Yes, websites cost money both upfront and ongoing. Even free website builders come with hidden costs once you need a custom domain, remove branding, or add functionality beyond basic templates. Upfront costs break into three buckets. Domain registration runs $15–$50 CAD per year for a .com or .ca. Hosting starts around $5–$20/month for shared hosting, $50–$200/month for VPS or managed WordPress hosting. Design and development vary wildly: DIY platforms like Wix or Squarespace cost $15–$40/month but limit customization, template-based WordPress builds run $500–$3,000, and custom-coded sites range from $5,000 to six figures depending on complexity and agency rates. Ongoing costs are non-negotiable. Hosting and domain renewals repeat annually. SSL certificates are often included now but previously added $50–$200/year. Maintenance—security updates, backups, plugin updates, content changes—costs $50–$500/month depending on whether you handle it yourself or hire help. Ignoring maintenance is how sites get hacked or break after a plugin update. Ottawa SEO typically builds WordPress sites in the $2,500–$8,000 range for local businesses, including mobile-responsive design, basic SEO setup, and training. We host our portfolio on managed infrastructure around $100–$300/month per cluster because uptime and speed matter for SEO. For clients, we recommend budgeting 10–15% of the initial build cost annually for maintenance and updates. The "free website" trap catches a lot of businesses. You might launch on Wix for zero upfront, but a year later you're locked into their ecosystem, paying monthly fees that exceed what a self-hosted WordPress site would have cost, and you can't export your content easily. Free works for testing an idea. For anything you plan to grow, budget real money from day one. Cheap sites cost more long-term when you rebuild from scratch because the foundation was garbage.