A website costs from 5 euros a month if you build it yourself with a website builder (a tool with ready-made templates), up to 20,000 euros for design alone if you have it made to measure, according to Shopify. In between, anything goes. The reason is simple: two quotes that both say "website" often describe two different jobs.
You asked for a quote and they gave you a number. Since then you have been wondering whether they are pulling your leg? It happens to everyone. Here you will find the price ranges, the items that make up the bill, the costs that come back every year and the questions to ask before you sign. The figures come from two public guides, listed at the end. Where they are in dollars or contradict each other, we say so.
How much does it cost to build a website? Three routes, three orders of magnitude
Online you find figures that range from a coffee to a mortgage. That happens because the word "website" covers very different jobs. There are three routes.
- Do it yourself with a website builder. You pay a monthly subscription and put the site together yourself, starting from ready-made templates. In Shopify's table the starting prices run from 5 euros a month (Shopify) to 14 euros a month (Wix). In between you find GoDaddy at 8.65 euros, Weebly at 11 euros and Squarespace at 12 euros. These are starting prices: the plan with the features you actually need costs more. The price in the shop window is where you start, never where you end up.
- Template with a professional's help. A template is a ready-made graphic model. According to Shopify, pre-built templates cost from 0 to 200 euros. If you hand the job to a freelancer or an agency, the same guide mentions an initial spend between 2,000 and 10,000 euros.
- Custom site. Custom design and development cost from 2,000 to 20,000 euros according to Shopify. For a small business site the guide gives an average between 1,000 and 50,000 euros. A range that wide says one thing only: the price depends on what is inside the project, not on the word "website".
A warning: Shopify sells subscriptions for online stores, so in its guide the builders get the lion's share. Fair enough: whoever sells hammers will recommend nails. Keep that in mind when you compare figures.
What are you paying for, item by item?
A website bill is made of a few items. If you know them, a quote stops looking like hieroglyphics.
- Domain. This is the site's address, for example yourcompany.com. According to Shopify it costs between 10 and 30 euros a year.
- Hosting. This is the space on a server where the site lives and can be reached by anyone. The same guide indicates between 5 and 250 euros a month, depending on the power you need.
- SSL certificate. This is what turns on the padlock and the https address, meaning a protected connection. The basic one is often included in the plan, otherwise it goes up to 200 euros a year.
- Design and development. The item that weighs the most: how the site looks and how it is built. The range is the one seen above, from 0 to 20,000 euros.
- Content. Text, photos, video. Royalty-free images (usable by paying a one-off licence) cost from 10 euros to a few hundred euros.
- Features. An online store, bookings, a members area. For e-commerce, hosted solutions, meaning run by a platform, cost from 20 to 300 euros a month according to Shopify. Open-source ones, with freely available code, are free to download. They still need hosting and technical work, so "free" is a word to handle with care.
Then there is one item no quote lists: your time. Writing the text, choosing the photos, answering the questions of whoever builds the site, checking the result: that is hours. If you ignore them, the site goes online three months late.
How much does it cost to keep a site running every year?
The big spend comes at the start, but a site stays online only if someone looks after it. In its maintenance table, Shopify gives these ranges:
- domain, from 10 to 30 euros a year;
- hosting, from 2 to 500 euros a month;
- SSL certificate, from 0 to 850 euros a year;
- SEO (optimisation to get found on Google), from 0 to 800 euros a month;
- backup and data recovery, from 20 to over 500 euros a month;
- CMS updates (the CMS is the program that manages the site's content), from 0 to 3,500 euros a month in the most complex cases.
Look closely at the numbers: the same guide gives two different ranges for hosting in two places (5 to 250 euros a month in one, 2 to 500 in another). When even the people who write the guide don't agree with themselves, read the figures as orders of magnitude, not as a price list. One tip from the same source: paying yearly instead of monthly saves between 10 and 25%.
Why do two quotes for the same site look like they come from different planets?
