How much does a website cost in Canada? The number most owners actually want is monthly, not a build quote. At Web Maintained the design and build are included. You pay a flat CAD care fee: Care is $129 per month, Care Plus is $249, Care Pro is $449, with a three-month starter term, then month-to-month. That is hosting, SSL, backups, SEO foundations, and monthly edit hours — not a second invoice.
A DIY builder, a one-time agency project, or WordPress can still be the right path. The rest of this guide shows what those cost over 3 and 12 months so you can compare. Figures are typical 2026 CAD ranges for a brochure or lead-generation site — not an online store, and not a quote from any specific company. For Wix, Squarespace, and AI draft tools specifically, see website builders vs. a managed site.
Website cost per month in Canada
Monthly is where quotes hide. A $20 Wix plan is not the same product as a $129 managed site, and a $0 WordPress install is not the same as a $200 retainer. Use this as a map of what you are still paying every month after launch.
| Path | Typical monthly CAD | What that monthly fee usually covers |
|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace, similar) | $20–$60 platform, plus your evenings | Hosting on their servers. Not design help, not SEO work, not someone to fix a broken form. |
| One-time agency, then you own it | $15–$50 hosting, plus hourly changes | The server. Copy, hours, and Google work are extra — often $100–$175/hour. |
| WordPress + a retainer | $100–$400 care, plus hosting if unbundled | Updates, backups, a few edits. Plugins and rebuilds still show up as projects. |
| Web Maintained Care | $129 | Hosting, SSL, backups, SEO foundations, 1 hour of edits. Build was included. |
| Web Maintained Care Plus | $249 | Everything in Care, more pages and hours, Analytics and Search Console watched. |
| Web Maintained Care Pro | $449 | Monthly SEO improvements from Search Console, not just a well-built site. |
6- and 12-month examples (CAD)
These are worked examples for a typical service-business site — homepage, services, about, contact — not a store. DIY time is not converted to a dollar wage; it is listed so you can price your own evenings. Agency and WordPress builds use the middle of the ranges below.
| Path | 3 months | 12 months | What you still own |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder | $75–$200 platform fees | $300–$800 platform fees | The build, the updates, and every broken form |
| One-time agency | $3,000–$8,000 + ~$45–$150 hosting | Same build + $180–$600 hosting, plus hourly changes | Finding someone when copy, hours, or SEO drift |
| WordPress + retainer | Build $3,000–$8,000 + $300–$1,200 care | Build + $1,200–$4,800 care | Plugin risk, or paying someone who absorbs it |
| Web Maintained Care | $387 ($129 × 3) | $1,548 ($129 × 12) | About 30 minutes to start, then email us edits |
| Web Maintained Care Plus | $747 ($249 × 3) | $2,988 ($249 × 12) | Analytics setup plus we watch how Google sees you |
| Web Maintained Care Pro | $1,347 ($449 × 3) | $5,388 ($449 × 12) | Monthly search improvements, not just upkeep |
DIY website builder cost
Wix, Squarespace, and similar tools look cheap because the advertised price is just the platform. In Canada that is usually about $20–$60 CAD per month for a usable plan (custom domain, no “made with…” badge, basic forms). Add a .ca domain at roughly $15–$25 per year if it is not bundled.
The real cost is time. A first site from a template often takes 20–80 hours: picking a theme, rewriting copy, compressing photos, fighting mobile layout, connecting email, and guessing at SEO. Apps and “premium” features (booking, extra storage, removing ads) stack on top. After launch you still own plugin updates, broken forms, and the next redesign when the template ages. AI “website builders” skip some of the clicking and none of the hosting, Google, or upkeep. That split is the builders, agency, and managed Care guide.
- Platform: typically $240–$720 CAD per year
- Domain: $15–$25 CAD per year if billed separately
- Your time: often 20–80 hours to launch, then evenings when something breaks
- Hidden extras: booking apps, extra contributor seats, professional email
One-time agency project cost
A custom small-business site from a Canadian studio or freelancer commonly lands between $3,000 and $8,000 CAD for a brochure site. Brand-heavy or custom-app work runs $10,000–$25,000+. That invoice is usually design and build only. Hosting, SSL, backups, and “can you change the hours?” are extra — hourly, or a retainer you discover later.
Agencies earn that fee when you need a unique campaign site, a complex web app, or a team that will sit in a room with your brand manager. For a plumber, bookkeeper, or shop that needs to be found on Google, you are often paying for process: kickoffs, decks, and revision rounds you did not ask for.
- Build: typically $3,000–$8,000 CAD for a small brochure site
- Hosting after handoff: $15–$50 CAD per month if they even include it
- Changes: quoted, then billed hourly (often $100–$175 CAD/hour)
- SEO: frequently a separate monthly retainer
London Ontario & Southwestern Ontario — public package ranges (2026)
Local buyers comparing web design in London, Ontario often see three price shapes: DIY platforms, a project fee from a studio or freelancer, then optional care/SEO. Public list prices and local cost posts around September 2026 (verify on each vendor’s site for current CAD/HST) include: SmartWebPros site packages about $650–$3,150+ with SEO about $450–$850/month; Canada Web Pro managed WordPress builds from about $2,900–$6,000+; RenEH Designs packages around $2,000 / $5,000 / $8,000; Blake Strategies care from about $79/month after a separate build. Full-service agencies often keep pricing off the page.
Web Maintained’s Care path is different: the custom build is included in $129 / $249 / $449 CAD monthly care after a homepage preview — not a free website, and not a $3,000–$8,000 invoice before month one. The three-way split (builder vs agency vs Care) is spelled out in builders, agency, and managed Care.
WordPress maintenance cost
WordPress is free software. WordPress as a business website is not free. Self-hosted WordPress needs hosting ($10–$40 CAD/month for ordinary plans; $40–$80+ for managed WordPress hosts), a theme, plugins, backups, SSL, and someone who will update core, themes, and plugins before they become a security hole.
If you hire an agency to build the WordPress site, add the $3,000–$8,000 build. Then add a maintenance retainer — commonly $100–$400 CAD per month for updates, backups, and a few content edits. Skip the retainer and you either spend evenings in the dashboard or wait until the site is hacked or painfully slow.
We wrote a fuller comparison of what actually changes when you leave the plugin model in Low-Maintenance Website vs. WordPress.
Managed monthly website cost
A managed monthly site folds design, build, hosting, updates, and SEO foundations into one CAD invoice. That is the fully managed websites model: we design it, build it, host it, update it, and keep it found. You are not buying a CMS login. You email changes; we ship them inside the monthly hour allotment. See plans for what each tier includes.
When each option makes sense
- DIY builder — you like tinkering, budget is tight, and the site is not how you get customers yet.
- One-time agency — you need a custom build, you have someone to maintain it, or the project has a fixed end.
- WordPress — you have an editor who will live in the CMS, you need a plugin ecosystem (memberships, heavy blogging), and you will fund updates.
- Managed monthly — you run a service business, you want one CAD bill, and you would rather email a change than log into a dashboard.
If “easy to maintain” is the actual requirement, start with what makes a website easy to maintain and the small-business maintenance checklist. The cost comparison only works if someone is still doing that work a year from now.