You searched "how much does a custom website cost" and found two kinds of pages: ones that show no price at all and ask you to "request a personalised quote", and ones promising a "professional website" for €300. Both leave you more confused than you started. This article tries something else: what affects the final cost, what a written proposal should set out, and where our own projects start.
Why prices aren't published (and when that's a good sign)
For standard products, a public price is usually possible. For a custom website it is different: the final price depends on a defined scope. A custom build is sized by its content structure, its functionality, the number of language versions required, and how high you're aiming with it — and those vary considerably from one business to the next.
The practical rule runs against intuition: a firm price offered before any questions are asked is worth checking. Ask for the exact list of deliverables and exclusions — an instant price is usually attached to a standardised product, which may or may not suit you. Anyone taking you seriously asks first what you sell, to whom, what you have now, and what should happen after launch — and only then puts a number on the table.
What affects the final cost
The budget is shaped, broadly, by six categories of requirement:
- The level of design work. Adapting an existing structure and visual system is one thing; a design system built for your brand — typography, rhythm, motion, rules — is another. The second takes more work and costs more.
- Content structure. Five static pages is one end of the spectrum. A catalogue with 5,473 active product variations, filtered by trade and size, is the other. Cost depends mostly on the content types and how they relate to each other, not on page count alone.
- Functionality. Each step adds real engineering: contact form → appointments → a shop with payments → a platform with accounts, payments and content for signed-in users. A platform with users, payments and stored data requires a very different level of analysis, development, security and testing from a contact form.
- Integrations. Does the site need to talk to something else — a booking system, an ERP, a payment processor? Every bridge gets built and tested. The distinction matters: clear access to the external systems a client already uses is a structure and interface problem, whereas an integration involves data exchange or an automated process.
- Languages. A well-implemented multilingual website isn't "the same site, translated" — it is routing, per-language SEO, metadata, links between versions, and copy reviewed by a person for each language.
- What happens after launch. Content, SEO, maintenance, new features. Not part of the build price, but very much part of the site's real budget — better to see it from day one.
Cost benchmarks by type of project
For orientation, this is roughly how the types of project you're comparing look — with wide, indicative ranges, because each type covers very different situations:
- DIY on a hosted website builder — including the AI ones: from zero to a few hundred dollars a year. You pay with your time and the platform's limits.
- A purchased template + someone to configure it: a few hundred dollars. You get exactly what we described in the custom vs. template comparison — fast at the start, expensive later if the site has to perform.
- A custom project, with dedicated research, design, development and testing: from a few thousand dollars upward, with the ceiling set by functionality — a complex shop or a platform with accounts and payments can pass tens of thousands.
The ranges are indicative and the market is full of exceptions in both directions. But when a price sits well below comparable proposals, check which stages, deliverables and responsibilities are missing from it.
What to check in a very cheap offer
A low price is not automatically a problem, but it has to be compared on the same deliverables. It's worth checking what's missing from it:
- "Professional website, any industry, fixed price." Check whether the fixed price covers a standardised product, and whether that product matches what you need. A standardised service can be the right answer to a standard requirement — the problem is when it's presented as a custom project.
- You can't find out what it's built on. If they won't tell you what you're technically getting — theme, page builders, licences — you'll find out later, when you try to leave.
- Content is entirely "the client's responsibility." Agree in writing who prepares, who reviews and who enters the copy, images and translations. If nobody's asking about them, nobody has budgeted for them.
- Maintenance is a mandatory subscription for the site to keep working. A maintenance agreement can be useful — it depends what it covers. Ask directly: "which services are included? If I stop paying next month, does the site still run? Do I own the code?"
- The portfolio has no verifiable projects. Ask for live addresses, not screenshots.
How to size your budget before asking for quotes
What does the site need to produce, in money or inquiries?
Set the budget against the site's actual role: the value of an enquiry or an order, a realistic traffic volume, and the total cost of running it. The website is one of the things that brings clients, alongside your offer, your brand and your sales work.
Which functionality tier are you on?
Brochure → forms and bookings → shop → platform with accounts. Each tier changes the order of magnitude of the conversation.
Who's producing the content?
Copy, photography, translations. If the answer is 'hadn't thought about it', the proposal isn't complete yet — content is one of the first things to delay a project.
What happens in years two and three?
Maintenance, new content, new features. A budget that ends on launch day doesn't cover what the site actually costs: include hosting, the domain, licences and later development.
Conclusion
"How much does a custom website cost" has one serious answer: whatever your project costs — and that comes out of a conversation, not a table. What you can take from here: the minimum budget at which we can take a project on without cutting the stages we consider necessary, the six things that move the price, and the questions that show you the order of magnitude yourself, before you talk to anyone.
If you want the exact number for your project, describe it to us. You'll get a written estimate, with the deliverables, limits and costs set out — and if your budget and our work don't match, we'll say so directly and, where we can, tell you which type of solution would suit you better.
