How Much Does a Lawyer Website Cost? The Real Numbers

A lawyer website can be a small monthly subscription or a separately quoted design and development project. The useful comparison is the cost of the features your practice needs, including your own time, domain renewal and ongoing changes.

For SmashWebs, a site on your own domain starts with Professional at $79/month. Starter is $29/month on a smashwebs.com address. Growth is $149/month with an initial custom design by our team and everyday concierge changes. These are monthly-billing prices, not annual-plan equivalents.

Start with what the site must do

A solo practice usually needs a clear introduction, real credentials, explanations of its services and a contact route. If clients need secure document uploads, conflict checks, conditional intake or a connection to case-management software, write those requirements down separately. A public website and a secure practice system solve different problems.

Before choosing a builder, list the pages you need. A three-page site can introduce the practice, summarize services and provide contact details. Separate pages for several practice areas, detailed bios and articles require a larger allowance. See our page planning guide.

Subscription, agency or custom development?

A self-serve builder supplies hosting and a design/editing system. You supply practice facts and review the content. Check the exact plan for custom domains, page limits, blogging and support. A low advertised rate may require annual payment or exclude a feature you need.

A design service can handle an initial design and agreed changes. Clarify whether copywriting, images, migration and launch support are included. Obtain a written scope rather than treating every agency quote as equivalent.

Custom development may be justified by unusual workflows or integrations. Ask who maintains those features, what happens when an external service changes, and what you can export if you leave. Complexity can be valuable when it solves a real operational need; it is not a prerequisite for a credible solo-practice website.

SmashWebs costs over three years

The following is simple subscription arithmetic at current monthly rates. It excludes taxes, domain registration/renewal, optional extra AI usage and separately quoted work. It assumes the same plan and rate for 36 months; it is not a future price guarantee.

Plan	Monthly subscription	36 months	Important boundary
Starter	$29	$1,044	Three pages on a smashwebs.com address; manual editing
Professional	$79	$2,844	Own domain, up to 15 pages, blog, analytics and AI allowance
Growth	$149	$5,364	Initial custom design, everyday concierge changes, unlimited pages

For an illustrative agency quote of $5,000 upfront plus $200/month, the three-year total is $12,200. That is an example calculation, not a market average or an equivalent scope. The difference from Professional's subscription total is $9,356 before excluded costs. It does not establish which option creates more value for your firm.

Use this formula for any proposal: setup + 36 × monthly fee + renewals + required extras. Price the same feature list on both sides.

Questions to ask before paying

• Can I use and retain control of my own domain?
• Does the site link to my existing secure portal or actually provide one?
• Who writes and checks practice-area claims, credentials and disclosures?
• Can I make routine changes myself? What costs extra?
• Does the plan cover all the pages I need?
• What is the cancellation process, and what happens to the public site?
• Are SEO services included, or only technical foundations?

A website can be published before Google indexes it. Search rankings are not an included deliverable unless a provider is describing actual work rather than guaranteeing an outcome. Google's SEO guide explains the distinction between making content accessible and earning visibility.

Try the workflow before deciding

With SmashWebs, create a private draft without a card. Review your pages, including professional disclosures appropriate to your practice, then add a card when you publish. That starts a 14-day trial; cancel before it ends to avoid the first charge. Domain connection and search indexing have separate timelines.

See current pricing, compare the attorney website workflow, or build an attorney draft. Judge the result against your actual requirements before committing to a larger project.