How Much Does a Professional Website Cost in 2026?

If you've asked an agency for a website quote recently, you've probably seen a range that makes no sense. One agency quotes €3,000. Another quotes €18,000. A third sends a monthly price from a website builder.

They're not all selling the same thing, even if the deliverable looks similar from the outside. Understanding why the prices vary so much is the only way to evaluate whether a quote is reasonable - or whether you're about to pay for something that won't serve you in two years.

The Three Tiers of Website Pricing

Website pricing falls into three genuinely different categories. Each has its place - the mistake is matching the wrong tier to your business needs.

Tier 1: Website Builders (€15–€150/month)

Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, Shopify, Framer. These are subscription-based tools where you choose a template and fill it in. They're not agencies - they're software.

• Best for: Businesses at very early stage that need a basic web presence quickly

• Real cost: €180–€1,800/year, recurring. Subscription costs are recurring and tend to compound over multi-year horizons.

• Limitations: You're constrained to the platform's templates and capabilities. Performance is often mediocre. You license the platform rather than owning the underlying infrastructure; content remains yours.

• Migration risk: Moving away later is non-trivial. Your content is locked into a proprietary format.

A Squarespace site that costs €35/month looks cheap. Over five years, that's €2,100 - plus hours of your time working within the constraints of their builder.

Tier 2: WordPress Agencies (€2,000–€15,000 build + ongoing costs)

This is the most common route for small and medium businesses. A WordPress agency builds you a custom-designed site on the world's most popular CMS.

• Best for: Businesses that need a content-managed site with custom design and some integration work

• Typical build cost: €3,000–€10,000 for a standard business site

• Ongoing cost: €100–€400/month for hosting, security, updates, and support

• 5-year total cost of ownership: €9,000–€34,000

WordPress sites are the most-deployed CMS category and (per Sucuri/Patchstack annual reports) the most-attacked by absolute volume; ongoing maintenance scales with plugin count. They require regular plugin updates, security patches, and occasional emergency developer time when an update breaks something.

Tier 3: Custom-Built React/Next.js Sites (€6,000–€30,000+)

A site built with modern JavaScript frameworks (Next.js, Astro, etc.) by a specialist agency. The frontend is custom-coded, not template-assembled.

• Best for: Businesses where performance, scalability, or design differentiation matters

• Typical build cost: €8,000–€25,000 for a business site with CMS

• Ongoing cost: €20–€200/month (significantly lower than WordPress - no plugin updates, no attack surface to patch)

• 5-year total cost of ownership: €9,200–€37,000

The build cost is higher, but the ongoing cost is substantially lower. Over five years, a well-built Next.js site is often cheaper in total than a WordPress site that requires active maintenance.

What Drives the Price Within Each Tier

Within any tier, price varies based on scope, not just quality. These are the factors that move a quote up or down:

Hidden Costs Most Quotes Don't Include

A €5,000 build quote may not include everything you need to go live. Ask specifically about:

• Domain name and SSL certificate - €15–€50/year, usually separate

• Stock photography or custom imagery - €200–€2,000 if not supplied by you

• Copywriting - most agencies don't write the words, they just place them

• Analytics setup (GA4, conversion tracking) - €300–€800 if you want it done properly

• Hosting first year - sometimes included, sometimes not

• Browser and device testing - should be included but confirm

• Training - if you'll be managing content, you need to know how

5-Year Total Cost Comparison

At the 5-year mark, the cost differences between WordPress and Next.js are smaller than the upfront numbers suggest. The real difference is what you get for the money: performance, security profile, and ongoing maintenance burden.

Red Flags in Website Quotes

• No itemized breakdown - if a quote is just '€8,000 for a website' with no detail, you have no way to evaluate it

• Template sites sold as 'custom design' - ask to see the original theme if you suspect this

• Hosting locked to the agency - you should own your hosting. If they won't transfer it, that's a warning sign.

• No post-launch support plan - what happens when something breaks on day 31?

• Very low prices with very fast timelines - a €1,200 custom website built in a week is typically a template with light customization; this works for short-term needs but tends to require rework within 12–24 months for sites with active business roles.

What webvise Charges

We build custom Next.js websites for small and medium businesses. Our typical projects range from €6,000 for a focused business site to €20,000+ for complex multi-service or multilingual sites.

We don't do templates. Every project starts with your specific goals, your audience, and the results you need the site to produce.

Get a free website audit to see where your current site stands - and whether it's performing like a €10,000 investment should. It takes 60 seconds at webvise.io/wp-health-report.