How Much Does a Nonprofit Website Actually Cost?

A treasurer from a small arts organization called us in March. Her board had approved $4,000 for a new website, and she wanted to know, before we sent anything, whether that number was ridiculous.

It wasn't.

It also wasn't going to cover the donor portal and the French translation her wishlist described on page two.

Most people asking how much does a nonprofit website cost already have a number in their head. The useful conversation is about whether that number and the wishlist can live in the same room. Usually one of them has to move.

One disclosure before anything else: we sell websites for a living, so weigh my advice accordingly.

So How Much Does a Nonprofit Website Cost, Really?

Figures below are Canadian dollars. Add GST or HST on top, because the quote almost certainly won't include it and boards get cranky when the invoice lands 13% bigger than the motion they passed.

| What you're buying | Typical cost (CAD) | |---|---| | DIY on Squarespace or Wix | $0 upfront, roughly $20 to $40 per month | | Freelancer, template build | $1,500 to $5,000 | | Studio, template build | $3,500 to $8,000 | | Studio, custom design and build | $10,000 to $25,000 | | Custom portal with donations or member logins | $15,000 to $40,000 and up |

Then the part nobody puts in the board motion. A WordPress site needs hosting at around $30 a month, plus plugin renewals that quietly add up to $200 to $500 a year. A domain runs about $25 a year. A maintenance retainer, if you want a human on call, starts near $100 a month.

None of that is optional. It's just invisible until year two.

Three Organizations, Three Right Answers

A two-person literacy group came to us last year needing a handful of pages: what they do and how to reach them. We told them not to hire us. A studio build would have eaten a third of their annual budget so that a volunteer could later struggle to update it. They built the site themselves on Squarespace over about three weekends, and it does the job.

If that's you, you don't need a studio. You need an afternoon and a template.

The middle case looks different. A food security nonprofit with four programs and a newsletter list that actually converts has a website with a real job to do. Somewhere between $5,000 and $12,000 with a freelancer or small studio is normal there, and the money mostly buys a donation flow that works and program pages staff can update without phoning a developer.

Then the third kind. A band office in northern BC asked us about a members-only area: housing applications and community notices behind a login. That's software wearing a website's clothes, and it prices like software. Expect $15,000 to $40,000 depending on what the portal has to carry, and an honest vendor will say that early instead of surprising you at the proposal stage.

Grant Money Is Strange About Websites

Plenty of funders cap the "website" line item, often around $5,000, regardless of what the site actually does. If your build is really program infrastructure, write it up that way in the application, because the word "website" reads as brochure to a reviewer.

Capital versus operating matters too. A one-time capital grant can pay for the build but usually can't touch hosting in year three. If your funding is project-based, the maintenance money has to come from somewhere with no end date, or the site starts rotting the day the project closes.

(We once watched a funder approve tens of thousands for a video series and question an $800 annual hosting line in the same application. I have thought about that decision far more than the funder ever did. Anyway.)

If you're a registered charity, your bookkeeper can likely recover part of the GST/HST through the public service bodies' rebate. Ask them, not me.

What to Ask Before You Sign Anything

My personal pet peeve, after quoting a few hundred of these: proposals that never say who writes the words. Content is what delays launches by months, and a suspiciously low quote usually means the writing quietly became your job.

So ask that one directly.

Then ask what a small text change costs in year two, and who picks up the phone when the donation form dies the week of your year-end campaign. A cheap site nobody can maintain gets expensive. A pricey site full of features nobody opens was never a bargain either. The right number is whatever's attached to a site your actual staff, the ones you have now, will still be updating in 2028.

If you'd rather talk through your situation before anyone quotes you anything, talk to us. Bring the wishlist and the number. We'll tell you which one has to move.