As of 2025, 83% of US small businesses have a website, according to Clutch’s August 2025 survey of 406 small business owners, up from 64% in 2018. That headline number hides a size gap: Canadian data from the same year shows ownership climbing from 70% among the smallest firms to 91% among the largest.
That gap matters more than the topline figure for anyone deciding whether their own business still needs a site. The businesses without one are not a random slice of the small business population. They cluster by size, and increasingly by country too, which changes what “closing the gap” actually looks like in 2026.
What percentage of small businesses have a website in 2026?
83% of US small businesses have a website, based on Clutch’s survey of 406 small business owners conducted in August 2025. That is up from 64% in 2018, a gain of roughly 19 percentage points over seven years driven largely by no-code website builders and AI-assisted design tools that removed the technical barrier to launching a site.
Figure 1: US small business website ownership, 2018 versus 2025. Source: Clutch, August 2025 survey of 406 US small business owners.
The growth has not stalled at a plateau. It is still adding roughly two to three points a year, which puts near-universal ownership within reach before the end of the decade if the current pace holds.
That 83/17 split is the number most roundups quote, but it is an average across a population that ranges from solo owners running a side business to firms with dozens of staff. The next section breaks that average apart.
Does website ownership change with the size of the business?
Yes, sharply. Among Canadian small businesses, website ownership rises from 70% for micro firms with 0 to 4 employees to 91% for firms with 50 or more employees, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s “Your Voice” survey of 2,478 independent business owners, fielded September 11 to 25, 2025. A comparably detailed breakdown by employee count has not been published for the US market, but the direction of the pattern (bigger payroll, higher ownership odds) is consistent with what smaller-sample US research has found in the past.
Figure 2: Website ownership likelihood by employee count. Source: CFIB “Your Voice” survey, September 2025, n=2,478.
The size effect makes sense once you consider what a website is actually for at each stage. A one-person shop can often run entirely on referrals and a social profile. Add staff, and the business starts needing a place to list hours, take bookings, or process orders at a scale a social feed cannot handle on its own.
How does US website ownership compare to Canada and the UK?
The United States has the highest reported rate among the three: 83% (Clutch, 2025) versus 78% in Canada (CFIB, 2025) and 78% in the UK (Forbes Advisor, 2025). The three numbers come from three separate national surveys with different sample sizes and methodologies, so the 5-point US lead should be read as directional rather than a precise cross-country ranking, but the clustering itself is the real finding: all three developed markets sit within a narrow band.
| Country | Share with a website | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 83% | Clutch, n=406 | 2025 |
| Canada | 78% | CFIB, n=2,478 | 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 78% | Forbes Advisor | 2025 |
Figure 3: Small business website ownership across three national surveys. Sources: Clutch, CFIB, Forbes Advisor UK, all 2025.
None of these three surveys asks the exact same question the exact same way, so treat the gap between 78% and 83% as noise rather than a meaningful national difference. What is not noise is that all three countries have landed in the high 70s to low 80s, which starts to look like a natural ceiling rather than a moving target.
Why do small businesses build a website in the first place?
39% of small business owners who built a website did it mainly to increase sales and revenue, the single most common reason cited in Clutch’s 2025 survey. Brand awareness and credibility came next at 24%, followed by 22% who wanted a dedicated place to share information or handle customer support. The remaining respondents cited other, less common reasons that Clutch did not break out individually.
Figure 4: Primary motivation for launching a small business website. Source: Clutch, August 2025 survey of 406 US small business owners.
Revenue, not appearances, is the leading motivation. That lines up with the size data above: businesses add staff and revenue targets before they add a website, not the other way around, which is exactly the order the reasons ranking suggests.
Which small businesses use their website to sell directly?
Owning a website and using it to close sales are not the same thing, and the gap between the two varies by industry. In CFIB’s September 2025 survey, arts and recreation businesses lead at 63% using their site for direct sales, ahead of retail at 52% and hospitality at 49%. A restaurant or salon’s website often functions as an information hub, hours, menu, booking link, rather than a storefront, while a ticketed venue or a shop is more likely to close the transaction on-site.
Figure 5: Direct-sales website use by industry sector. Source: CFIB “Your Voice” survey, September 2025.
If your website is not yet closing sales on its own, that is not automatically a problem. It depends on what the business actually needs the site to do, and for a lot of service and hospitality businesses, a reliable information hub is doing its job even without a checkout.
How has adoption changed since 2018?
The seven-year US trend line (64% in 2018 to 83% in 2025) has been reinforced this year by independent surveys landing in a similar range across two other countries, which is the clearest sign yet that the shift from “should I have a website” to “how do I make it work harder” is largely complete for the developed small business market.
Figure 6: Website adoption milestones across three national surveys. Sources: Clutch, CFIB, Forbes Advisor UK.
For a deeper look at why the remaining US businesses stay offline and how they generate leads instead, see our full small business website ownership breakdown, which covers the reasons-for-no-website data and lead-source comparison in more detail than fits here.
The Bottom Line
The single most useful number in 2026 is not 83%, it is the size gap underneath it: 70% for micro firms versus 91% for firms with 50 or more employees. Website ownership has stopped being a US-specific story too, with Canada and the UK both landing at 78% in the same year. Set against the 36.2 million small businesses in the US, even a 17% offline share is still millions of businesses, most of them small, newer firms rather than an evenly distributed slice of the market. If your business is still in the smaller, lower-ownership tier, you are in the majority of the remaining gap, not an outlier, and the businesses that do launch mostly do it to drive sales, not to look the part. Whatever stage you launch at, pair the new site with a proper terms and conditions document on day one so the legal terms are live before the first visitor is.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of small businesses have a website? 83% of US small businesses have a website as of 2025, up from 64% in 2018, according to Clutch’s August 2025 survey of 406 small business owners. Ownership is far from even across the segment: only 70% of businesses with 0 to 4 employees have a site, per Canada’s CFIB.
Does website ownership vary by business size? Yes. Canada’s CFIB found website ownership rises from 70% among micro firms with 0 to 4 employees to 91% among firms with 50 or more staff, in a September 2025 survey of 2,478 business owners. Bigger payrolls consistently mean a higher chance of an owned website.
How does US website ownership compare to other countries? The US leads at 83% (Clutch, 2025), just ahead of Canada at 78% (CFIB, 2025) and the UK, also 78% (Forbes Advisor, 2025). All three economies cluster within 5 points of each other, suggesting adoption has plateaued near a similar ceiling.
Why do small businesses build a website in the first place? 39% build a website mainly to increase sales and revenue, the top reason, followed by 24% who want brand awareness and credibility and 22% who need a place for information or customer support, according to Clutch’s August 2025 survey of 406 owners.
Sources and References
- Clutch. (2025). “The State of Small Business Websites in 2025.” Survey of 406 US small business owners, conducted August 2025.
- Clutch. (2025). “No-Code Tools Fuel Website Growth, Yet 17% of Small Businesses are Still Offline.” Press release detailing reasons for building a website, August 2025.
- Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). (2025). “Small Business Digital Presence: Navigating Opportunities and Obstacles.” “Your Voice” survey of 2,478 independent business owners, fielded September 11 to 25, 2025.
- Forbes Advisor UK. (2025). “UK Website Statistics: Key Trends & Insights for Businesses.” Survey of UK small business owners; underlying sample size not disclosed in the published article.
Note: All figures verified as of August 2026. Website ownership figures move with each new Clutch, CFIB, and Forbes Advisor release, so headline figures are refreshed at least twice a year.
