Website costs guide
How much does it cost to have a website built?
Your customers get to know you online first. Through Google, through Bing and more and more through the answers of ChatGPT and others. What a website costs therefore depends less on the number of pages than on what it has to achieve. We show realistic price ranges from more than twelve years of project work, what AI changes about the costs and what to look for when you compare offers.
Contents12 sections
How much does a website cost in 2026?
A website can cost a few hundred euros or several tens of thousands. A site builder for a club is almost free. A bilingual company website with its own design, forms, tracking and a CRM connection is a project of several weeks.
Most website projects fall into one of four price levels. The overview is based on our experience from more than twelve years of project work and matches the prices that are common on the market for professional delivery. All prices are net and one-off. Running costs follow further down.
Small
up to €5,000net
One-pagers, digital business cards and small websites with a few pages, often based on a proven layout.
- 3 to 8 pages
- WordPress with a page builder
- Optimised for mobile and desktop
- Contact form, legal notice, privacy policy
- Technical SEO basics
Most common
Company website
€5,000 to €15,000net
The typical website for SMEs, law firms, practices or institutes. With its own design and connected to marketing and sales, so that visitors turn into enquiries.
- Concept with a workshop
- Own design without a bought template
- 8 to 20 pages, often bilingual
- HubSpot integration for forms and leads
- Conversion tracking with GA4 and Google Tag Manager
- Optimised landing pages for campaigns
- SEO and preparation for AI search
Corporate
€15,000 to €30,000net
Larger sites for companies with several target groups, locations or brands, with fixed editorial and approval processes.
- 20 to 40 pages and more
- Corporate design as a design system with components
- Multilingual with WPML or Polylang
- Editorial roles and approval workflows
- Integration with CRM, product data or applicant management
- Careers, press and investor pages
- Accessibility under the BFSG and consent management
Platform
from €30,000net
Relaunches with several systems, integrations and many records, usually planned in phases.
- Merging several systems
- 60 pages and records upwards
- Roles, permissions, integrations
- Single sign-on and customer areas
- Delivery in phases
Price ranges for new websites and relaunches by an agency, net, as of November 2026. The classification per level is based on our project experience.
Most company websites cost between €5,000 and €15,000. Anything above that almost always has several languages, many different page types or integrations with other systems such as a CRM, product data or applicant management.
What kind of website do you need?
Before you compare quotes, it is worth asking what kind of website you actually need. The types differ less in their look than in the work behind them.
One-pager and business card
One long page or a few subpages. Good for founders, events or a single offer. With us usually from around €1,500, a simple event or placeholder page also for less.
Cost drivers: Template or own design, copy available or not
Company website
Home, services, about us, references and contact, often with a blog or careers area. Here the concept decides whether visitors turn into enquiries. Usually €5,000 to €15,000.
Cost drivers: Number of pages, own design, languages, forms and tracking
Corporate website and portal
Several target groups, product areas, languages and editorial roles. Often connected to a CRM, product database or applicant management. Usually €15,000 to €30,000, platforms more.
Cost drivers: Page types, integrations, editorial permissions, languages
Online shop
Products, cart, payment, shipping and legal texts. The effort depends on the range and on the connection to inventory management or ERP. The market usually quotes €8,000 to €30,000 for a WooCommerce shop.
Cost drivers: Number of products, variants, payment methods, ERP and shipping integration
Landing page for campaigns
One page with one goal, for example for Google Ads or LinkedIn. It is built for enquiries, tested and improved continuously. Depending on form logic and tracking €1,000 to €5,000.
Cost drivers: Form logic, tracking, test variants, CRM connection
These factors determine the price
Our quotes consist of fixed building blocks. If you know what is in each one, you can compare quotes from different providers much better.
Concept and strategy
Kick-off workshop, target groups, page structure and the question of what a visitor should do on each page. For small websites this is a manageable item, for large relaunches a sub-project of its own. Saving here means paying for rebuilds later.
Cost drivers: Number of target groups, feedback rounds, decision makers in the project
Design
An adapted framework layout costs considerably less than an own design without a template. In a larger relaunch this decision quickly makes a difference of several thousand euros.
