothing, but it’s priced for bigger businesses |
| Sitewell Basic | $708 paid monthly, or $590 paid yearly | Online stores and very large sites |
Rough estimates using the ranges above. Freelancer and agency totals include a year of typical upkeep.
DIY is the cheapest by far, as long as your time is free. If building and maintaining a site would take 20 or 30 hours of your evenings, that’s the real price.
Costs people forget
- Your domain name. About $15–$25 a year. Builders often include it free for the first year, then charge for renewal.
- Changes. New prices, new services, holiday hours. With a one-time build, these are often billed by the hour.
- A site that quietly breaks. Contact forms stop sending, buttons point nowhere, the copyright still says 2021. It costs you calls, and you usually don’t notice.
- Photos and writing. Templates look great with stock photos. Real photos of your work and clear words about what you do are what get people to call.
Looking at local business websites around Chico and Redding, the most common problems weren’t ugly designs. They were broken quote buttons, contact forms with no fields and pages with no phone number. Whatever you pay, make sure someone is keeping it working.
Which option fits your business
Build it yourself if you enjoy that kind of thing, have evenings to spare, and are comfortable keeping it updated.
Hire a freelancer or agency if you need something custom, like an online store or booking system, and have the budget for a bigger one-time project.
Use a subscription if you want a professional site without a big upfront bill, and you’d rather text someone “change my hours” than log in and do it yourself.
Common questions
How much should a small business pay for a website?
Most small service businesses in Chico spend somewhere between a few hundred dollars a year (doing it themselves on Wix or Squarespace) and a few thousand (hiring a freelancer or agency). A subscription service is a middle option: no upfront cost and a flat monthly price that includes hosting and changes.
Is Wix cheaper than hiring someone?
On paper, yes. Wix’s main plans run about $17–$39 a month billed yearly. The real cost is your time: building the site, writing it, taking photos and keeping it updated. If you would rather spend that time running your business, hiring someone often costs less overall.
What ongoing costs come with a website?
Plan on a domain name (about $15–$25 a year), hosting, and the cost of changes when your hours, prices or services change. Many one-time builds don’t include changes, so they get billed by the hour later.
Want to see what your site would look like? I build a free demo of your business’s website before you pay anything. Request a free demo or see the plans.
More for local businesses: Websites for Chico small businesses · Websites for Redding small businesses