What does a website cost?
Anywhere between nothing and several thousand euros, and both ends make sense. What you pay depends less on the site than on who builds it and who looks after it afterwards. Here are the four routes with real numbers.
The short answer
A properly maintained website for a small business costs between 500 and 3,000 euros in the first year. Below that sits the builder, where you do the work yourself. Above it sits the agency, which delivers more than most businesses need.
The four routes
Do it yourself with a builder
Wix, Squarespace and the like. The price is honestly low, the effort is not: you build, write and maintain it yourself. Expect 20 to 40 hours for the first version.
0 to 400 euros a year
Freelancer
Someone builds the site and hands it over. After that you are on your own, or every change is billed separately, usually between 60 and 120 euros an hour.
800 to 4,000 euros once
Agency
Concept, design, copy and build, often with several people involved. For a business with five pages that is more machinery than the job needs. The range opens upwards as soon as functions are added. Maintenance costs extra.
2,000 to 5,000 euros once
Subscription
Build and ongoing care in one. Changes are included rather than billed. That is our route, and further down we say plainly who it does not suit.
249 euros setup plus 59 euros a month
What actually drives the price
The number of pages
Five pages or fifty makes the biggest difference. Most businesses need fewer than ten but estimate considerably more.
Who provides the content
Copy and photography are the most expensive item when ordered along with the site. Bringing your own photos and rough drafts often saves a four figure sum.
Functions rather than pages
A contact form is standard. Booking, logins, listings or payments are not, and each of them moves the price into the next bracket.
Multiple languages
A second language rarely doubles the cost but reliably adds a third, because every later change happens twice as well.
The costs missing from the quote
After the build, costs keep running that rarely show up in comparisons. They are the reason a 900 euro site can end up dearer after three years than an 1,800 euro one.
Hosting and domain
60 to 300 euros a year, depending on provider and scope.
Updates
WordPress needs updates for the system and its plugins, otherwise the site becomes vulnerable over time. Handing that over costs 30 to 80 euros a month.
Changes
New opening hours, a new price, a new member of staff. Billed individually that quickly reaches 300 to 800 euros a year.
The quiet standstill
The most common case is none of these items but the absence of all of them: the site is never touched again, because every change costs money and effort. After two years half of it is wrong.
Common questions
What does a website cost for a small business?
For five to ten pages without special functions the market sits between 1,500 and 4,000 euros once, plus hosting and maintenance. On a subscription it is 249 euros setup and 59 euros a month, with the care included.
Is an expensive website better?
Up to around 3,000 euros you pay for work, above that mostly for people involved. For a business with a clear offer, a 5,000 euro site rarely brings more enquiries than a 2,000 euro one.
How long does a website take?
With an agency six to twelve weeks, mostly because of the review rounds. The bottleneck is almost never the build but the copy and photos that have to come from the business.
Is WordPress worth it?
WordPress is widespread and cheap to obtain, but it demands ongoing updates. Skip them and within a year you have a vulnerable site. Count the maintenance into the price, otherwise you are comparing two different things.
What is the difference between paying once and a subscription?
Paying once covers the build and then every change separately. A subscription runs on and you change as often as you like. Never touch your site and paying once is cheaper. Keep it current and the subscription wins.
What your site would cost
Tell us in two sentences what it is about. You get a number, not a presentation.
- Changes usually live within 48 hours
- You report a change to your content, we publish it. Building the site itself takes about a week, that is a different matter.
- Rather speak or type
- The assistant on this page takes both, around the clock. It listens to what your business needs, answers questions about the offer and passes it on to us.
- Rather speak to a person
- Half an hour, Monday to Friday. You pick a free slot yourself.Pick a time
- Prefer email
- info@sidrano.com