What a small business in Connecticut should actually expect to pay.
When you are starting a business, a $15 per month website builder sounds a lot better than a $3,000 custom build. I get it. The problem is that the monthly sticker price is almost never the real cost.
This is a straight answer to the question most business owners are afraid to ask: what does a website actually cost, and is it worth it? No sales pitch. Just the numbers.
Wix, Squarespace, and similar platforms advertise a low entry price. In practice, the cost goes up quickly:
None of this is meant to say DIY is always wrong. For a business that just needs a one page presence and has time to spare, it can be a fine first step. But "cheap" is a moving target, and most owners realize the real cost only after the site has been live for a year.
Across Connecticut, a custom website from a professional studio typically falls in these ranges:
Those numbers include design, development, deployment, and usually a period of post launch support. They do not include ongoing hosting, domain renewal, or future updates, which I will cover in a moment.
If you see a quote well below that range from an agency, ask what is actually being delivered. Sometimes it is a template customized with your logo. Sometimes it is a WordPress site with a paid theme and a handful of plugins. Both can work. Neither is the same thing as a custom build.
Maya Standard's pricing is intentionally below the market range above. That is not because corners are cut. It is because the overhead is not there.
A typical agency carries project managers, account managers, sales staff, an office, and marketing costs. Every one of those roles adds to your bill. When you work with Maya Standard, you work directly with the person writing the code. No middle layer. No markup built on top of markup.
The result is a custom built, performance optimized website at roughly the entry level of what a small business would pay a larger agency for a smaller site. You are not paying less for less. You are paying less because there is less overhead between you and the work.
For the specifics on current pricing, see the pricing page.
Whichever route you take, every website has real ongoing costs. Nothing here is optional if you want the site to keep working:
Anyone who tells you a website has no ongoing cost is either selling you something or has never maintained one. The honest answer is that ongoing maintenance is what keeps the site fast, secure, and online.
Here is where the math starts to feel less like an expense and more like an investment.
Say your average customer is worth $500. That could be a single job, a one time purchase, or the first year of a relationship. Now say your new website brings in just two extra customers per month. That is $1,000 per month, or $12,000 per year.
If the website cost $3,000, it pays for itself in three months. Everything after that is profit on the investment.
Even a modest site that brings in one extra customer per month covers most builds inside a year. That is the standard the site should be judged by. Not "does it look nice" but "does it bring in more business than it cost."
If the answer is no, the site is not doing its job. That is true whether it cost $300 or $30,000.
The question is not "which website is cheapest." The question is "which website will bring in the most business for the money I spend."
DIY builders can work for a first site or a side project. Custom websites make sense when you want a site that loads fast, ranks well, and actually converts visitors into customers without ongoing work from you.
If you are trying to figure out which side of that line your business falls on, reach out to Maya Standard. I will tell you honestly whether a custom build makes sense for you, or whether a simpler option is the better fit right now. No pressure, no pitch.
For more context on choosing between platforms, see WordPress, Wix, or Custom. For the case that every business needs a real website, even with a strong social media presence, see Why Every Business Needs a Website.
