Website kit, freelancer or local web designer: what does each really cost?

We read the prices each company publishes on its own pages on October 21, 2026, and worked out three years from them. A kit is one price. A freelancer's price depends on the job. A local designer's plan is often a setup fee plus a monthly fee. Three years here is arithmetic on the published numbers, if you keep the service that long. Tax is not in any figure.

Upwork's own page says web designers on Upwork cost $15 to $30 an hour, as median hourly rates in US dollars.¹ Its client pricing page lists protected payments, where you pay only for approved work from escrow, and verified reviews and work history.⁷ It also lists the fees: a 5% service fee on the Basic plan, 10% on Business Plus, and a one-time contract initiation fee on each new contract.⁷

Fiverr's hiring guide shows August 3, 2026 under its title, and it frames its figures as 2025 prices. It gives $30 to $200 an hour, $1,000 to $5,000 for a basic website for a small company, and $500 to $2,000 a month for ongoing support.² It says most hosts sell a combined yearly package between $50 and $300 a year, and it suggests handling the domain, hosting setup and SSL yourself to keep the design bill down.² Fiverr's help page says its service fee is 5.5% of your purchase plus $3.50 on orders under $200, and that you can review it before you confirm payment.⁸

The two marketplaces' own pages disagree about what an hour costs, $15 to $30 on one and $30 to $200 on the other. That is why we would ask any freelancer for a written quote for the whole job, with the hosting and web address spelled out, before you read anything into an hourly rate.

These are the local web design businesses we read, each from its own page. We use only what the page says. Where a page gives no price or no term, the table says so. A page's date is the day we read it.

• Queens Web Design shows the lowest monthly price we found, $39, and says it offers maintenance on a monthly plan or as needed.⁹

• Simply Html says it bundles a website, hosting and a domain for one price, and that it will update your site any day.¹⁰

• MIS Services publishes three one-time packages with unlimited changes during the included support months, and offers a free 30-minute audit before a custom quote.¹¹

• New York Web Design publishes the lowest one-time prices we found, says sites go live in about 5 days, and says you can edit your own site with AI.¹²

• Web Design by Robert says there are no long-term contracts, includes copywriting and stock photography in the setup, and offers a free homepage mockup.¹³

• EBX Web Design Services includes hosting, SSL, maintenance and basic on-page search work in its first plan, says there are no long-term contracts, and offers a free mockup.¹⁴

• Oak Harbor Web Designs includes hosting, unlimited edits and 24/7 support in its monthly plan, and lists no separate setup price for it.¹⁵

• Bracha Designs lists its package prices, calls them estimates, and offers maintenance plans month to month with cancel anytime. Each plan lists 2 hours a month of content updates, software updates and malware protection.^{16, 17}

• Design Brooklyn lists a street address in Brooklyn and says it offers reduced rates for qualifying small businesses and 501(c)(3) nonprofits.¹⁸

• Emma Tang Designs offers a free consultation and covers website design, branding, graphic design, email and social media marketing and search work in one place.¹⁹

• The work done for you. Web Design by Robert lists copywriting and stock photography in its setup, and EBX lists copywriting and stock images in its first plan.^{13, 14}

• Hosting, updates and support in one fee. Web Design by Robert's $75 a month covers hosting, security and updates, and Oak Harbor's $175 a month lists hosting, unlimited edits and 24/7 support.^{13, 15}

• A mockup before you commit. Web Design by Robert and EBX both offer a free mockup.^{13, 14}

• A stated launch time. New York Web Design says about 5 days, Web Design by Robert says as little as one week, EBX says 7 to 10 business days and MIS Services says 3 to 4 weeks for a basic business site.^{11, 12, 13, 14}

• A single price. A Classic kit is $39.99 once, and there is no monthly fee.³ You pay for a web address each year, and Cloudflare says requests for static files are free and unlimited on its free plan.⁶

• Files you keep. A kit is plain files that move to any host. The kit page says the license is for one business and one website.³

• The catch. You write the words, choose the photos and follow the guide to put the site online. Our Classic and Motion kits use tap-to-call links and have no form, so they take no orders or bookings.²⁰ If you would rather not do the work, a designer's price pays for that.

A few kits to look at: Plumber, Electrician, Hair salon and Cleaning service. The whole list is at website kits. For a builder that does a lot of the work for a monthly fee, see website kit or Wix and Squarespace alternatives with no monthly fee. For the wider picture, see what a small business website costs and build your own website or hire a designer. To weigh a kit, a builder and a designer together, see kit, builder or web designer: which to choose.

1. What exactly is included: the pages, the words, the photos, the web address, the hosting and the changes?

2. What do I pay after the first year, and for how long? Some of the pages above show a free first year and a fee after it.¹²

3. Is there a minimum term, and what does cancelling cost? Two of the pages above say no long-term contracts, and some do not say.^{13, 14, 15}

4. Who owns the site and the web address if I leave? The pricing pages we read mostly do not say, so ask.

5. What does an extra page or a change cost? Two of the pages above list $100 for an extra page.^{14, 15}

6. Can I see a mockup first?

7. Can I have all of it in writing, with one price for the whole job?

We build custom sites as well as sell kits. This is our promise, in our words:

• Price: show us a written quote from another web designer for the same site, and we'll beat it.

• Quality: if your new site doesn't score higher than your old one on our free website check, we'll fix it at no charge.

To ask for a quote, tell us about your business. To see the check, run it on your site.

We read each company's own pages on October 21, 2026, and worked out the three-year figures from the published prices. We used only what each page says. We did not use directory listings or reviews, and we leave out any website-check score. We sell kits and build custom sites, so we have a stake in this question. Prices change, and a page can say more than we read on the one page we opened, so check before you pay anyone.