A basic brochure website with 5–10 pages runs $2,500–$5,000 if you work with a competent freelancer or small agency. Add e-commerce, custom functionality, or 20+ pages of content and you're looking at $7,000–$15,000. Enterprise sites with complex integrations, membership systems, or multilingual requirements can exceed $25,000. These figures assume professional design, mobile responsiveness, and basic on-page SEO. Beyond the build, expect $50–$150 monthly for shared hosting and security updates, or $200–$500 if you need managed WordPress hosting, CDN, and proactive maintenance. Marketing-focused sites that integrate CRM, analytics dashboards, or A/B testing tools add another layer of cost—budget 15–25% more upfront and higher monthly fees. The biggest cost driver is content. If you provide finished text and images, you save thousands. If the agency writes 30 pages of copy, shoots photos, and produces videos, add $3,000–$10,000. Custom illustrations or interactive elements push costs higher. Template-based builders like Wix or Squarespace cost $200–$600 annually but limit SEO control and scalability, which is why we steer clients toward WordPress or headless CMS setups for long-term ROI. At Ottawa SEO Inc., we typically quote $4,500–$8,500 for a standard business site because we build with organic search in mind from day one—proper schema markup, crawl-optimized architecture, and conversion-focused layouts. We also factor in whether the client needs bilingual French-English content, which is common in the Ottawa-Gatineau market and adds 20–30% to writing costs. Hidden expenses to watch for include SSL certificates (often free with Let's Encrypt), premium plugins ($50–$300/year), and domain registration ($15–$40/year). Always clarify what's included in the quote: revisions, training, post-launch support, and whether design mockups cost extra.