warebyhow to make your own website for your small business
most small businesses have a website now, but plenty of makers sell without one. here’s what a site needs to do for you, what it costs, and the quickest ways to get one.
in this post
1do you need one?2what it needs to do3your options4step by step5your own domain6showing up7free options8questions9sourcesyou don’t need a big website to sell, but you do need a place online that’s yours: somewhere people can see what you make, order, and find out when and where to pick up. the quickest options are a shop page on a marketplace or a free store. a website you can sell from costs about $19 to $39 a month on squarespace, wix or shopify’s entry plans, plus card fees, and your own domain starts at about $9 a year. a 2025 clutch survey found 83% of small businesses now have a website.
do you need a website for a small business?
you need somewhere online that’s yours. it doesn’t have to be a big website.
people look you up before they buy. brightlocal’s 2026 survey found 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, and 54% visit a business’s website after reading good ones. clutch found 83% of small businesses had a website in 2025, up from 64% in 2018.
owners without one usually aren’t against it. they’re busy. in small business majority’s surveys, 48% of owners without a website said they lacked the time and resources, 41% used social media instead, and 36% said the cost was too high.
what does a maker’s website actually need to do?
less than you’d think. four jobs:
a big custom site with a blog and a long story is nice to have. it isn’t what gets the first order.
what are the ways to get a website, and what do they cost?
| option | what it costs | good for | the catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| a website builder: wix, squarespace | to sell: from $19 a month billed yearly on squarespace basic (plus a 2% transaction fee) or $29 on wix core, plus card fees | a full site you design yourself | you build it, and you bring the visitors. wix’s free plan can’t take payments |
| a store builder: shopify | $39 a month ($29 billed yearly) + 2.9% + 30¢ a sale | a serious online store | more than most makers need at first |
| a free store: square online, big cartel | $0 a month, plus card fees | a simple order page | their branding or product limits, and no domain of your own on square’s free plan |
| a marketplace shop page: wareby | free to start. 10% + 3% + 30¢ a sale | a shop people nearby can already find | it lives on wareby. your own web address comes with found, $29 a month |
| social media only | free | showing your work | you don’t own it, and checkout inside instagram and facebook shops ended in the us in 2025 |
how do you make your own website?
- pick your name, and check it’s free as a web address and on instagram.
- choose how you’ll build it, from the options above. if you want orders this week, start with a shop page or a free store, and build a bigger site later.
- add your best 5 to 10 items with daylight photos and clear prices.
- connect payments, and set your pickup times, delivery area or shipping rates.
- write a short about section: who you are, what you make, and your city.
- get your own domain and point it at your site (more below).
- make it findable on google and in ai answers (below), then put the link everywhere.
how do you get your own domain name?
a domain is your address, like yourshop.com. you rent it by the year, from a domain company or from your site builder. shopify says its domains typically start at $9 a year, and wix and squarespace include one free for the first year on yearly plans. after that, you pay the yearly price.
pick something short, easy to spell out loud, and close to your shop’s name. on wareby, the found and loved plans include your own web address for your shop, like yourshop.com.
how do you show up on google and in ai answers?
the same things help both, because ai answers draw on the same pages search engines read. brightlocal’s 2026 survey found 45% of consumers now use ai tools for local recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier.
- a free google business profile. it puts you on google maps. if customers don’t come to your address, google asks you to list the area you serve instead.
- the same name, city and link everywhere: your site, instagram, google, your market sign.
- plain words about what you make and where. “sourdough bread in anoka, mn” beats “artisanal goods.”
- reviews from real customers. ask your regulars. most are happy to.
- be listed where people already look. marketplaces and local directories point back to you. on wareby’s found plan, your shop is shown on google and in ai answers.
can you make a website for free?
yes, with trade-offs. wix has a free plan, but it can’t take payments and uses a wix web address. square online’s free plan takes orders, with square’s branding and no domain of your own. big cartel is free for up to 5 products. and a wareby shop is free to open, takes orders right away and is shown to shoppers within 25 miles. you pay 10% plus card processing only when you sell.
questions people ask
do i need a website to sell my products?
not a big one. you need a place online that’s yours, where people can see what you make and order. a shop page on a marketplace, a free store or a simple site builder all work.
how much does a small business website cost?
from $0 on free plans to about $19 to $39 a month for a site you can sell from on squarespace, wix or shopify, plus card fees of about 2.9% + 30¢ a sale and a domain from about $9 a year.
what’s the easiest way to make a website for my business?
start with a shop page or a free store you can set up in an afternoon, like a wareby shop (about 10 minutes) or square online’s free plan. add a bigger site later if you need one.
can i use my own domain on wareby?
yes. the found and loved plans include your own web address, like yourshop.com, and show your shop on google and in ai answers.
how do i get my business to show up in chatgpt or google’s ai answers?
the same way you show up on google: a google business profile, the same name and link everywhere, plain words about what you make and where, real reviews, and listings on sites people trust. there’s no separate trick for ai.
is social media enough instead of a website?
it’s a start, and 41% of owners without a website say they use social media instead. but you don’t own your followers, and checkout inside instagram and facebook shops ended in the us in 2025, so you still need somewhere to take orders.
sources
- clutch: small business websites in 2025
- small business majority: digital transformation report (2024)
- brightlocal: local consumer review survey 2026
- shopify: domains
- shopify: pricing
- wix: plans
- wix help center: upgrading wix stores
- squarespace: pricing
- square: online store plans
- square support: the square online website footer
- big cartel: the gold plan
- meta for developers: graph api v26.0 changelog (shops checkout sunset)
- bigcommerce: updates to meta shops checkout (2025)
- google business profile help: service areas
- wareby: seller plans
we checked every fee and fact about other companies on october 12, 2026, on their own pages. fees change, so check theirs before you decide. spot something out of date? email hello@shopwareby.com and we’ll fix it.
wix, squarespace, shopify, square online, big cartel, google, instagram and facebook are trademarks of their owners. wareby isn’t affiliated with any of them, and we make wareby, so weigh our opinions with that in mind.
we started tandoco, a small bakery in minneapolis, and sold under a blue tent at farmers markets before we built wareby. our story
