A custom website in 2026 costs roughly €1,200 to €8,000 depending on scope, a simple one-page site can be had for less, while a corporate portal can run into the tens of thousands. The price is set by scope, design, technology, and content, not by chance. This guide shows you the real prices, what pushes them up and down, and how to tell a fair quote from a lowball one.
At the end you'll find an interactive calculator that gives you a ballpark estimate in a few seconds based on a handful of questions. If you're more focused on selling online, I have a separate overview of how much an e-shop costs.
Quick Answer: Pricing Tiers
| Website Type | Price Range | Timeline | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landing page | €400-1,200 | 1-2 weeks | Freelancers, campaigns, MVP |
| Business website | €1,200-3,200 | 3-6 weeks | Small and mid-size businesses |
| Advanced website | €3,200-8,000 | 1-3 months | Companies with a blog, multilingual |
| Corporate portal | 8,000-40,000+ EUR (200,000-1,000,000+ CZK) | 3-12 months | Large enterprises, customer zones |
These figures apply to a custom website built by a professional. A bargain-bin template for €200 is something completely different, and I'll get to why below.
One important note: this guide covers websites. If you're pricing an application, a booking system, internal tool or SaaS, read the separate guide on how much custom app development costs.
Pricing Tiers in Detail
1. One-Page Website (Landing Page): €400-1,200
A single-page presentation for early-stage entrepreneurs, freelancers, or as a landing page for ad campaigns. What you should get: responsive design, a contact form, basic SEO, and a launch within 1-2 weeks. A heads-up, a quality landing page with copywriting and conversion tracking sits closer to the upper end of the range.
2. Business Website (5-10 pages): €1,200-3,200
A standard company presentation: about us, services, references, contact, and often a blog. You should get a professional custom design (not a template), a content management system, an SEO foundation, an analytics connection, and a launch in 3-6 weeks. This is where most inquiries land, and a quality business website in this tier offers the best value for money.
Most inquiries land right here: a 5-10 page business website for €1,200-3,200, launched in 3-6 weeks. The price should include a custom design (not a template), a CMS, an SEO foundation, and an analytics connection. Smaller custom sites start around €800; below that you're usually looking at a template or a compromise on quality.
3. Advanced Business Website: €3,200-8,000
A website with advanced features, a refined design with animations, a blog with an admin panel, multilingual versions, calculators, and CRM or email integrations. 10-30 subpages, launch in 1-3 months.
4. Corporate Website / Portal: 8,000-40,000+ EUR (200,000-1,000,000+ CZK)
A complex project for larger companies: dozens to hundreds of pages, a customer portal with login, ERP/CRM/API integrations, and performance optimization for high traffic. Delivery in 3-12 months.
What Affects the Price of a Website
Design: Template vs Custom
A template-based design costs €200-600. A custom design from a designer starts around €800 and, on more complex projects, exceeds €4,000. The difference is enormous, a unique design builds trust and sets you apart from competitors running the same purchased template. I compare a template against a custom design for Shoptet in detail, and the principle is the same for a website.
Technology: WordPress vs a Modern Stack
A WordPress site tends to be cheaper up front than a solution built in React/Next.js. But modern technology delivers significantly better speed, security, and SEO, and speed today is both a direct ranking factor and a conversion lever. Investing in quality technology pays off through higher conversions and lower maintenance costs. Why I build on Next.js and when it's worth it, I break down in WordPress vs Next.js.
Content and Copywriting
An often underestimated line item. Professional copywriting costs €60-120 per page, and quality product or team photography adds another €200-800. A website without good content is an expensive empty box. How to prepare your materials (and save money), I cover in how to prepare materials for your website.
Custom Features
Every non-standard feature raises the price, calculators, configurators, booking systems, membership areas. Each of these is dozens of hours of development. The rule holds: the more "custom" it is, the higher the price, but also the higher the value.
SEO and the Technical Foundation
Basic technical SEO (meta tags, URL structure, sitemap, schema, speed) should be part of every website from the ground up, not an expensive add-on. Advanced SEO with keyword research and a content plan is a separate project, an audit with a roadmap starts at €400, while e-shops and larger sites are quoted by scope. What technical SEO involves, you'll find in the technical SEO checklist.
Meta tags, URL structure, a sitemap, schema, and speed should be a standard part of every website from the ground up, not an extra line item. The phrase "we'll add the SEO later for an extra fee" is a red flag. Rebuilding a finished website for SEO costs far more than building it right the first time.
The Average Price of a Website: Why the Average Alone Misleads
"What's the average price of a website" can be answered with a number, but that number will mislead you. An average blends a one-page card for €600 with a corporate portal for €16,000, and fits neither.
It is far more useful to know where your brief sits:
| Type of project | Usual price | Who asks for it |
|---|---|---|
| One-page / landing page | €400-1,200 | sole traders, one service, one campaign |
| Business website, 5-10 pages | €1,200-3,200 | most small and mid-sized companies |
| Advanced site with features | €3,200-8,000 | multilingual, bookings, integrations |
| Portal / large website | from €8,000 | corporates, publishers, catalogues |
The most frequently requested category is a business website at €1,200-3,200, and within that range the price is driven by content scope, how much of the design is bespoke and how many features are involved, not by the supplier's hourly rate. Whenever you see an average like "a website costs €1,800", ask what that number includes: the build alone, or also content, photos, copy and the first year of running costs.
What a Website With a CMS Costs
The second most common question after price: whether you'll be able to edit the text yourself after launch. The answer moves the price more than people expect.
- Website without a CMS (static pages, changes via the developer), cheapest to build, but every edit touches the code. Makes sense for sites that barely change.
- Website with a CMS, you manage content yourself. Add typically €200-800 to the price depending on how many content types are editable (text and images, or also products, references, price lists, blog).
