What a small business website costs in Europe. The honest ranges, for 2026.
There are three ways to get a website. Each one costs something to build and something every year after, and the second number is the one people forget.
The short version
Building it yourself on a builder like Wix costs about €25 a month for as long as the site exists. Hiring an agency usually starts at €1,700+ to build, often with a monthly retainer and hosting on top. Either way you also pay for your domain every year. Over five years, the builder comes to about €1,500 and the cheapest agency route about €7,400. We charge €640, once, and after that only the domain renews.
Website prices look impossible to compare because people quote different things: one figure is a month of a plan, another is a build with nothing after it, another is a build plus a retainer that never ends. The way through is to ask the same two questions of every option - what does it cost to get it built, and what does it cost every year after that?
Building it yourself: a monthly plan.
A website builder charges nothing up front and a plan every month. Wix's Core plan, the cheapest one that includes bookings, is €25 billed as €300 a year. Wix sets its prices by country, and this figure is its US price converted, so check Wix's page for yours.
The catch is not the price. It is that you do the work - the design, the writing, the photographs, the settings that decide whether Google understands the site - and the plan never stops. The day you stop paying, the site goes offline.
Hiring someone: a build fee, then maybe a retainer.
Clutch's pricing guide, built from client reviews of web design firms, finds most charge $100-149 an hour and that most projects cost less than $10,000. Clutch reports in US dollars; the survey is weighted towards American firms.
The build is only half of it. Many agencies add a monthly retainer - €82–170 a month is typical - and hosting billed to you at €8.60–43 a month. Some of that buys real work. Much of it keeps a small, rarely changed site online, which should cost very little.
The same three, over five years.
The fairest comparison is what each one costs over the life of a site, because a small business keeps a website for years.
| To build | What keeps costing | Over five years | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build it yourself (Wix Core) | Your own time | €25 billed as €300 a year | About €1,500 |
| Hire an agency | €1,700+ | A retainer of €82–170 a month, and hosting at €8.60–43 a month | About €7,400 |
| Local Business Design | €640, once | Your domain only: ~€13 a year, paid to the registrar | About €65, after the build |
What a quote should tell you.
Whoever you ask, a quote you can compare answers these. If one is missing, ask.
- What the build costs, as one figure, and what it includes.
- What recurs every month or year after that, and to whom.
- Who hosts the site, and what happens if you stop paying them.
- Whose name the domain is registered in. It should be yours.
- Whether bookings, forms and analytics are included or extra.
- What a change costs later, and whether you can make one yourself.
- Who owns the site: the design, the text and the files.
0 of 7 checked
Where we fit.
We charge €640, once, for a four- or five-page site designed for your kind of business. Hosting is free for a standard local-business site, and the only thing that renews is your domain - ~€13 a year, paid to the registrar. There is no retainer, and the site is yours.
That is at the low end of the build range because the sites are small and built for one kind of business, not because anything is left out. If you need a large online shop or a custom system, a bigger studio is the right call, and this page's ranges tell you roughly what to expect.
Questions about website costs.
Why do website quotes vary so much?
Because they quote different things. One is a month of a plan, another a build with nothing after it, another a build plus a retainer. Compare what each costs to build and what it costs every year after.
What does a website cost every year?
At the least, the domain - ~€13 a year, paid to the registrar. On a builder, add the plan every month. With many agencies, add a retainer and hosting. A site hosted free with no retainer costs only the domain.
Is a cheap website a false economy?
It can be, if cheap means a template nobody finishes or a site that stops the day a subscription lapses. What matters is whether it is built for your kind of customer, whether it is fast on a phone, and whether you own it.
Do I need to pay monthly to keep a website online?
No. A small site can be hosted for free or close to it. Monthly plans pay for the builder's tools or an agency's time, not for keeping a small site online.
