What a small business website really costs in the Philippines

Ask three people what a business website costs in the Philippines and you will get ₱25,000, ₱90,000, and ₱300,000, all for work described in nearly the same words. The spread is real. Published 2026 pricing pages from Philippine studios put a basic business site somewhere around ₱40,000 to ₱120,000, with boutique studios quoting ₱90,000 to ₱190,000 for small business work and ₱300,000 upward for enterprise projects. Hourly rates in the same published ranges run from ₱600 to ₱4,400.

That is not a market being dishonest. It is a market where the word "website" covers about eight different products. This page is about telling them apart.

What actually moves the number

Pages, but less than you think

Going from four pages to eight rarely doubles a price. Most of the cost is in the first page, because that is where the design, the structure, and the setup happen. Additional pages that reuse the same layout are comparatively cheap.

If a quote scales linearly with page count, ask why.

Whether anyone is writing the words

This is the most commonly underestimated line item. Someone has to write your services, your descriptions, your about page, and your prices. Published add-on rates for copywriting in the Philippines run roughly ₱40,000 to ₱120,000, which can rival the build itself.

Most quotes assume you supply the text. Most clients assume the developer writes it. That gap is where projects stall for two months.

Whether it does anything

A site that displays information is one product. A site that does something is another. Anything that stores data, logs people in, takes payment, or manages a schedule multiplies the work, because now there is a database, an admin view, edge cases, and things that can break at 2am.

Booking is the usual example. "Add online booking" is not a page. It is a system.

Design: template, customized, or original

Three real tiers, and the price gap between them is large:

A template you fill in.
A template customized to your brand.
A design made for your business from scratch.

Most small businesses need the middle one. Many pay for the third without needing it, and some pay for the third and receive the first.

Where the studio is

Agencies in Metro Manila commonly charge 30 to 40 percent more than studios in Cebu, Davao, or elsewhere in the provinces for comparable work. That is a real difference in overhead, not always a difference in quality.

The bands, in plain terms

Under ₱25,000. Usually a solo freelancer, a template, and your own text. It can be genuinely fine for a simple one-page site. The risk is not quality, it is availability: the person may not be reachable in six months when something breaks.

₱25,000 to ₱60,000. A small site, built properly, mobile-first, on your own domain, by someone you can actually reach. This is where most small service businesses should be looking.

₱60,000 to ₱150,000. Larger sites, custom design work, or something that does a job: bookings, a members area, an inventory view. Also where you start paying for a team rather than a person.

₱150,000 and up. Multiple specialists, formal timelines, ongoing support contracts. Correct for a business where the website is a revenue channel rather than a brochure. Overkill for a salon.

The costs quotes leave out

Ask about all four of these before signing anything.

Domain name. A few hundred to a couple of thousand pesos a year. It should be registered in your name, not your developer's.
Hosting and maintenance. Commonly ₱2,000 to ₱10,000 a month depending on what is included. Some sites can be hosted for free; ask whether yours is one.
Content updates. Who changes your prices next year, and what does that cost? Get the number in writing.
The handover. If you and the developer part ways, what do you receive? This is the question that separates a bad experience from a disaster.

How to compare two quotes honestly

Line them up on these, not on the total:

What exactly is being delivered, in pages and features.
Who writes the text.
Who owns the domain, the hosting account, and the code afterward.
What happens after launch, and at what price.
How long it takes, and what happens if it slips.

Two quotes that differ by ₱40,000 usually differ on three of those five. Once you have both answers written down, the cheaper one is sometimes obviously worse and sometimes obviously the same thing.

The honest summary

For most small Philippine service businesses, a useful site that you own and can maintain sits in the ₱25,000 to ₱60,000 range, plus a small ongoing cost. Below that, you are usually buying a template and accepting some risk about support. Above it, you should be able to name the specific feature you are paying for. If you cannot name it, you are probably paying for someone else's overhead.

Figures cited are drawn from publicly published 2026 pricing pages of Philippine web studios and agencies, including Qadra Studio, High6, and JJSC IT. Ranges move, so treat them as a snapshot rather than a quote.