What does a website actually cost?
Ask what a website costs and you will get answers a factor of ten apart. That gap is not agencies being arbitrary. It is the same gap you would find asking what a car costs, and it exists for the same reason: the word covers everything from a business card with a contact form to a system that runs your sales.
This article breaks the number down. What you are actually paying for, what the realistic bands look like, which costs arrive after launch, and how to compare two quotes that look nothing alike.
What you are actually paying for
Four things drive almost the entire price.
Design. A template is recognizable within seconds, and so is a custom identity. Beyond looks, this is where the navigation and the conversion paths get decided, which is why we treat it as UX and UI work rather than decoration.
Functionality. A contact form and a blog are in nearly every project. A booking system, a calculator, user accounts or multiple languages are not, and each adds real development time.
Integrations. Connecting a CRM, an invoicing tool or a newsletter platform always means custom work, because your combination of systems is specific to you.
Content and technical SEO. Someone has to write the copy, produce the images and set up the URL structure, metadata and performance basics. If a quote is silent on this, the work has not disappeared, it has just moved onto your desk.
Realistic price bands
No two projects are identical, so treat these as orientation rather than a price list. They reflect what a custom build costs when it is done properly.
Brochure site or landing page, roughly EUR 500 to 1,000, one to three weeks. Your digital business card: who you are, what you do, how to reach you. A sensible first step for a new company or a single product launch.
Professional company site, roughly EUR 1,500 to 6,000, four to eight weeks. This one does not just inform, it builds the brand and generates leads. It is the natural home of your content marketing and the page your sales conversations point at.
Ecommerce, roughly EUR 2,000 to 12,000 and up, six to sixteen weeks. The widest band by far, because the price follows the catalog size, the payment and shipping logic, and every system the shop has to talk to.
If a quote sits far below the band for what you described, something is missing from it. Usually strategy, testing, or the handover that makes the site yours to run.
The costs that arrive after launch
The build is the visible part. A site is closer to a car than a painting: it needs servicing.
Domain and hosting. Cheap hosting is a false economy, since it shows up directly in load time and therefore in conversion.
An SSL certificate, usually included by the host, but worth confirming.
Security updates and backups. Neglected sites are how breaches happen.
Support. Ask whether the quote includes monthly hours or bills ad hoc, because ad hoc adds up quickly.
Content and traffic. A site nobody finds earns nothing, so budget for SEO work and, if you want results sooner, for paid campaigns.
The useful frame is total cost of ownership across three to five years, not the invoice on launch day. That view also makes the speed question concrete: a slow site quietly burns the ad budget you spend driving traffic to it, which we covered in why your website is slow.
Template or custom: the question behind the price
A template is genuinely a valid starting point when you are testing an idea or need something live next week. The limits show up later: you are stuck inside what the template can express, the plugin stack slows the site down, and popular plugins are the most attacked surface on the web.
Custom development costs more up front and buys three things a template cannot: a brand experience that is actually yours, performance that comes from having no code you did not ask for, and the freedom to add whatever your business needs next. For an online store the trade-off is sharper still, and we compared it in detail in renting a template or building custom.
The honest test is not budget, it is time horizon. Where do you want this site to be in three years? If the answer involves growth, integrations or a market position you have to defend, the template becomes the expensive option somewhere in year two.
How to compare two quotes
Put the numbers aside for a moment and check whether each quote answers these:
Are domain, hosting and SSL covered, or at least priced out for you?
Does it name what happens about security updates and backups?
What support does the price include, and for how long?
Are the technical SEO basics in scope, or assumed to be someone else's job?
What exactly gets handed over at the end, and who owns it?
Then look at the questions the other side asked you. A team that asks how you will measure whether the site worked is thinking about your business. A team that only asks how many pages you need is quoting for a delivery, and you will feel the difference in the result.
If you want an honest read on which band your project belongs in, tell us what you are trying to achieve and we will map the scope with you before anyone talks about numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Why do quotes for the same website differ so much?
Because they are rarely for the same thing. One quote covers a template with your logo dropped in, another covers strategy, custom design, a build and a CMS your team can actually use. Compare what is inside the scope, not the number at the bottom.
What is a realistic budget for a company website?
A simple brochure site starts around EUR 500 to 1,000. A professional company site with custom design and a CMS typically runs EUR 1,500 to 6,000. Ecommerce starts around EUR 2,000 and climbs with every integration.
What costs come after launch?
Domain and hosting, an SSL certificate, security updates, support hours and content work. Budget for them from the start; they are small next to the build, but they are not optional.
Is a template cheaper in the long run?
Only if your requirements never grow. The moment you need a flow the template cannot do, you pay twice: once for the workaround, once for the rebuild. For a site that has to grow with the business, custom is usually the cheaper path over three years.
How long does a website project take?
One to three weeks for a simple brochure site, four to eight weeks for a professional company site, and six to sixteen weeks or more for ecommerce. Most of the calendar goes into strategy, design and testing rather than writing code.