How many small businesses don't have a website?

How many small businesses have no website today?

About 17%, in the most recent survey we could trace. Clutch, a directory of agencies that includes web designers, says 83% of small businesses now have a website, up from 64% in 2018, and that 17% remain offline. The same release says 12% of small businesses launched a site in the past year alone, driven by easy-to-use, low-cost platforms.

Clutch’s full report gives the method: it surveyed 406 small business owners in the United States on August 5, 2025, online, with quotas for demographic balance. It doesn’t define “small business” or give a margin of error, and the publisher has a stake in the topic. Still, the direction is plain. Most small businesses are online now, and more join every year. If you’re one of the 17%, Humfrid builds your website from a few texts, and it’s live within a day.

What does a business without a website miss?

The customers who look you up before they call. When people need something nearby, they search. Google says when a customer searches for a business or place near their location, they’ll find local results on Google Maps and Search. A business with no website gives those searchers nothing of its own to open.

Your Google Business Profile has a place for a website: Google says you can share your business’s website with your customers on your Business Profile. Leave it empty and there’s nowhere to read your services, prices or how to book. Google also says businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results.

Some owners have nothing online at all. Clutch found that 28% of those without a site have no online presence at all. For them, someone who hears their name has nothing to find. Here’s how Humfrid closes that gap.

How Humfrid does this for you

Humfrid builds your website by text, so going from no site to your own site takes a few messages. You text your business name and answer a few questions: what you do, where, your hours and how people reach you. Your website is ready within a day, and nothing goes live without your OK. If you don’t like a line, text back what to change.

After that, you text changes as they happen:

• “We’re closed the week of the 4th.”
• “Add our new price list. Photo attached.”
• “We now deliver to the next town over.”

There’s no app, no computer and no login. Your own .com web address, in your name, is included, and it stays yours if you leave. You can see your website free for 14 days and pay only when you want it live on your own .com, with no setup fee and no contract. Every plan includes online booking and payments, and your site is set up to be found on Google, Google Maps, ChatGPT and other AI answers. Humfrid also helps you set up your Google Business Profile and keep it complete, and writes posts and review replies for you to post.

Why do owners go without a website, and do those reasons hold up?

Mostly not. Clutch’s release says the 17% stay offline often due to misconceptions rather than cost. Among owners without a site, the report found the top reason was “Not relevant to my industry” (34%), and only 16% named cost. It also found that referrals are the most effective source of new business for 39% of them.

Here’s how those reasons look up close:

• “It’s not relevant to my kind of work.” If customers ever look you up, it’s relevant. A website is where they check that you’re real, what you do and how to reach you.
• “My work comes from referrals.” People who hear your name from a friend or a neighbor still look you up before they call. Your website is what they find, with your work and your reviews.
• “I’m on social media or a marketplace.” Keep them. Point them at your own site, the one place you control, where people decide and book.
• “I don’t have time, or I’m not technical.” With Humfrid, getting a website takes a few texts, with no computer and nothing to learn.

How many small businesses are there in the US?

About 36.2 million. The SBA’s Office of Advocacy counts 36,207,130 small businesses in the United States in its February 2026 fact sheet, and says 99.9% of all businesses are small.

For research, the office generally defines a small business as an independent business with fewer than 500 employees. And 82.3% of small businesses, or 29,811,495 firms, have no employees. Most small businesses in America have no employees at all. The SBA counts businesses, not websites, and we found no government survey that counts websites.

What do the other surveys say?

Older figures still circulate, often without a date. These are the ones we could trace to the company that ran them. Each is a survey by a company in the website or marketing business, and each describes its own sample.

Survey	Share with no website	What it says about its method
Clutch, August 2025	17%	406 US owners, online, one day, quotas
Top Design Firms, May 2022	27%	1,003 owners and managers; no dates or method given
UpCity, February 2022	32%	More than 600 owners and employees, US and Canada; no dates or method given
Visual Objects, March 2020	37%	500 US decision makers, collected December 2019; method not given
Clutch, February 2016	Nearly half	Just over 350 US owners and managers, mostly 1 to 10 employees; method not given

The sources, in order: Clutch 2025, Top Design Firms, UpCity, Visual Objects and Clutch 2016. UpCity also split its result by region: 42% of responding small businesses in the U.S. South had no website, against 32% in the Midwest and 22% in both the Northeast and the West.

The numbers differ because each survey asks a different, small group a slightly different question. None says how many respondents work alone, online polls reach owners who answer polls online, and most don’t define “small” or say whether a social page counts as a website. Read together, they point one way: every older survey found a bigger share without a site than the newest one. If you quote a figure, quote the most recent survey with its publisher, date and sample, not a bare percentage.

Is it too late to get a website now?

No. Owners are adding sites every year: Clutch found 12% of small businesses launched a site in the past year alone. A small website that says what you do, where you work, your hours and how to reach you covers what most customers look for before they call. Humfrid puts all of that on your site from your texts. For the full list, see what to put on a small business website.

Text Humfrid your business name, and you’ll see your website within a day.