One Page Website Cost: What a Single-Page Site Costs, and When It Is Enough

"Just a simple page" is the most common request for a small business website, and the hardest to price, because everyone means something different. So first a definition, then the prices.

Key takeaways

• A one page website puts everything on a single scrolling page: offer, about, proof and contact.
• Having one built costs $500 to $5,000 in most cases; a fully custom page from a large agency $5,000 to $10,000.
• Building it yourself on a builder costs about $12 to $36 a month.
• One page can only rank for a narrow set of searches, which is its main limit.
• The build is cheap. What adds up is every later change you can't make yourself.

What a one page website is

A one page website puts everything on a single scrolling page, usually in this order:

• What you do and for whom, in one sentence at the top
• Your services, briefly
• About you, with a photo
• Proof: reviews, logos, a few numbers
• Contact: form, phone, address, map

For trades, practices, consultants and local service firms, that is often all a visitor needs. Small nonprofits have a few extra things to plan for, from grants to volunteer handovers: Nonprofit website cost. It is not a one page site any more once you add online booking, several languages, a blog or a page per service.

What a one page website costs

The range is wide because "one page" at a freelancer often means a template with your text dropped in, while an agency adds design and review rounds. For most small businesses the template is the sensible choice. When custom design pays off: Custom website vs template.

What it costs to run

• Domain: $10 to $20 a year.
• Hosting: a static one page site can run on free or very cheap hosting; a builder plan costs $12 to $36 a month.
• Maintenance: close to nothing for a static page, more for a WordPress page with plugins.

Those are the technology costs. The other monthly costs of a business website, from legal tools to content, are in How much does a website cost per month.

The limit of one page: search

A single page can only be about so many things. Google's SEO Starter Guide describes organizing a site by topic, so that people and search engines can tell what each page is about. On a one page site, "emergency plumber", "boiler service" and "bathroom renovation" all compete for the same page. If search is how new customers find you, a page per service usually wins more work than one long page.

How small businesses win customers from search and AI assistants: Get new customers from search.

Where a one page website gets expensive

Not in the build. It gets expensive when you can't change it yourself:

• New opening hours, a new team member, a new service: each change is billed by the freelancer or agency, typically $75 to $150 an hour.
• The page goes stale because a few sentences aren't worth a billed hour, and after two years it looks neglected.
• After a few years, a rebuild is due instead of steady small improvements.

If you like building and editing yourself, a builder is the cheapest route; our website builder comparison shows which one suits you. If you would rather not touch it, look for a model where changes are included.

Which route fits you?

• You have the time and enjoy it: a builder, built yourself.
• You want it done once and rarely changed: a freelancer with a template. Make sure the domain and hosting are in your name.
• You never want to touch it, but it should stay current: a managed service with changes included.
• You have no site yet: describe it and we draft it. See Build a new site.

Local service business? See how ShiftPress works for practices, firms and local services.

Frequently asked questions

The bottom line

A one page website doesn't have to be expensive: from a free builder to a few thousand dollars at an agency, every budget works. The real question is who keeps it current in two years, and what each change costs.