# Website Design Cost, What a Website Really Costs in 2026
Quotes for a website range from €500 to €25,000, and the spread says nothing about quality. This overview shows what each route really costs, what quotes often leave out and how to recognize prices that can actually be compared.

Updated 26 August 2026 · 4 min read

| Route | One-time | Ongoing per year | Duration |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Website builder, built yourself | €0 | €130 to €300 | 1 to 3 days |
| Template with its own code | €99 | €30 to €80 hosting | a few hours |
| AI Website Service | €899 | €30 to €80 hosting | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Freelancer | €1,500 to €5,000 | €100 to €400 | 3 to 6 weeks |
| Agency | €5,000 to €25,000 | €600 to €3,000 maintenance | 6 to 12 weeks |

Ask three providers to quote the same website and you get €1,800, €6,500 and €14,000. That rarely comes down to greed and almost always to three different things being offered.

This overview sorts the routes by what they actually cost and shows which items regularly go missing from quotes.

## The five routes at a glance

The table above gives the ranges. Here is what sits behind them.

### Website builder, built yourself

Wix, Squarespace, Jimdo. You pay €11 to €25 a month and build it yourself.

**What is included:**Hosting, templates, forms, often a domain for the first year.**What is missing:**Your time. Realistically twenty to forty hours for a decent site, plus copy.**The hidden item:**After three years you have paid €400 to €900 and own none of it. Switching means rebuilding.

### Template with its own code

A finished project that you buy once and adapt yourself.**What is included:**The complete website with all pages, and the code belongs to you.**What is missing:**Your time as well, but far less of it, because structure and copy already stand as a framework. With our templates you also get the knowledge an AI uses to take over the customization.**The hidden item:**Practically none. Hosting from €30 a year, nothing else.

### Done for you at a fixed price

The middle route we offer with the [AI Website Service](https://ai-website.com/service) for €899. You pick a template, we build in your content, set up domain and hosting with your provider and take you live.**What is included:**The rebuild, the setup, the launch and four weeks of support.**What is missing:**Copy and photos come from you, otherwise it would cost more.

### Freelancer

€1,500 to €5,000, three to six weeks.**What is included:**Implementation, usually based on WordPress or a website builder, often with basic SEO.**What is missing:**Often the copy. And availability afterwards, once the freelancer is deep in the next project.**The hidden item:**Maintenance. A WordPress site without upkeep becomes a security risk after two years.

### Agency

€5,000 to €25,000, six to twelve weeks.**What is included:**Strategy, concept, custom design, implementation, testing, often copy and photos.**What is missing:**Rarely anything, hence the price.**The hidden item:**The maintenance contract and the hourly rate for every later change. A new subpage then costs €400 to €1,200.

## The items quotes leave out

This list is worth having when you compare. Ask whether each point is included.**Copy.**The biggest hidden item. Professional website copy costs €150 to €400 per page. For ten pages that is a budget of its own.**Photos.**A shoot runs €500 to €1,500. Stock photos are cheaper and look weaker, especially for people businesses.**Legal texts.**In Germany, the legal notice (Impressum) and privacy policy should be reviewed. A lawyer charges €200 to €800 for that, generators are cheaper and less reliable.**Cookie banner and analytics.**Setup and a GDPR-compliant configuration, €200 to €600.**Training.**Anyone who is supposed to maintain the site later needs an introduction.**GDPR-compliant hosting.**Servers outside the EU make things complicated. Providers based in Germany cost barely more.

## What the price does not reveal

Three things decide whether a website succeeds, and none of them appears in the quote.**Whether the positioning is clear.**A website cannot rescue what is unclearly worded. If you cannot say in one sentence who you are there for, even €15,000 will not buy you a site that works.**Whether there is a visible next step.**A surprising number of expensive websites end without a clear call to action.**Whether it is maintained.**A site that has stood unchanged for three years loses visibility, no matter what it cost. That is why how easy later changes are matters more than the purchase price.

## The three-year math

Here is how it looks once the time frames are the same.

-**Website builder:**€400 to €900, and afterwards you own nothing

-**Template adapted yourself:**Purchase price plus about €150 hosting, the code belongs to you

-**Service at a fixed price:**€899 plus hosting, the code belongs to you

-**Freelancer:**€1,800 to €6,200 including maintenance

-**Agency:** €6,800 to €34,000 including maintenance

For many small businesses and freelancers the sensible range lies in the first three lines. The jump to an agency pays off when the website is a central sales channel and a lot depends on it accordingly.

## Further reading

If you want to compare the routes on more than price, see the [comparison of agency, website builder and template](https://ai-website.com/comparison). If you want to know exactly what the fixed-price route includes, see the [AI Website Service](https://ai-website.com/service). And all [finished templates](https://ai-website.com/templates) are in the marketplace.

## Frequently asked questions
Why do quotes for the same website vary so much? Because they rarely contain the same thing. A quote for €1,500 usually covers implementation based on a template, one for €12,000 covers strategy, copy, a photo shoot, custom design and testing. Quotes only become comparable once you pin down the copy, the images and the number of pages.

What does a website cost to run? A domain costs about €10 to €20 a year, hosting €30 to €60. With WordPress, maintenance and paid plugins come on top, realistically €200 to €600. With a website builder everything is included in the subscription, and in return you pay for as long as the site exists.

Are expensive websites better? Not automatically. The price depends mainly on the number of working hours, not on the result. A €10,000 agency site rarely brings ten times as many inquiries as a €1,000 one. What really counts is clear positioning, good copy and a visible next step.

What do quotes often leave out? Copy, photos, a legal review of the legal notice and privacy policy, analytics setup, a cookie banner and training. Each of these items can run into four figures if it is ordered later. Ask about them before you sign.

Is a low-cost website worth it at all? Yes, if the structure is right. A clear €100 site that makes the offer understandable and shows a way to get in touch beats a beautiful €8,000 one where nobody finds what they are looking for.

## Keep reading

- [**Build a Website with AI, Website Builder, ChatGPT or Claude Code?** Three ways to build a website with AI, with their honest limits. What builder AI, ChatGPT and Claude Code each deliver and when each route is the right one.](https://ai-website.com/guides/build-website-with-ai)
- [**How Much Does a Law Firm Website Cost in 2026?** What a law firm website really costs by route and firm size, the line items missing from most quotes, and a three-year comparison.](https://ai-website.com/guides/law-firm-website-cost)
- [**How Much Does a Coaching Website Cost?** Every route to a coaching website with honest prices, the hidden line items and a three-year calculation. Plus the point at which each route pays off.](https://ai-website.com/guides/coaching-website-cost)
- [**7 Best Vacation Rental Website Templates 2026 (Cabins and Glamping)** Seven website templates for holiday cabins, vacation rentals and glamping compared on season, full price, arrival, direct enquiries, three-year cost and who owns the site.](https://ai-website.com/guides/vacation-rental-website-templates)

The marketplace
## All of this is already done in a template
94 finished industry websites, each with built-in knowledge and seven skills. Structure, copy, structured data and llms.txt are set before you change a single thing.

- A complete website with every subpage, fully written
- Seven skills to guide your AI tool
- The complete code as a ZIP, yours forever

[See the templates · from €99](https://ai-website.com/templates) Later

One payment, everything included. We show this at most once.

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