Because they often don't describe the same site. According to Seahawk Media (an April 2026 guide, with figures in dollars) a highly customised site costs 25 to 50% more than one built on a template. Developer and designer rates run from 50 to 300 dollars an hour, depending on experience. Neither guide explains how it got its figures, so they are rough indications, not revealed truths.
Before you compare two quotes, ask whoever sends them these questions:
- how many pages the site has, which features it includes;
- who writes the text, who prepares the images;
- who updates it after launch, and at what cost;
- who owns the design, the content and the code in the end;
- what happens if one day you change supplier.
The last one is the favourite of anyone selling "turnkey" sites: the key, sometimes, stays in their pocket.
Hypothetical example: a freelance architect's studio
Hypothetical example: a freelance architect wants a four-page site, with an introduction, projects, how she works and contacts. She has two routes.
With a website builder she starts from a subscription between 5 and 14 euros a month, adds a domain between 10 and 30 euros a year, picks a template between 0 and 200 euros. The site is online quickly. It will look like many others. She will have to look after the project photos herself, including the day she finds out they get cropped on her phone.
With a professional she moves into the custom design range. The site can have a structure built to show off her best work, text written around the way she works, a technical base built to be found on Google. It costs more. The choice makes sense only if new clients really do come from the site. If almost all her work comes from word of mouth, the first route can be enough for quite a while.
When should you not spend (or not need a site at all)?
An expensive site doesn't bring in clients just by existing. There are cases where it pays to spend little or wait.
- You have a single offer to present. A page built for one goal may be enough. We talk about it in What is a landing page and on the page about Sarabi.Cloud landing pages.
- You are testing an idea. Shopify notes that completely free sites have limited features, but they can work for a simple landing page. To find out whether anyone cares about the idea, that is often enough.
- Clients already find you another way. If word of mouth works and a Google listing with the right phone number and address is enough, a complex site can wait.
- You have no time for the content. A gorgeous, empty site does less than a simple site with clear text. If you can't give it your attention, put it off.
How to save money without regretting it
- Start with a few pages done well. Adding more later costs less than redoing everything.
- Write the first draft of the text yourself: whoever does your job tells it better than anyone else, and then it gets polished.
- Compare quotes item by item, using the questions from the previous section.
- If you choose a subscription, consider paying yearly: according to Shopify it saves 10 to 25%.
- Budget for maintenance from day one. A neglected site loses effectiveness faster than you think.
How we work on websites
On the websites page we say it plainly: every project starts from scratch, with no templates and no copy-paste. Design, content and code are made for your case and stay yours. We start from your story, not from a model. We also have a declared obsession with SEO. If you sell online, our model offers rates below the market and a percentage of the site's sales. Translation: if the store doesn't sell, the problem is ours too, so we care a lot.
The cost depends on the project. The quickest way to think it through is to start from a description of what you need: goal, number of pages, features, content already ready.
Frequently asked questions about the cost of a website
How much does a website cost for a small business? Shopify gives an average between 1,000 and 50,000 euros. The final figure depends on pages, features, content and who builds it.
Is a free website really free? Free builders have limited features and no fee. If you want an address of your own, you still have to pay for the domain, which according to Shopify costs 10 to 30 euros a year.
How much does it cost to keep a site running every year? It depends on hosting, domain, SSL certificate, backups, updates and SEO. The ranges seen above go from a few tens of euros a year to much higher figures for complex sites.
Builder or custom site? A builder is enough to start quickly and spend little. A custom site makes sense when it has to bring in clients, have specific features and set you apart from the competition.
Want to find out how much yours could cost? Write to info@sarabi.cloud: two lines on what you want to achieve with the site and where you are now are enough.
Sources: Shopify, How much does a website cost (23 September 2026); Seahawk Media, How much does a website cost in 2026 (27 April 2026).
Have a similar case or a doubt? Write to us at info@sarabi.cloud.