Cost drivers: Template or own design, number of page layouts, correction rounds
Technology and features
The build in WordPress or as a code website, plus forms, filters, calculators, member areas and integrations. Every feature with its own logic is a separate item, a protected member area for example costs considerably more than a contact form.
Cost drivers: Features, integrations, loading time, accessibility
Pages and content
What counts is less the number of pages than the number of different page types. Ten service pages following the same pattern cost less than five completely different ones. Copy, photos and videos come on top if they are still missing.
Cost drivers: Page types, languages, copy and images from the client or from us
SEO and GEO
Technical search engine optimisation, structured data and preparation for AI search. The basic package during the build is small compared with the total price and saves a lot later. Ongoing optimisation afterwards is a separate item.
Cost drivers: Number of keywords and languages, redirects in a relaunch
Testing, launch and handover
Tests on browsers and devices, redirects, go-live and training for your team. In a relaunch with many old addresses this item grows considerably.
Cost drivers: Number of pages, number of redirects, scope of training
How the price is put together
Two sample calculations show how the building blocks come together. They are not real quotes but rounded figures for typical projects. Your project may come in above or below, depending on scope.
Example: bilingual company website for a service provider
- Concept and strategy with a workshop
- €1,000
- Design and user experience
- €2,000
- Build with WordPress and multilingual setup
- €2,000
- Around 12 content pages with references
- €1,500
- SEO and GEO for Google and AI search
- €800
- Legal texts and cookie banner
- €500
- Testing, launch and training
- €700
- Example total, net
- around €8,500
Sample calculation with rounded figures, not a real quote. Typical delivery in 6 to 8 weeks.
Example: corporate website with product areas (around 30 pages)
- Concept and strategy
- €2,000
- Own design
- €4,000
- Build with WordPress and multilingual setup
- €3,500
- Around 30 pages with product areas
- €4,000
- SEO and GEO for Google and AI search
- €1,000
- Testing, launch and handover
- €1,000
- Example total, net
- around €15,500
Sample calculation with rounded figures, not a real quote. If you supply copy and images yourself, the price drops.
This is also how our real quotes work: a fixed price per building block. You see at a glance where the money goes and where you can save without making the website worse.
What AI changes about the cost of a website
AI has changed the work on websites within a short time. Draft copy is ready in minutes, graphics without a photo shoot, and the machine helps write code for standard tasks. Translations into further languages cost a fraction of what they used to.
Does that make websites cheap? Partly. Pure manual work becomes cheaper and faster. What stays expensive is what a machine cannot decide. Which target group matters, which message carries, what is legally possible and whether the page brings enquiries in the end.
- Draft copy, variants and translations
- Images and graphics, the ones in this article were also made with AI
- Routine code, tests and moving old content in a relaunch
- Maintenance after the launch, because changes are done faster
AI site builders promise a website in five minutes. That is even true. What comes out is a page that looks like thousands of others. The copy says little about your company, and the structure leads nobody to an enquiry. That is enough for a hobby project. If you want to win customers through your website, you need more.
From our practice
We work AI-first so your budget goes into results
At Pageworkers AI is part of every project step. In research, draft copy, graphics, code and testing. We rebuilt our own website this way in 2026. Instead of WordPress with a page builder it now runs as a lean code website that we develop further with AI. The old home page carried more than 450 KB of HTML, the new one loads without that ballast.
We put the time saved where it counts for you. Into concept, positioning, conversion and visibility. We have been building websites for more than twelve years. We know where a machine helps and where a person has to decide.
Malek ArabManaging Director, Pageworkers Some clients go one step further. An AI agent in the chat answers questions around the clock, pre-qualifies enquiries and hands them to sales. We plan such solutions as a separate building block. More on our page about AI solutions.
Visible in Google, Bing and AI answers
A new website is only worth something once it is found. For a long time that meant Google and nothing else. Today many people ask their questions directly to ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity or Gemini. These systems read websites, summarise them and name some of them as sources.
