You want a website. You search around, and you see prices from €200 to €5,000. Some agencies won’t even quote until they’ve had a meeting. So what does a website actually cost, and what are you paying for?
Here’s the breakdown — no jargon, no dependencies. Just what’s included at each level, and what costs extra.
What’s in a €690 company website?
This is a standard small business site. 4–6 pages: homepage, about, services, contact. You get a responsive design that works on mobile, basic SEO setup (title tags, meta descriptions), a contact form, and integration with Google Analytics.
What it doesn’t include: custom features like booking systems, e-commerce, multilingual content, or copywriting. You provide the text and images, or you pay separately for them.
This price assumes you’re working from a tested template framework. It’s not unique to you, but it’s professionally built and it works. For most local businesses — solicitors, electricians, consultants — this is enough.
What’s in a €1,590 online store?
You’re now paying for e-commerce functionality. That means product pages, a shopping cart, payment gateway integration (Stripe, PayPal, or Barion), stock management, and shipping cost calculation.
Most online stores at this level support 20–50 products at launch. You can add more yourself later. You also get basic invoicing and order management through the platform.
What’s not included: product photography, product descriptions, integration with external stock systems, or multi-currency setup. If you need automated VAT handling for EU sales, that’s custom work — see below.
What’s in a custom build from €1,090?
Custom means it’s built specifically for your needs. Examples: a booking system for a beauty salon, a members-only portal, a filterable portfolio for an architect, or a tool that pulls data from your CRM.
Price depends on complexity. A simple booking form with email confirmations? Closer to €1,090. A portal with user login, file uploads, and role-based permissions? Closer to €3,000–€4,000.
Before you start, you’ll get a fixed quote based on a clear brief. No surprises halfway through.
The costs that come later — and they always come
Your website is live. Now what? Here’s what you’ll pay annually or monthly, whether you built it yourself or hired someone.
Domain registration: Around €10–€15 per year for a .com or .co.uk. You renew it annually. If you forget, someone else can buy it.
Hosting: Between €50 and €150 per year for a small business site. For an online store with decent traffic, expect €150–€250. Hosting affects speed and uptime — cheap hosting costs you in lost visitors.
SSL certificate: Usually free now (via Let’s Encrypt), but some hosts charge €20–€50/year. You need this for HTTPS — without it, browsers mark your site as ‘not secure’.
Premium plugins: If your site uses WordPress, certain functions need paid plugins. Examples: advanced forms (€60/year), popup builders (€40/year), SEO tools (€90/year). Not always necessary, but common on business sites.
Maintenance: Updates, backups, security checks, bug fixes. You can do this yourself if you know what you’re doing. Or you pay someone €39–€65/month. That’s €470–€780/year. Worth it if your site handles sales or bookings — one hack can cost you more in downtime and reputation.
When do you need ongoing maintenance?
If your website is a static brochure and you update it twice a year, you can skip monthly maintenance. Just make sure someone updates the CMS and plugins every few months.
If your site takes orders, handles bookings, or gets more than 500 visitors a month, get a maintenance package. At €39/month (Basic plan), you get monthly updates and backups. At €65/month (Pro plan), you also get priority support and performance monitoring.
One missed update can break your checkout page. One unpatched plugin can let bots spam your contact form. Maintenance isn’t exciting, but it prevents expensive problems.
What about advertising?
A website doesn’t bring traffic on its own — not in 2026. You need SEO (slow, takes 6–12 months) or paid ads (fast, but costs money every month).
If you’re running Google or Facebook ads, management starts at €119/month for budgets under €580/month. Above that, it’s 20% of your monthly ad budget. The ad spend itself is separate — that goes directly to Google or Meta.
Example: you spend €800/month on Google Ads. Management fee is €160 (20% of €800). Total outgoing: €960/month. You’re not paying for the website anymore, but you’re paying to get people to visit it.
So what does a website actually cost?
A standard company website costs around €690 upfront, then about €150–€300/year for hosting and domain. Add €470–€780/year if you want maintenance.
An online store starts at €1,590, plus €200–€400/year in hosting and tools, plus maintenance if you’re taking orders.
Custom builds vary, but expect €1,090 minimum for anything beyond a standard template.
Then there’s advertising if you need traffic, and content if you didn’t write it yourself. But now you know what you’re paying for — and what’s actually optional.