Named, sourced prices for DIY builders, managed website subscriptions, local SEO and ad management in 2026, including ours next to cheaper competitors, plus the break-even math to decide what you can afford.
The short answer
A local service business in 2026 can pay anywhere from about $18 a month to well over $1,500 a month for "a website", and most of the gap is not the website. It is how much of the work you still do yourself: writing, photos, Google Business Profile, reviews, updates, and deciding what to fix when the phone goes quiet.
Every price below was read from the vendor's own pricing page on September 23, 2026, and the sources are listed at the end. We sell one of these options, so our price is in the table too, next to competitors that are cheaper than us.
| Option | Monthly price | Setup | What you still do yourself |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wix (DIY) | $17.77 to $159.77, billed yearly | None | Design, writing, photos, SEO, updates |
| Squarespace (DIY) | $19 to $99 billed yearly, $25 to $139 monthly | None | Design, writing, photos, SEO, updates |
| Goliath Webs (managed, Texas) | $99 | None | Local SEO and Google profile work are not listed as included |
| Handled (managed) | $249 | $399 one time, waived on annual | Approve content and send job photos |
| HomePro Sites Autopilot | $500 | None | Strategy time is in the $1,500 tier |
| HomePro Sites Copilot | $1,500 | None | Little: includes a success manager and 10 dev hours |
DIY builders: cheapest on paper
Wix lists plans from $17.77 to $159.77 a month billed yearly, and Squarespace from $19 to $99 billed yearly, or $25 to $139 if you pay month to month. The software is good. What the price does not include is anyone's time: you write the pages, source the photos, set up the structured data, and keep it current.
That trade is right for some owners. It is wrong for most owners who are on a job site from 7 to 6, because the site gets built once and then quietly goes stale, which is the outcome local search punishes.
Managed website subscriptions: compare what is included, not the sticker
Managed subscriptions bundle the build, hosting and updates into one monthly fee. The range is wide. Goliath Webs, a Texas company serving Houston and Katy, lists one plan at $99 a month with no setup fee. HomePro Sites lists $500 a month for its Autopilot plan and $1,500 for Copilot, with no setup fee on either. Handled is $249 a month plus a one-time $399 setup.
A $99 plan and a $500 plan are not the same product at different prices. Before comparing, ask each one the same four questions. Is Google Business Profile management included, or only the website? Who takes the photos, and are they of your real jobs or stock? What happens to the site and domain if you cancel? And who looks at the numbers each month and tells you what they are changing because of them?
Local SEO on its own
If SEO is sold separately, this is where budgets break. The best public data we know of is Ahrefs' survey of 439 SEO providers: the single most common monthly retainer was $501 to $1,000, charged by 20.4 percent of respondents. The averages run higher, $1,348.63 a month for freelancers and $3,209 for agencies, because a few large retainers pull them up.
So a separate local SEO retainer under $500 a month is at the cheap end of the market, and it is fair to ask what work is actually done each month. Local SEO for a service business is mostly unglamorous: a complete Google Business Profile, consistent listings, a steady flow of real reviews, and pages that say plainly what you do, where, and roughly what it costs. It is also the same work that decides whether AI assistants name you, which is why we include it in the base plan rather than selling it on top.
Ad management
Ad management is a fee for running the campaigns, and it sits on top of what you pay Google or Meta. Percentage-of-spend pricing commonly lands around 10 to 20 percent of monthly spend, usually with a minimum fee, according to OuterBox's pricing guide.
Ours is $399 a month, which covers up to $2,500 of monthly spend; above that it is 12 percent of spend, so the fee follows the size of the account. Whoever you hire, the question that matters is not the fee. It is whether someone reads the search terms report every week and removes the searches that cost money and never call.
How much can you afford? Do the break-even math
You will often read that small businesses should spend 7 to 8 percent of gross revenue on marketing, usually credited to the U.S. Small Business Administration. We could not find that figure on sba.gov when we checked, so treat it as a rule of thumb, not an official number. On $30,000 a month in revenue, it works out to $2,100 to $2,400 a month across all marketing, not just the website.
A more useful test is break-even. Take a first year with Handled: $249 a month plus the $399 setup spread over twelve months is about $282 a month. Assume, for illustration, an average job of $350 at a 50 percent gross margin, which is $175 of profit per job. Two extra jobs a month from the site covers it. Put your own ticket size and margin into the same arithmetic for any vendor, and the right price range for you usually becomes obvious.
Sources, checked September 23, 2026
- Wix plans page, prices billed yearly
- Squarespace pricing page
- Goliath Webs homepage
- HomePro Sites pricing page
- Handled pricing page
- Ahrefs, SEO Pricing survey of 439 SEO providers, updated August 15, 2024
- OuterBox, PPC management pricing
Common Questions
Is a cheaper website always a worse deal?
No. A $99 managed site can be a good deal if it includes what you need. Compare what is included, especially Google Business Profile work, real photos, and what happens to your site if you cancel, rather than the monthly number alone.
Should local SEO be an optional add-on?
For most local service businesses, no. A site without local SEO rarely shows up for the searches that bring calls, and the same work is what AI assistants draw on when they recommend a business.
Do I own the site if I cancel a monthly plan?
It depends on the vendor, so ask in writing before you sign. With Handled you keep your site and content. HomePro Sites says customers can export their content. Some providers keep the design and license it to you only while you pay.