How much does a business website cost in 2026? Prices and variables

A professional business website typically costs between €1,500 and €8,000 for a custom project. WordPress with ready-made templates starts from around €500 but carries specific limitations you should know before choosing. If you want an advanced portal with reserved areas, booking systems, and integrations with your management software, the figure easily climbs to €15,000 or more.

Why such a huge range? Because "website" means everything and nothing. A five-page brochure site and a platform with a customer area plus ERP integration have almost nothing in common apart from the URL. In this article I'll show you the variables that actually move the price, realistic ranges for each tier, and how to tell whether a quote you've received is honest or inflated.

The variables that really affect the price

Nine times out of ten, when a client tells me "another agency quoted me €600", they're not actually comparing like for like. Here are the factors that make the difference.

Number and type of pages. A site with 5 static pages is not a site with 30 pages plus a filterable product catalogue. Each custom page means design, copy, development, and testing time.

Custom design vs template. Buying a €60 template and adapting it is one thing. Designing the interface from scratch based on your brand and your users is something else entirely. A custom design typically requires between 20 and 60 hours of work just on the UI/UX side.

Functional features. Contact forms are the bare minimum. Then there are booking systems, payment flows, reserved areas with login, multilingual support, configurators, integrations with CRM or management software, live chat, advanced search. Each feature adds hours and complexity.

Technical SEO. A site built to rank is not just "installing Yoast". It means clean code, site speed, proper structured data, semantic HTML, optimised internal linking, sensible URL structure. Without this work the site will be invisible on Google.

CMS and technology. WordPress, a headless CMS, a custom framework, a Jamstack stack — each choice has trade-offs in cost, performance, maintenance, and flexibility.

Realistic price ranges in 2026

Showcase site: €500 – €1,500

For a craftsman, a small local business, a freelancer who mainly needs an online business card. Usually based on WordPress with a commercial template, 4-8 pages, contact form, basic on-page SEO. Fine if you already have traffic from other channels and just need a credibility anchor.

Professional business site: €2,000 – €6,000

The typical range for SMEs that want a site that actually works. Custom design on the brand, 10-20 pages, advanced forms, proper technical SEO, blog, GDPR-compliant analytics. This is the band where most serious projects land.

Advanced portal or web application: €5,000 – €15,000+

Reserved areas, bookings, management software integrations, custom dashboards, multilingual, e-commerce. Here we're talking about real software development, not "a website" in the traditional sense.

What a serious quote must never miss

When you receive a quote, check it contains:

Detailed list of pages and templates
Specific features (not just "contact form", but which fields, where the data goes, any auto-replies)
Ownership of code, domain, and content (the site must be yours, not the agency's)
Hosting: included, separate, recommended
Basic SEO activities included
Browser and mobile testing
Post-launch support period
Payment terms and delivery times

A one-liner like "responsive website €2,000 all-in" is a red flag, not a bargain.

Rebuild from scratch or improve the existing one?

If your current site loads in under 3 seconds, works on mobile, has a decent structure and brings in some leads, redoing it from scratch is often a waste. Targeted improvements (performance, SEO, specific pages) can cost 30-40% of a new build with strong ROI.

Rebuild from scratch when: the site is over 5-6 years old and built on outdated technology, it's not mobile-friendly, it loads in more than 5 seconds, it's been hacked, or the brand has substantially changed.

FAQ

How much does it cost to update a business website? Small content changes run €40-80 per hour. Adding a new section or page: €150-400. Full restyling of an existing site: €1,500-4,000.

What about maintenance? Plan for €300-800 per year for plugin updates, security, backups, and minor tweaks. A neglected site becomes a security and SEO problem fast.

How long does it take to build a website? A showcase site: 3-5 weeks. A professional business site: 6-10 weeks. A complex portal: 3-6 months. Timelines depend a lot on how quickly you deliver content and feedback.

Will the domain and code be mine? They should be, always. Make sure the contract clearly states ownership of the domain, hosting account, source code, and all content. If the agency closes tomorrow, you need to be able to move elsewhere.

These prices are indicative estimates: every project is different and the final cost depends on actual requirements.

Want a tailored quote for your business site? Find out more on website development.