This makes a search engine important that many ignored for a long time. ChatGPT search relies on the Bing index among other sources, and Microsoft Copilot is built on Bing anyway. A website that Bing does not know therefore does not show up in many AI answers at all.
When a website is built, this costs little if it is planned from the start. Adding it later costs more. These six points therefore belong in every quote.
- 1
Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console
Both are set up for the launch and the sitemap is submitted. That way you see from day one what your site is found for.
- 2
IndexNow for fast indexing
New and changed pages are reported to Bing and other search engines immediately. Google does not use the protocol. For AI search via Bing it is still worth it.
- 3
Structured data
Schema.org markup for company, services, people and frequent questions. It helps machines understand who you are and what you offer.
- 4
Access for AI crawlers
The robots.txt decides whether GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot may read your site. Many websites block them without knowing it, for example through an overly strict firewall.
- 5
Fast, readable HTML
AI crawlers often execute JavaScript only partly. Content that is loaded later by a script may not be seen at all.
- 6
Answers instead of marketing speak
AI systems cite pages that answer specific questions specifically. Prices, processes, figures and real experience stand a better chance than general promises.
In our website projects the basic setup for SEO and GEO is therefore always included. How to grow your visibility in AI answers on purpose is shown on our page about our GEO agency services.
Site builder, freelancer or agency?
Which route is right depends on the role the website plays for your business. Roughly there are three routes, each with its price.
AI site builder
€0 to €50 a month
- Online quickly, even without prior knowledge
- Low entry costs
- Design and copy look like many others
- Little room for SEO, tracking and integrations
- Moving to another system is hardly possible
- Your own time for setup and upkeep is not included
Suits clubs, hobby projects and a very first presence.
Freelancer
€60 to €120 per hour
- Direct contact
- Often cheaper than an agency
- If the person is unavailable, the project stops
- Design, technology, SEO and legal rarely in one hand
Good for smaller projects with a fixed scope, as long as cover is arranged.
For companies
Agency
€100 to €160 per hour
- Concept, design, technology, SEO and GEO from one source
- Team with cover, fixed prices and proven processes
- Support after the launch
- Higher project costs than a site builder
The right choice when the website should bring enquiries, applications or revenue.
We almost always charge new websites as a fixed price per building block, not by the hour. That way you know before the start what the website costs.
The pitfalls of a cheap website
- The website is live but brings no enquiries, because nobody planned it
- A bought template with 30 plugins that nobody wants to update after two years
- Redirects are missing in the relaunch and the old Google rankings are gone
- The rights to copy, images and licences are unresolved
- You have no own access to hosting and admin and depend on the provider
- Bing and AI crawlers are locked out, the site never appears in AI answers
Planning a new website?
We look at your project and give you a fixed price per building block. Including everything that later counts for Google, Bing and AI search.
How much does a website cost per month?
The bill does not end with the launch. Every website needs a server, a domain, updates and licences. You should know these items before the project starts.
Running costs of a typical company website
- Domain
- €1 to €3
- Hosting on a managed server
- €25 to €50
- Maintenance with updates, backups and security
- €50 to €150
- Licences for page builder and plugins
- often included in maintenance
- Small changes and content updates
- by effort
- Total per month, net
- around €80 to €200
We offer hosting and maintenance on our own servers in Germany.
Why maintenance pays off for WordPress right now and what it costs in detail is explained in our guide to WordPress maintenance costs.
Costs that many quotes leave out
Two quotes with a similar total can contain very different things. These items are missing especially often. They only become visible once the project is running.
- Copy, photos and videos if they do not come from you
- Licences for page builders, plugins, fonts and images, usually yearly
- Cookie banner with consent management and the legal texts
- Accessibility under the German BFSG, which has applied to many consumer services since June 2025
- Redirects for all old addresses in a relaunch, so rankings stay
- Conversion tracking with Google Tag Manager and GA4
- Training for your team so you can maintain content yourself
- Hosting, maintenance and support after the launch
The BFSG deserves a close look. It mainly applies to shops, bookings and other services for consumers. Micro-enterprises with fewer than ten employees and no more than two million euros annual turnover or balance sheet total are exempt for services. Planning for accessibility costs a little more during the build. Retrofitting costs considerably more.
