What does a professional website really cost? Honest 2026 price ranges

Why the price range is so huge

€500 to €50,000 — both numbers are real, but for completely different setups. The difference isn't only quality, but also scope, processes, and honestly some providers' pricing strategy. Here are the ranges I see in practice — and what pulls them apart.

The three categories

• →DIY builders (Wix, Squarespace): €0–100/month. Good for hobby projects or absolute basics. Usually too thin for a business that wants to win customers.
• →Freelancers: €3,000–12,000 for a full business website. At market rates of €70–110/h that's roughly 30–110 hours — concept, design, development, SEO baseline and a bit of content. Best cost-to-value ratio in most cases.
• →Agencies: €8,000–50,000+. You pay for processes, teams, brand names and several heads working in parallel — sometimes justified, often overkill for SMB needs.

What drives the price within a category?

• →Page count and complexity: 5-page business card vs. 30 pages with configurator easily multiplies cost by 3–5×.
• →Custom design vs. template tweak: real custom design often doubles the design effort.
• →Content: bringing your own text and images saves €1,000–3,000. Outsourcing it costs accordingly.
• →Features beyond the basics: booking system, member area, multilingual content, CRM/calendar integrations — each one adds effort.
• →SEO depth: basics are usually included; real SEO strategy is typically a separate package.

How to recognise serious providers

• →They ask about goals and target audience before quoting.
• →They show a portfolio of real projects — no stock-photo demos.
• →They explain transparently what's in the price and what's not.
• →They take a sensible deposit (30–50% is standard) — anyone who doesn't is a red flag.
• →They quote in hours or days, not a flat number without justification.

Bottom line

A professional business website in 2026 realistically costs €3,000–8,000 with a good freelancer — depending on scope and customisation. Anything significantly below is usually a compromise on design, SEO or performance. Anything significantly above for a normal SMB site should be well justified. More on the builder-vs-developer question in the linked comparison post.