What a Website Costs a Small Business in Nova Scotia
Real prices for a small business website in Nova Scotia: doing it yourself, a monthly builder, a freelancer or an agency, and what each one gets you.
A small business website in Nova Scotia costs anywhere from about $200 a year to $10,000 or more. Building it yourself on Wix or Squarespace runs about $20 to $45 a month. A freelancer usually charges $1,500 to $5,000, and an agency $3,000 to $10,000 or more.
What moves the price is simple. How many pages you need. Who writes the words. And whether you keep paying every month after it goes live.
The four ways to get a website
Build it yourself
Wix and Squarespace let you build a site from a template. Plans start around $20 a month, and Wix's Business plan is $44 a month in Canada.
What you get is a site you control, built on your own evenings. The catch is that you pay every month for as long as it is up. If you stop paying, the site goes. And most owners find the building takes far longer than they expected.
Hire a freelancer
Canadian guides put a freelancer's small business site at $1,500 to $5,000. One Halifax firm quotes $1,500 to $8,000 for a small business site.
Quality varies more here than anywhere. Two quotes for "a five page website" can mean very different things. Ask what is included, page by page.
Hire an agency
An agency charges $3,000 to $10,000 or more. You get a team: a designer, a writer, someone who plans how the site brings in work.
It is worth it if you need a lot of pages, an online store, or help working out what to say. For a café or a contractor who needs to be found and called, it is usually more than you need.
A small site from a local builder
This is where my South Shore offer fits. It is $500, once, with no monthly fee. Hosting is included.
It is small on purpose. One long page or a handful of short ones. Your own words, tidied. Your own photos, cleaned up. Tap to call, a map, and a form that emails you.
What it is not: I do not write your marketing, and it is not an online store. It costs $500 because a small site takes a few hours to build, and because I am new to the South Shore and want local businesses on board. I build it first, and you only pay if you like it.
The costs people forget
The build is not the whole bill. Ask about these before you agree to anything.
- The domain. Your address, like
yourbusiness.ca, costs about $15 to $30 a year. Keep it in your own name. Domains, in plain language explains why. - Hosting. Where the site lives. On its own it runs from a few dollars to $50 a month.
- Changes. New hours, a new photo, a price change. Some designers charge for each one. Some sell a monthly plan.
- Email. An address at your own domain, through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, is its own monthly bill.
- Your time. Sending the words and the photos is the slowest part, whoever builds it.
What decides the price
Five things, roughly in order:
- How many pages. One long page costs far less than twenty.
- Who writes the words. Writing is real work. If the designer writes them, you pay for it.
- What it has to do. Booking, payments and an online store all add cost.
- A template or a custom design. A template is cheaper. A custom design looks like nobody else.
- What happens each month. Hosting, updates, backups and small changes.
How to tell if a quote is fair
A fair quote says what you get, page by page. It says what you will pay every month after launch, and what that money is for. It says who owns the domain and the site if you leave. And the person behind it can show you sites they built for businesses like yours.
If a quote cannot answer those four, ask before you sign. Choosing a web designer on the South Shore has the full list of questions.
Questions owners ask about website costs
Is a $500 website any good? It depends on what you need. A café, a trade or a shop that needs to be found, look trustworthy and get calls can do well with a small site. A business that sells online or publishes a lot needs more.
Why do some designers charge a monthly fee? To pay for hosting, security updates, backups and small changes. Some monthly fees cover real work. Ask what yours pays for.
Can I use a free website? Free plans show the builder's ads and put your site on their address, not your own. That looks less trustworthy to a customer, and the address is never yours.
How long does a small website take? Once you send your details and photos, a small site can be ready in days. A large site with a lot of writing takes weeks or months.
