"How much does a website cost" is a question like "how much does a car cost" - any honest answer starts with: it depends. But unlike most price lists in this industry, it is possible to say specifically what it depends on, and give real ranges. I have been building websites for years and audited hundreds of other people's - below is a price guide without asterisks, including the costs you usually learn about only after signing.
What makes up the price
The price of a website is really the price of four things: design (how the site looks and guides the customer), content (who writes the copy and takes the photos), build (code, configuration, deployment) and maintenance (domain, hosting, updates, backups). Most pricing confusion comes from the fact that a €400 offer includes only the third item, while a €2,000 offer includes all four. Comparing them directly is comparing a car with an engine on a pallet.
The second thing that spreads any quote wide open: whether the site has a job to do. A brochure page "just to have one" costs little, because it owes nothing. A site meant to win customers from Google needs keyword research, content written for specific queries and load times under the 2.5-second threshold Google treats as a good result - and that is work, not a template.
Real price ranges
| Option | Starting cost | Who it makes sense for |
|---|---|---|
| Site builder (Wix, Squarespace, WordPress.com) | €0-150/year | Testing an idea, a side business, zero budget |
| Template-based site | €250-700 | A brochure site with basic SEO, small local market |
| Individually designed site | €500-2,400 | A business that expects the site to bring enquiries |
| Online store | €1,900-4,800 | Selling online with payments and stock |
| Custom system | from €2,400 | Processes no off-the-shelf tool can handle |
These ranges reflect what I see on the Polish market, converted roughly to euro - which, incidentally, is why businesses across Europe order websites from Poland: the same work at a fraction of Western European agency rates. My own prices are listed openly on the websites offer page - a new site from roughly €470, with no "individual quote" line where a number can be given.
The costs nobody mentions
- Domain and hosting - €40-120 a year. Beware "domain for €1" promotions: the renewal can cost five times more than elsewhere.
- Licences - paid WordPress plugins and themes often add €50-200 a year. If the developer bought the licence in their own name, it stops working when you part ways.
- Content - copy, photos, logo. The most common reason a site takes half a year: the developer is waiting for materials nobody priced or scheduled.
- Maintenance - updates, backups, small fixes. A neglected WordPress is the most common source of break-ins and slowdowns; ongoing care costs less than one rescue after a hack.
- A rebuild after a year - the most expensive hidden cost. A site bought on price alone usually cannot be extended, and gets built a second time.
When cheap means expensive
In my audits of local markets the same pattern repeats: a €300 site that takes eight seconds to load, has no mobile version and appears in Google for no phrase except the company name. That site did not cost €300. It cost €300 plus every customer who, over three years, never called - because they never found it, or never waited for it to load.
A simple test before buying: ask the developer for three addresses of sites they built and run them through PageSpeed Insights (or through the measurement tool on my home page - it is the same Google API). If none of them gets under 2.5 seconds on mobile, you know what you will get. I collected more questions like this in the guide to choosing a developer.
And if you simply want a concrete figure for your situation - write to me. The quote is free, specific and entirely without obligation.