Fixed price or billing by the hour?
A fixed price gives you planning certainty. It requires the scope to be set beforehand. If the idea changes along the way, the price is renegotiated.
Billing by the hour is more flexible, but the budget is harder to predict. It suits projects that grow in steps, such as a platform in several phases.
For new websites we work with fixed prices per building block and two correction rounds per design phase. Payment is in two instalments, half on order and the other half on completion. Additional wishes are billed transparently by effort. That way you know beforehand what the website costs. Adjusting course is still possible.
How to compare website quotes properly
With these eight questions you find out whether two quotes are really comparable.
- 1
What exactly is included?
Ask for the building blocks to be listed separately. Concept, design, technology, content, SEO and launch. A lump sum without a breakdown cannot be compared.
- 2
Own design or template?
Both can fit. You should just know what you are paying for.
- 3
Who supplies copy and images?
If they are missing from the quote, they come later as extra costs or as work on your desk.
- 4
How will the website be found?
Ask about Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, structured data and preparation for AI search.
- 5
What happens to the old addresses?
A relaunch includes a complete list of redirects. Otherwise you lose rankings that have grown over years.
- 6
Who owns the website?
Usage rights and access to hosting, domain and admin should be fully yours.
- 7
What does operation cost?
Hosting, maintenance and licences per month belong in the quote.
- 8
How many correction rounds are included?
And what does each additional one cost? This is where most change requests come from.
How much should you invest in your website?
For a professional company website, €5,000 to €15,000 is a realistic range, corporate websites come in at €15,000 to €30,000. Add €80 to €200 a month for hosting, maintenance and licences. Small websites are available for considerably less, large platforms cost more.
The better question is what the website should achieve for you. Every customer relationship starts with a page today. With a search result on Google, a hit in Bing or an AI answer. A website that is found there and leads visitors to enquiries pays for itself. A cheap page that nobody finds is the most expensive in the end.
If you want to have your website built, talk to us. We show you what your project costs and what it can bring.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about website costs
How much does it cost to have a website built?
For a professional company website you should expect €5,000 to €15,000 net. One-pagers and small websites start at around €1,500. Corporate websites with several languages and integrations cost €15,000 to €30,000, large platforms more.
How much does a simple homepage cost?
A one-pager or a small website with a few pages usually costs €1,500 to €5,000 at an agency. A site builder is cheaper. You then handle setup, copy and upkeep yourself.
How much does a website cost per month?
Expect around €80 to €200 net per month for domain, hosting, maintenance and licences. Without maintenance you save part of that, but you carry the risk of outdated software yourself.
How much does a web designer charge per hour?
Freelancers usually charge €60 to €120, agencies €100 to €160 net. We still charge new websites almost always as a fixed price per building block, so you know beforehand what the project costs.
Does AI make a website cheaper?
Partly. Draft copy, graphics, translations and routine code go much faster with AI. Concept, positioning, legal review and quality control remain work for people. We put the time saved into more impact per euro.
Why does Bing matter for my website?
ChatGPT search draws on the Bing index among other sources, and Microsoft Copilot is built on Bing. If Bing does not know your website, it is missing from many AI answers. Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow therefore belong to every launch.
How much does a website relaunch cost?
A relaunch costs about as much as a new website, often a little more. Add the transfer of content and redirects for all old addresses. Many of our projects are relaunches.
Is a cheap website worth it?
For a start or a small budget it can be enough. If it brings no enquiries, it still becomes expensive, because a relaunch is due after two or three years.
Can I have a website built at a fixed price?
Yes. We charge new websites as a fixed price per building block, with two correction rounds per design phase. The precondition is an agreed scope. Additional wishes are billed by effort.
Build a website yourself or have it built?
Building it yourself fits if the budget is small, the website stays simple and you have time. If it should bring customers, be found and be legally sound, an agency is usually cheaper than your own time plus later corrections.
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We plan your website and give you a fixed price
In 15 minutes we discuss goal, scope and budget. Then you get a quote that lists every building block separately.
