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How much does a website cost in Oakville?
The short answer: a landing page here starts at $1,250 and a full website starts at $2,500. If you look at what other Oakville-area studios publish this year, you’ll see fixed packages under $1,000 at one end, and custom builds quoted at $3,000 to $8,000 and up at the other. Every one of those numbers is honest. They describe different jobs.
What’s useful to know is what moves a quote from one end of that range to the other, what you keep paying after launch, and how to tell whether two quotes are for the same thing. That’s what this page covers.
Your options
The four kinds of website you can buy
A website builder you run yourself
Wix, Squarespace and similar platforms charge a monthly plan fee, and you do the work. For a sole trader who needs a phone number and a few photos online, this is a reasonable start. The catch is that you’re renting. Stop paying and the site goes, and moving off the platform usually means rebuilding from scratch.
A fixed-price package
A set number of pages for a set fee, built quickly. These can be good value when your business fits the package. Look closely at who writes the words, whether every service gets its own page, and what happens when you need something the package doesn’t include.
A custom build from a small studio
This is where I work. The site is designed for your business, has a page for each service and each area you cover, and comes with the technical SEO done before launch rather than sold to you afterwards. The person you talk to is the person building it.
An agency build
Account managers, a design team, a developer, a project manager. That structure makes sense for large sites with many stakeholders. Most Oakville small businesses are paying for coordination they don’t need.
Behind the quote
What actually moves the price
A ten-page site can be a very small job or a big one. Two ten-page quotes that are thousands of dollars apart can both be fair. These are the factors that create the gap.
How many pages, and why
A site that ranks locally usually needs a page per service and per area you serve. A plumber who does drains, water heaters and renovations across Oakville, Burlington and Milton has a real reason for a dozen pages, and each one has to be written properly.
Who writes the copy
If you supply finished text and photos, the job is smaller. If the designer is working out what to say, interviewing you, and writing pages that answer what people actually search for, that’s real work, and it should show up in the quote.
Custom functionality
Booking, quote calculators, product catalogues, integrations with software you already use. Most local businesses don’t need any of it. When they do, it’s often the biggest single line on the quote.
Selling online
A WooCommerce store needs product structure, payments, shipping, tax settings and a checkout that works on a phone. It costs more than a brochure site because there’s more that can go wrong with someone’s money.
Replacing an existing site
A redesign carries a cost that a new build doesn’t: making sure you keep the rankings you already have. Every old URL needs to point to its new home. Skipping that step is the most common way a redesign quietly loses traffic, and it’s one of the main differences between a cheap rebuild and a careful one.
Two ten-page quotes that are thousands of dollars apart can both be fair.
Ongoing costs
What you pay after launch
The build is a one-time cost. A few costs keep going after that.
Domain name. A small yearly fee, and it should be registered in your name, not the designer’s.
Hosting. This ranges from a few dollars a month for basic shared hosting to more for managed hosting that’s configured, cached and backed up for you.
Maintenance. WordPress core, plugin and theme updates, off-server backups, security monitoring, and checking that your contact form still delivers. You can do this yourself, and plenty of business owners do. A care plan here starts at $75 a month.
SEOOptional Ongoing work to climb local rankings: Google Business Profile management, new pages, reviews and reporting. Local SEO here starts with a $750 setup, and the monthly plan starts at $750. It’s optional, and a well-built site with a maintained Google Business Profile is enough for some businesses.
Good to know
None of the monthly pieces should be compulsory or locked into a long contract. Every monthly plan here is month to month.
Comparing quotes
Questions to ask before you sign
Do I own the domain, the content and the site files?
You should own all three outright. If the answer involves the word “licence”, ask what happens when you leave.
How many pages, and what is each one for?
A good quote lists the pages and explains why each exists. “Up to ten pages” tells you very little.
Who writes the words?
Find out whether copywriting is included, and whether the pages are planned around what people search for.
If I’m replacing a site, how will you protect my rankings?
Listen for “redirect mapping” or “301s”. If the answer is vague, expect a traffic drop.
What happens after launch?
Ask about training, a support window, and whether a monthly plan is optional.
Redesigning?
Skipping redirect mapping is the most common way a redesign quietly loses traffic. Ask about it before you sign.
Pricing
What a site costs here
Usually live within a week.
With service and location pages.
With redirects mapped.
Hosting, updates, backups, edits.
Month to month.
Two to three weeks for most buildsThree clients at a timeBuilt on WordPressYou own all of it
Those are starting points. I give a proper quote after a short call, because the factors above decide where a project lands. Most builds take two to three weeks, and I take on three clients at a time, so nothing waits behind someone else’s project. Every site is built on WordPress, and you own all of it.
Sometimes the honest answer is a repair, not a rebuild.
Before you spend anything, it’s worth finding out whether you need a new site at all. Sometimes the honest answer is a repair, or a Google Business Profile and some reviews, and not a rebuild.
Keep reading
How the work is handled
Send me your URL for a free audit
I’ll look at the site myself and email you back what’s working, what isn’t, and roughly what fixing it would cost, within one business day.