How much does a website cost in Canada?
Real 2026 prices for the three ways a small business gets online: build it yourself, hire a designer, or use a flat-rate service like this one. Written by Jesse Ross, who runs OurHub in Vancouver.
I get asked this every week, usually by someone who has already spent an evening on Wix and given up. The honest answer is that "a website" costs anywhere from nothing to $15,000, and the price tells you almost nothing until you know what is included. So here is what each option actually costs, in Canadian dollars, checked on 2026-09-25.
The short version
| Option | First year | Every year after | Your time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free builder plan (Wix Free) | $0 | $0 | Days. Their ads on your site, no custom domain. |
| Squarespace Basic, billed annually | CA$252 (a domain is free for the first year on annual plans) | about $272 (plan + domain renewal) | Days to build, hours a month to keep up. |
| Wix Light, billed annually | about US$213 + domain | about US$213 + domain | Same as above. Wix prices vary by country. |
| OurHub Starter | $600 ($500 setup + $100/yr) | $100 | A 2-minute form and a 30-minute call. |
| OurHub Complete (own domain, email, editor) | $1,240 ($1,000 setup + $240/yr) | $240 | Same, plus a longer questionnaire. |
| Freelancer or agency | Custom quote, usually thousands | Hosting and updates extra | Meetings, revisions, invoices. |
Sources: squarespace.com/pricing (Basic CA$21/mo billed annually, CA$30 month to month, no free plan, free domain for year one on annual billing, 2% fee on store sales), wix.com/plans (Free $0; Light US$17.77/mo billed yearly, shown in USD as a reference price), and ourhub.ca/whats-included. Domains are usually $15 to $25 a year at Canadian registrars. All prices before tax.
Option 1: build it yourself
Wix, Squarespace and the rest are good products. I am not going to pretend otherwise. If you enjoy fiddling with layouts and you have a free weekend, you can get something online for a couple hundred dollars a year.
What the pricing page does not tell you:
- The free plans show the builder's ads and give you an address like yourname.wixsite.com. That is fine for a hobby. It is not fine on a business card.
- Custom email ([email protected]) is extra. Google Workspace is CA$9.20 per user per month on the monthly plan, so budget another $110 a year for that.
- The template looks like a template. Customers may not be able to say why, but they notice.
- Nobody is going to write your text, fix your photos, or tell you your phone number is missing from the mobile view. You are the web team now.
If you go this route, pick one platform, pay for the cheapest plan that removes the ads and connects a domain, and stop there. The upgrades are rarely worth it for a one-person business.
Option 2: hire a freelancer or an agency
This is where "how much does a website cost" gets vague, because it depends on hours. A freelancer might quote $1,500 for a simple site; an agency with a project manager will quote more. Hosting, domain and updates are usually separate line items, and small changes after launch often go through a ticket and an invoice.
I will not put a hard number on agency pricing here because it varies too much to be useful. Get two quotes and ask each one three questions: what happens when I need a text change, what do I pay per year after launch, and do I own the site if I leave.
For a company with a marketing budget and a complex site, an agency is the right call. For a contractor, a coach or a bakery, it is usually more site than you need at a price that stings.
Option 3: a flat-rate service (what OurHub does)
I started OurHub because there was nothing in between. The Starter package is $500 once and $100 a year. For that you get a site I design and write by hand from your answers, mobile-friendly, with a contact form, SSL, hosting, and two content updates a month where you send me the change and I make it. It lives at yourname.ourhub.ca. Turnaround is three business days.
Complete is $1,000 once and $240 a year, and adds your own .ca or .com domain, a custom email address, a visual editor so you can change text and photos yourself, and the Google setup (Search Console, Business Profile, structured data) that gets a local business found. Identity is $2,000 and adds a logo system and brand guide on top.
What you give up compared to DIY: you do not get to drag boxes around at midnight. What you give up compared to an agency: a discovery phase, a project manager, and a bigger invoice. For most independent businesses in Canada, that trade is the right one.
What actually drives the price up
Whoever builds it, these are the things that add cost, so know which ones you need before you ask for a quote:
- Online store with payments. Real work, ongoing fees from the payment processor.
- Booking systems. Often best handled by linking to a tool you already use (Calendly, Jane, Square) rather than building one.
- Many pages. A one-page site and a twelve-page site are different jobs.
- Writing. If you do not have your text ready, someone has to write it. I include that; many quotes do not.
- Photography. Good phone photos are fine. No photos at all is a problem money has to solve.
Questions people ask me
How much does a small business website cost in Canada?
It depends on who builds it. Do it yourself on Squarespace and you pay CA$252 a year on the Basic plan billed annually (the domain is free the first year, then extra), plus your own time. Have OurHub build it and a Starter site is $500 once plus $100 a year, so $600 in the first year and $100 a year after that. Agencies and freelancers quote custom, usually in the thousands.
What is the cheapest way to get a professional website?
The cheapest cash outlay is a free builder plan, but you get their ads and no custom domain. The cheapest way to get a site that looks like a business and that you do not have to build yourself is a flat-rate service like OurHub's Starter package at $500 plus $100 a year.
Is $100 a year enough to host a website?
Yes. A small business site with a contact form and normal traffic costs very little to host on modern infrastructure. The $100 covers hosting, SSL, storage, and small text or photo changes, two a month.
Do I need my own domain name?
Not on day one. A Starter site lives at yourname.ourhub.ca and works fine on business cards and Google. You can move to your own .ca or .com later by upgrading to Complete, and the domain belongs to you.
What does a website cost per year after the first year?
OurHub Starter: $100. OurHub Complete: $240. OurHub Identity: $300. Both of those include your domain, custom email, the editor and support. Squarespace Basic: about $252 plus your domain once the free first year ends. Wix paid plans start around US$17.77 a month billed yearly, and Wix prices vary by country.
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