In 2026, a website for a small business sits between 1,500 € and 25,000 € as a one-off cost, or starting at 49 € a month on a subscription (the realistic turnkey range runs from 49 € to roughly 200 €/month depending on scope). The range is wide because it covers very different realities: freelancer or agency, template or custom, brochure site or platform. And above all, the advertised price almost always hides other expenses you’re only shown after signing. Here’s the real landscape, from the independent to the mid-sized company.
What are the real options for a professional site?
For a company that wants a site, whether we’re talking about an independent or a mid-sized firm, four paths exist.
Self-service tools (DIY) like Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress.com, at 15 to 50 € a month. It’s the cheapest in cash out of pocket. It’s also the most expensive in time: figure twenty-odd hours to end up with something that looks like a site, and several hundred euros if you ask a friend to “help you out.”
The independent freelancer. For a clean brochure site, figure 1,500 € to 5,000 € as a one-off cost. More if you’re after highly customized work. Quality varies enormously: a beginner and a fifteen-year veteran bill in the same range, but don’t deliver anything close to the same thing.
The classic web agency. 5,000 € to 20,000 € for a brochure site, 20,000 € to 50,000 €+ for a site with a client portal, booking, or multiple languages. It’s expensive because there’s a salesperson, a project manager, a designer, a developer, a whole chain whose every link you’re paying for.
The turnkey subscription, a more recent format. Starting at 49 € a month, all in (design, hosting, maintenance, tweaks). Figure more like 49 to 200 €/month once the scope is set. The logic isn’t “renting a template”: a good subscription funds genuine custom design, spread over time instead of a brutal bill upfront. It’s the model we chose at Inleven: the first year pays for the design work, in 12 installments or one payment, then the site lives on for 180 €/year all included. We lay out the details just below.
What are the hidden costs nobody explains?
The site’s advertised price is almost never the full price. Seven line items come up again and again.
- The domain name: 10 to 20 € a year. Often included the first year, on you afterward.
- Hosting: 5 to 30 € a month for decent hosting, more for high-traffic sites.
- The SSL certificate (the https padlock): free today thanks to Let’s Encrypt, unless someone bills you for it anyway.
- Maintenance: security updates, bug fixes, backups. Between 30 and 150 € a month depending on the provider, or “per task” if you’re lucky.
- Edits: changing a line of text, adding a page, updating a price. From a few dozen to a few hundred euros per request depending on the provider.
- Content: writing the copy, supplying the photos, structuring the menu. No provider does it for you without billing it. And it takes longer than it looks.
- Search: being found on Google isn’t automatic. From a few hundred euros for basic optimization to several hundred a month for active search work.
All told, a site “at 2,000 €” easily becomes a site “at 3,500 € the first year,” then “at 1,000 € a year” in the following ones. That’s what’s called the total cost of ownership, and it’s the one that really counts.
Why can a cheap site cost a lot?
The cheapest on the surface is rarely the cheapest in the end. Three reasons come up.
A slow or dated site drives visitors away. When a visitor waits more than three seconds or sees a design that looks ten years old, they leave. That’s revenue lost, in silence, every day. We devote a whole article to speed.
A generic site doesn’t convert. Standard templates reassure at purchase, “it’s pretty,” but they don’t set you apart. Your visitors are comparing you to your competitors: if nothing distinguishes you, they choose on price.
A provider who disappears leaves an orphaned site. It’s one of the most frequent cases: a freelancer delivers, cashes the check, and is unreachable six months later. Nobody can maintain the site, let alone grow it. You start over from scratch.
To these three traps add a fourth, less visible one: if the provider keeps you “hostage” on their hosting or proprietary CMS, leaving often means redoing everything. A question people don’t always dare ask at signing, and regret later. The subject is dug into in Who actually owns your website?.
What actually makes the price vary?
Five factors explain nearly all the gaps.
- The number of pages: one page vs. five vs. twenty, with design and integration time rising accordingly.
- The degree of graphic customization: using an existing template or starting from a blank page.
- The features: a contact form is nothing; an online booking with payment is several days of work.
- Performance and basic search: a Core Web Vitals-optimized site demands a technical care that a merely “visible” site doesn’t have.
- The deadline: an urgent project costs more. For a standard timeframe of three to eight weeks, you stay in the normal range.
How do you choose without getting it wrong?
Rather than a budget set backward, start from your real need.
- Your goal: being visible and reachable, selling online, taking bookings, showing a portfolio?
- Your rhythm: will you make a lot of edits, or rarely?
- Your comfort level: can you manage a DIY tool, or do you want someone to handle it for you?
- Your horizon: a site for the next six months, or for the coming years?
If you want something clean and fast, without having to learn a new tool and without fronting the price of a custom build all at once, the subscription format is worth considering. The right instinct isn’t to run from commitment, but to look at what it funds. A first year that pays for genuinely custom design holds up; an indefinite rent for a template, much less so. That’s exactly the subject of website on subscription: scam or smart deal?.
What should a good contract contain before you sign?
A clear contract answers three questions, whatever the format you choose:
- What happens if we stop working together? Does the site stay online, and on what terms? At Inleven, the first year funds the design (in 12 payments or one), then the site stays online for 180 €/year all included.
- Who owns my site? Domain, content, and code should come back to you, ideally from day one. That’s the principle of total ownership: no provider holds you hostage.
- How much will this site cost me in two years, adding everything up? Year 1 isn’t enough to compare honestly.
If the answers are written in black and white, you’re in the right place. If they stay vague, ask the same questions elsewhere. You’ll gain far more than the price of an audit.
