How much does a website cost?
A website can cost EUR 1,490 or EUR 15,000. The difference is scope, not luck. Here are honest benchmark prices, the factors that actually set the number, and how to read a quote before you sign it.
Website cost at a glance
Every website is different, but these entry points give you somewhere to start. They are lower bounds, not ceilings. Where your project actually lands comes down to page count, how custom the design is, and the features behind the screens, which the next sections break down.
Our starting prices come in below what many German agencies quote, and the reason is structural rather than a discount. We are a two-person senior studio with no account-manager layers and no agency overhead, and part of delivery runs nearshore from Albania. Same senior quality, lower fixed costs, a fair price. Against pure German agency rates, roughly EUR 80-180 an hour, that typically works out 30-50% cheaper without cutting corners on communication, and Thomas in Germany stays your direct point of contact throughout.
| Landing page (one page) | from ~EUR 1,490 |
|---|---|
| Business website (3-5 pages) | from ~EUR 2,290 |
| Growth website | from ~EUR 3,990 |
| Website Care | from ~EUR 99 / month |
What drives the price
Website quotes vary widely because a handful of factors move the effort far more than the rest. Once you can name them, you can read any quote and understand where the number comes from.
- Page count and structure. A single landing page is quick to build. Many subpages with their own layouts, categories, and branching take more time. Structure, not just page count, is the real driver.
- Design. A solid standard look is inexpensive. A distinctive, considered design is an investment in impact and conversion, and it is usually the part that pays for itself.
- Editing content yourself. A CMS that lets you change text and images without a developer is convenience that costs a little to set up and quickly earns it back in saved invoices.
- Features. Forms, booking, multilingual content, a blog, or a small shop each add effort depending on how deep they go.
- Content and images. Ready, clear content speeds everything up. When copy and images still have to be created, that is its own line item.
Website builder, WordPress, or custom-built?
A website builder is the cheapest way in, and for a simple digital storefront it is often enough. The moment you care about speed, SEO, a distinctive design, or anything out of the ordinary, it starts to fight you. Monthly fees add up, and you rarely own what you build.
WordPress sits in the middle. It is flexible and familiar, but plugins pile up, updates need watching, and performance and security become your ongoing responsibility.
A custom-built website loads faster, is structured cleanly for search engines from the first line, and grows with your business. We build deliberately lean and fast, so you get near enterprise quality without the agency markup. Where you want to edit content yourself, we add a CMS so your team can update text and images without calling a developer. Either way the code is yours, handed over with no lock-in.
Ongoing costs, and how to keep the budget in check
Beyond the build, budget for a domain and hosting, plus optional maintenance. Upkeep with us starts at around EUR 99 per month and covers updates, backups, small changes, and keeping the site fast and secure. Hosting stays in the EU and everything is handled to GDPR standards by default.
The biggest savings, though, are decided before any code is written. A few habits keep a site lean without cutting quality.
- Start with the essentials. One strong landing page often does more than twenty mediocre ones. You can always expand later.
- Deliver content early. Clear copy and images before the build begins save expensive waiting loops and revision rounds.
- Be able to edit it yourself. A good CMS lowers your ongoing costs, because small changes never trigger an invoice.
- Care about speed and SEO. A fast, cleanly built site saves ad budget over time, because it ranks better and converts more of the visitors you already pay for.
The natural next steps are our work on website and web design, and web apps when a site needs to become a full application. For the wider picture on pricing, our guide to what software development costs sets the context, and if you want senior EU quality below German agency rates, that is exactly what nearshore delivery from Albania is built for. When you are ready for a fixed price on your site, tell us about it in a free intro call.