It’s one of the most frequent questions and one of the hardest to answer with a single number, because “a website” can mean radically different things depending on the project.
Why there’s no single price
The cost of a project depends on very specific variables: whether you need a custom backend or just content presentation, how many integrations with external systems you require, whether there’s business logic of your own (bookings, payments, user roles), and how much custom design you need compared with off-the-shelf solutions.
Indicative ranges by project type
Initial phase (Discovery + MVP): €2,500 – €8,000. Suitable for startups with a clear idea that need to validate something specific, or businesses that need a first working version without all the complexity of a complete system.
Complex projects (custom backend + frontend): €8,000 – €25,000 or more. This range covers systems with real business logic: booking platforms, multiple integrations, management dashboards with different user roles, architectures designed to scale.
Maintenance and support: €150 – €400/month. Depending on the volume of updates, monitoring and technical support the project needs on an ongoing basis.
These ranges aren’t universal — every studio or developer has their own pricing structure — but they reasonably reflect the market for projects with genuine customisation, not generic templates.
Why comparing on final price alone is a mistake
Two quotes with the same figure can represent completely different projects: one may include an architecture designed to scale, proprietary code and maintenance; the other may be a quickly configured template that doesn’t consider future growth. The lowest price isn’t necessarily the cheapest in the medium term if it means rebuilding the system in two years.
Before comparing figures, compare what each quote includes:
- Does it include custom design, or is it a generic template?
- Who owns the final code: you or the provider?
- What happens after launch? Is support included, and for how long?
- Is the architecture designed for current volume, or for expected growth too?
Signs that a very low quote may prove expensive later
- There’s no mention of what happens with maintenance after launch.
- The proposal uses generic templates with no real adaptation to your business.
- It’s unclear who owns the code or the content.
- The project scope is vague (“we’ll build you a nice website”) without specifying concrete features.
Think of it as an investment, not just an expense
A well-built website isn’t a one-off expense: it’s a tool that, if well planned, brings in customers and saves operational time for years. Judging the cost on the initial figure alone, without considering the value it generates and the long-term maintenance cost, is the most common way to end up paying twice for the same project.