What a website costs in Canada

Most small-business websites in Canada land between $2,500 and $8,000. Toronto and Mississauga custom work usually sits in the $3,500–$8,000 band. Shopify stores and custom applications start higher. Those ranges are what operators actually pay in 2026 when they hire a studio instead of a marketplace of themes — not a “starting at $499” number that evaporates at kickoff.

The question Google is matching — how much does a website cost in Canada — is really three questions. What does a five-page site cost? What does a store cost? What does a product surface cost? The table on this page is the honest version. If a proposal does not say which row you are on, it is not a proposal yet.

A five-page business site — home, about, services, proof, contact — typically costs $2,500–$4,500 and takes three to five weeks. That is the bakery, the clinic, the trade, the consultancy. Local SEO foundation is included: NAP consistency, schema for the organisation, a Google Business Profile system, and copy that names the city you actually serve. It is not a template with your logo swapped. It is not a page builder you will outgrow in a year.

A custom marketing site — art direction, a design system, CMS, performance budget, and pages that can rank — typically costs $3,500–$8,000 and takes four to eight weeks. This is the Toronto and Mississauga work we do most. You get senior people on the brief, not a junior handoff after the pitch. You own the files and the domain on launch day. There is no retainer hostage.

A Shopify or WooCommerce store typically costs $5,000–$12,000 and takes six to ten weeks. That covers a custom theme, catalogue architecture, checkout, shipping, taxes, and foundational email (welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase). Complex B2B, subscriptions, wholesale, or custom apps run $12,000–$25,000+. Platform choice is a conversation about who will run the store, not a religion.

A custom web application — auth, dashboards, APIs, the thing your team logs into every morning — typically starts at $12,000 and often lives in the $12,000–$25,000+ band over eight to sixteen weeks. If someone quotes you a “web app” for $4,000, they are selling a brochure with a login screen.

What moves the number up, honestly: a brand system from zero, bilingual or multilingual, complex booking, photography direction on-site, migrations that must preserve ten years of URLs, and integrations with the tools you already run (CRM, inventory, booking, payments). We would rather name those in week one than hide them in a change order in week six.

What should never move the number: a surprise second quote after kickoff, a mandatory twelve-month retainer, lock-in on a proprietary editor, or “SEO extra” for the schema and headings that should have been in the build. Webwave Design is project-based. Thirty days of post-launch support is included. Monthly tides are optional.

Toronto pricing is not Vancouver pricing is not a national average. Downtown agencies still quote $25,000–$80,000 for work that is mostly account management. Freelance marketplaces still quote $800 for work that will not rank. We sit in the gap: Fortune-level craft, North York rent, project pricing a GTA operator can take to a partner without blushing.

Mississauga and Peel operators often ask if they should pay a “Toronto premium.” You should not. You should pay for senior people and a site that can win “web design mississauga” and the service queries that actually make the phone ring. The old thin city pages on this domain sat at position 80–95 with 1,500 impressions and almost no clicks. That is what cheap doorway pages buy. A real page with pricing, proof, and a neighbourhood you can name is cheaper over three years than a $1,200 theme you replace twice.

How we quote: a 30-minute strategy call, an audit of the current URL, a sitemap, a timeline, and a fixed number. Most first conversations last half an hour. If the offer is confused, we will say so before we draw a hero. If WordPress is the right CMS for your editors, we will say so. If Next.js will save you from the theme tax, we will say so. The quote does not change because the discovery was flattering.

Compare apples. Ask who still draws after the contract is signed. Ask who writes the schema. Ask who answers when Core Web Vitals slip. Ask whether the city pages are real or cloned. Ask for live URLs, not mockups. Our live work is 247Techify, CYBRXPRT, arosplatforms, ArosBid, Pine Valley Estates, and Jaguar Home Builders. Click them. Then decide if the number on this page is the right kind of expensive.

A note on retainers. Maintenance is real work: patches, content, uptime, the next campaign page. It should be a numbered list with a monthly price, not a condition of owning your site. If you want to run it yourselves, we train you and step back. If you want us to stay, we propose a tide. Either way the website is yours. That is the difference between a studio and a subscription.

If you are searching this because a previous quote felt like a hostage note, bring it. We will tell you what is theatre and what is scope. Call +1 (647) 289-1315, write connect@webwave.design, or book the strategy call. The people you brief are the people who ship. That is what a professional website costs in Canada in 2026: a number you can plan around, and a site that still looks intentional a year later.