- Headless CMS (Sanity, Strapi, Contentful), editing decoupled from the site, suited to larger content and several languages. More expensive to set up; for small projects the running cost usually fits into free tiers.
I add a CMS where you'll genuinely use it, for a five-page presentation that changes once a year it is cheaper and faster to leave edits to me and put the money into content instead. Ongoing upkeep is covered by website care from €200 a month.
Hidden and Ongoing Costs Nobody Mentions
Building a website is a one-time expense. Running it isn't. Plan for:
- Domain: 8-20 EUR/year (€8-20/yr)
- Hosting: 0-200 EUR/month (0-5,000 CZK/month) depending on the solution (a modern stack is often cheap or even free)
- SSL certificate: free (Let's Encrypt) up to 200 EUR/year (€200/yr)
- Maintenance and updates: 0-200 EUR/month (0-5,000 CZK/month)
- Content and blog: 120-600 EUR/month (€120-600/mo) if you want to publish regularly
For the first year of operation, realistically budget €400-2,000 on top of the build. A monthly website management plan handles all of this in a single retainer, so you don't have to look after the site yourself.
How the Price Is Actually Calculated
A fair quote isn't a "number out of thin air." It comes together like this:
- Scope, how many pages, which features, how many languages.
- Design, template, semi-custom, or fully custom.
- Content, do you supply it, or should I prepare/rewrite it?
- Integrations, payments, booking, CRM, ERP, API.
- Time pressure, express delivery usually comes with a surcharge.
From this comes a fixed price in the quote, not an "approximately." If someone can't name a price until they "see how it goes," that's a warning sign.
A fair quote ends with a fixed price, not an "approximately." Scope, design, content, integrations, and the timeline can all be quantified up front. If a provider can't name a price until they "see how it goes," treat it as a warning, the same goes for a single number with no line-item breakdown.
Why Prices Vary So Much
- The maker's experience, a junior works for 16 EUR/hr (€16/hr), a senior for 60-100 EUR/hr (€60-100/hr).
- Freelancer vs agency, an agency carries higher overhead (account managers, middle layers) that you pay for in the price. With a freelancer, you deal directly with the person building the site.
- Project scope, a seemingly simple website hides dozens of hours of work.
- Code quality, a cheap website will be slow, hard to maintain, and unoptimized. You'll pay for it later in rebuilds.
How to Spot a Fair Quote (and the Red Flags)
A quality provider will give you:
- A detailed quote broken down into line items, not a single number.
- A timeline with milestones and a delivery date.
- Reference projects of a similar scope.
- Clear terms about ownership of the code and source files.
- Information about ongoing costs after launch.
🚩 Red flags: "a website for 200 EUR, everything included," no contract, an unwillingness to say what the site will run on, or "we'll add the SEO later for an extra fee." Why a cheap solution ends up costing more, I break down in why a website for 200 EUR isn't enough. And how to choose a provider in general, in how to choose a web agency.
How to Save Without Losing Quality
- Prepare your content in advance, copy, photos, logo. You'll save hours of work (and that means money).
- Start with an MVP, launch the core and expand gradually based on real data.
- Choose the right technology, you don't always need the most expensive solution, but you don't want the cheapest either.
- Invest in SEO from the start, rebuilding a finished website for SEO is far more expensive than building it right the first time.
What You Get With Me
So you know what a concrete offer looks like: with me, every website comes with a fixed price and deadline, a work contract, technical SEO from the ground up, and source code that's yours once it's paid off. I build in React/Next.js, fast, fully editable, ready for measurement and growth. Details and packages are on the website development page.
🧮 Calculate Your Price in a Few Seconds
Don't feel like reading through tables? Open the website price calculator, answer a few questions (site type, number of pages, e-shop, languages) and you'll instantly get a ballpark range. No commitment, and I can email you a detailed breakdown too.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a simple business website cost? A quality custom business website (5-10 pages) runs €1,200-3,200 in 2026. Smaller custom sites start around €800; below that you're usually looking at a template or a compromise on quality.
Why can't I have a website for 200 EUR? For €200 you won't even cover the time a proper custom website requires. You'll get a template your competitors use too, with no SEO, no optimization, and often no code handed over. In detail in why a website for 200 EUR isn't enough.
What is the average price of a website? An average blends a €600 card site with a €16,000 portal, so on its own it says nothing. The most requested category is a business website at €1,200-3,200; a one-page site runs €400-1,200 and a site with custom features €3,200-8,000. Always check what the number includes: the build alone, or copy, photos and the first year of running costs too.
How much does a website with a CMS cost? Content administration typically adds €200-800 depending on how many content types need to be editable. For a site that changes once a year it is often better value to leave edits to the supplier and spend the money on content.
Are hosting and the domain included in the price? Building the website and running it are two different things. The client usually keeps the domain in their own name, and hosting on a modern stack is often cheap or free. Plan for the ongoing costs (see above).
How long does it take to build a website? A landing page 1-2 weeks, a business website 3-6 weeks, an advanced website 1-3 months. A lot depends on how quickly you supply the materials.
Is a custom website worth it, or is a template enough? For the very beginning, a template can be enough. As soon as you want to grow, measure, and stand out, a custom website pays off, it's faster, easier to maintain, and grows with you.
Conclusion
The cost of a website in 2026 depends on scope, but as a rough guide: a quality business website costs €1,200-3,200, an advanced one €3,200-8,000. Less than €1,200 for a custom website means a compromise, and more than €8,000 is only needed for complex projects.
The most important thing is finding a provider you trust and who understands your business. A website isn't a business card, it's your most important sales tool. And that's not something worth cutting corners on. Take a look at the calculator or head straight to my website development offer.