20-page website cost: What you really pay for a small business site

When people ask about the 20-page website cost, the total price to build a small business website with around twenty distinct pages. Also known as small business website pricing, it’s rarely a flat fee—what you pay depends on how it’s built, who builds it, and what it needs to do. A 20-page site isn’t just a bigger version of a 5-page site. It’s a system. Each page adds complexity: contact forms, image galleries, product listings, blog sections, mobile responsiveness, and SEO structure. And if you want it to actually work well—load fast, rank on Google, and convert visitors—you’re not just paying for content placement. You’re paying for web development, the process of building functional, responsive, and maintainable websites using code and design principles.

Most people assume a 20-page site costs $2,000 or $5,000. But that’s only true if you use a template, copy-paste content, and skip testing. Real freelance web developer, an independent professional who builds and maintains websites for clients, often specializing in front-end or full-stack development. rates vary by skill, location, and experience. In the UK, a solid freelancer might charge £40–£100/hour. A basic 20-page site can take 40–80 hours to build properly. That’s £1,600 to £8,000. And that’s before content writing, images, hosting, or ongoing updates. If you go with a cheap agency or a Fiverr gig, you might get a site that looks fine at first—then breaks on mobile, loads slowly, or gets hacked because it’s built on outdated code.

What makes one 20-page site cost twice as much as another? It’s not the number of pages—it’s the responsive website, a website that automatically adjusts its layout to work perfectly on phones, tablets, and desktops. design. It’s the custom navigation. It’s the form validation. It’s the fact that the contact page actually sends emails. It’s the SEO-friendly URLs and clean HTML. A cheap site might use a drag-and-drop builder like Wix—easy, but locked-in and slow. A good site is built from scratch with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, optimized for speed and search engines. That’s what separates a $2,000 site from a $6,000 one.

You don’t need a huge budget to get a solid 20-page site. But you do need to know what you’re paying for. The posts below break down real pricing, what skills drive costs, how freelancers charge, and why skipping basics like mobile optimization or clean code will cost you more later. Whether you’re a small business owner, a startup founder, or just trying to understand web pricing—this collection gives you the facts, not the fluff.