Ask "how much does a website cost?" and most agencies say "it depends" - and they are right. The problem is that the answer does not help you plan a budget. So let us break it down: real ranges, what drives the price, and where saving money backfires.

Let us agree on one thing up front: a website is not a cost, it is a sales tool. The question is not "what is the cheapest", but "what does it need to cost before it starts earning".

Realistic ranges for 2026

Prices for a site built by a professional team:

  • Do-it-yourself builder (Wix, WordPress with a theme) - €0–500. The real cost is your time, and a result that usually looks like a template.
  • Landing page / simple one-pager - €700–2,000. One well-designed page with a single clear goal.
  • Company website (a dozen or so pages, CMS, multiple languages) - €2,000–6,000. The most common choice for SMEs.
  • Larger platform, portal or store - €6,000–20,000 and up. Integrations, payments, business logic.

If someone offers you a "company website for €200", you are not buying a website - you are buying a theme someone swaps in within an hour. It usually comes back to you a year later as the cost of building it again.

What actually drives the price

Four things decide the range:

  1. Scope - 5 pages or 40. This drives the work on content and design almost linearly.
  2. Custom design vs template - bespoke design costs more, but it is what sets you apart from competitors who bought the same theme.
  3. Content and photography - who writes the copy and where the images come from. Good content is the most underestimated line item.
  4. Features - forms, multiple languages, CRM or booking integrations, e-commerce. Each one is a separate module.

Where you can save without regret

  • You do not need 30 pages at launch. Start with the ones that sell, add the rest later.
  • Stock photos are fine at first - book a photo shoot once the site is already earning.
  • The blog does not have to launch on day one. A solid foundation beats 10 empty posts.

Where not to cut corners

  • Speed, mobile, accessibility. This is the foundation - fixing it later costs more than doing it right the first time.
  • Content architecture. How the information is organised decides whether a customer finds what they came for.
  • Measurement. Without analytics you do not know which sections work - you pay for a site and fly blind.
  • Support after launch. Someone has to pick up the phone when something needs to change.

A cheap website is not cheap. It is deferred - you pay for it a second time when it has to be rebuilt.

The hidden costs nobody mentions

Add these to your budget - they are easy to miss at the quote stage:

  • Domain - a few euros a year.
  • Hosting - from a few dozen euros a year, upward depending on traffic.
  • Maintenance and updates - security, backups, small changes.
  • Growth - new sections as your offer changes.

The good news: these costs are predictable. The bad scenario is the one where they show up as a surprise because nobody mentioned them.

How much you should budget

A simple rule: the budget should match what the site is meant to earn you. If one client is worth several thousand euros, a €5,000 site that brings in three pays for itself in a month. If you sell a €10 product, the maths is different - and that is fine.

Before you ask for a price, answer one question: what is this site supposed to do for me? The answer sets the budget better than any price list.

Where to start

If you want a concrete quote tailored to your case - get in touch. And if you already have a site and wonder whether to fix it or rebuild it, start with a free audit - we will tell you plainly what works and what is costing you customers.