Building a website costs between €500 and €50,000+ depending on the type of project, the features required, and who you hire. Here's how to read those numbers and avoid unpleasant surprises.
Price ranges by type of website
First, you need to distinguish what you're actually building. The categories have very little in common:
- Simple brochure site (3–8 pages): €1,500 – €6,000. Your services, contact page, a few key pages. Ideal for freelancers and small businesses.
- More elaborate brochure site (blog, animations, multilingual): €5,000 – €15,000.
- E-commerce site: €4,000 – €25,000. The range is wide because selling 20 products is nothing like managing 5,000 SKUs with stock, variants, and complex shipping rules.
- Custom-built site or web platform: €15,000 – €50,000+. When the site is actually an application — client portal, dashboard, specific business logic. This is bespoke development, not theme customisation.
Sub-€500 options exist (website builders, off-the-shelf themes), but they come with trade-offs — we'll get to that.
What actually drives the price up
A website quote is the sum of several line items. The main ones:
- Design: a custom design built around your brand costs more than a premium theme tweaked to fit. But it genuinely sets you apart from competitors.
- Number of pages and templates: every new page type (product page, blog post, category page) requires design and development time.
- Specific features: advanced quote forms, member areas, CRM integration, online booking, product configurators — each functional block adds up.
- Copywriting and content: if you supply your own text and photos, costs stay lower. If you outsource web copywriting and photography, budget an extra €500 – €3,000 depending on volume.
- SEO: technical optimisation, URL structure, meta tags, loading speed. Some agencies include it, others charge extra. Either way, it's what makes Google find you.
To understand when to choose a custom site over a template, read our article custom website vs template: how to choose.
One-time costs vs recurring costs: don't mix them up
The initial quote is only part of what you'll spend. There's also:
- Domain name: €10 – €30/year depending on the extension (.com, .fr, .io…).
- Hosting: €5 – €100/month depending on performance, redundancy, and whether you want an eco-friendly French host.
- Maintenance and updates: €50 – €300/month for an agency that monitors, updates, and secures your site. Easy to ignore when everything's running smoothly — essential when something goes wrong.
- Feature updates: a website evolves. Set aside an annual budget based on your roadmap.
Why a too-cheap website often costs more in the long run
We regularly see business owners arrive with a €400 site built by a student or a drag-and-drop builder. The issue isn't the price — it's what they find behind it: poor performance, zero SEO optimisation, code that can't be extended, no real security.
The result: they spend €2,000 – €5,000 to rebuild what should have been done right from the start — not counting the revenue lost to poor search rankings over 12 to 18 months. A website is a business investment, not an admin expense.
How to think in terms of return on investment
The right question isn't "how much does it cost?" but "how much will it generate?" If your website brings in 3 new clients per month at €500 margin each, it pays for itself in a matter of weeks. The sites we build at KELAP are designed to convert — not just to look good.
To make that happen, you need to pair the site with a real strategy: a high-performance website, solid SEO from day one, and sometimes paid advertising to accelerate growth. If your project is more complex — client portal, automation, custom business logic — take a look at our custom web app solutions.
So what budget should you plan for?
For a small or medium-sized business that wants a serious site — built to last and properly indexed — budget €3,000 – €10,000 for the build, and plan for €100 – €200/month for hosting and maintenance. That's the realistic range for a site that actually works for you.
Want a transparent quote, no buzzwords? Tell us about your project — we'll get back to you within 24 hours with a clear estimate.