How Much Does a Campaign Website Cost in 2026?
Campaign website pricing is opaque because most of it is service pricing, not software pricing. Here is what races actually pay.
The four ways campaigns buy websites
Political web agencies: $3,000 to $8,000+. Custom design, compliance experience, and two to six weeks of back-and-forth. Quality varies wildly, and after launch you typically pay hourly for edits. For statewide and congressional races with staff, this is the default. For local races it is usually overkill bought out of fear.
Freelancers: $800 to $3,000. Cheaper, but you inherit their availability. The failure mode is well documented in every county party: the site goes stale in September because the freelancer got busy.
Generic DIY builders: $150 to $500 per year. Squarespace and Wix can host a campaign site, but they were not built for one. No disclaimer guardrails, no FEC fine print, no newsroom workflow, and the templates read as small business, not campaign.
AI campaign platforms: free preview, monthly fee to publish. The newest category, including Ballot Page. You upload a brand and bio, the platform generates the full site, and edits happen in chat in seconds instead of invoiced hours. Month-to-month billing matters because campaigns end.
The cost that actually decides races
The real cost of a campaign website is not the invoice. It is the speed of updates. An endorsement that posts in five minutes gets covered; one that posts Thursday gets buried. Price the edit loop, not just the build.
Common questions
What does a typical campaign website cost?
Custom agency builds run $3,000 to $8,000 or more with two to six week timelines. Freelancers run $800 to $3,000. Generic DIY builders cost $150 to $500 per year but require your own time and produce templated results. AI-native platforms now deliver complete sites in minutes with free previews.
Are there hidden costs?
Yes: hosting, domain renewal, SSL, edit fees, and rush charges. The most expensive hidden cost is edit latency, when your web person takes three days to post an endorsement that mattered on day one.
Is a website a reportable campaign expense?
Yes. Website costs are ordinary campaign expenditures paid from committee funds and reported like any other vendor expense. Keep invoices.