What does a website cost for a small business?
The honest answer to the question almost nobody will put a number on. Including the running costs missing from most quotes.
For a small business a decent website sits between 300 and 3,000 €. Below that you get a site builder; above it, usually an agency whose overhead you are paying for.
- One page, one goal
- 300–700 €
- The normal case for a business
- 500–1,500 €
- Plus something that works
- 1,500–3,000 €
- Above that
- rarely worth it for a small business
Why nobody wants to name a number
“What does a website cost?” is like “What does a car cost?”. The range is so wide that any quick answer is either a lie or worthless.
It can still be answered — by saying what it depends on. Most people skip that part, because a concrete number pins them down.
Three things move the price, the rest is trimming
Everything else — colours, typefaces, animation — costs almost no time in practice. These three do:
- How many pages. A landing page is a day's work, eight pages is a week.
- Whether copy and images exist. If both are missing, add roughly a third to the effort.
- Whether something has to happen. Looking is cheap. Booking, paying and signing in are not.
What each bracket actually contains
300 to 700 € — one page, one goal. For an opening, an offer or an ad. No menu, no subpages, but live fast.
500 to 1,500 € — the normal case for a business. Four to eight pages, copy written for you, Google listing set up, a contact route people actually use.
1,500 to 3,000 € — plus something that works: online booking, payments, several languages, a protected area.
Above 3,000 € it is rarely worth it for a small business. If it is, someone should explain very precisely what for.
The running costs most quotes leave out
Building is one-off. Afterwards it keeps running — and that rarely appears in the quote:
- Domain: 10 to 20 € a year. Best case it is in your name. If your provider holds it, get it in writing when and how you can take it over.
- Hosting: from free to around 20 € a month. For a business site the free tier is usually enough.
- Upkeep: either you do it, or you pay for it. Plan for neither and in two years you have a site with the wrong opening hours.
How to spot a bad offer
Three warning signs that hold up almost every time:
- The domain is registered to the provider — and nothing says how you get it back. Holding it is not the problem; having no way out is.
- The price looks strikingly low but the term only appears in the contract. A minimum term is normal — it just belongs before you sign, not buried inside. Either way, multiply it out.
- There is no fixed number, only hourly rates with no ceiling.
What to take away
Don't ask for the price, ask for the scope — and get it in writing, with a fixed number and a date.
And ask who owns the domain in the end. That answer tells you more about a provider than their portfolio does.
My own answer to it: you decide at the start whether domain and hosting run in your name or mine. If they run with me, I transfer the domain to you whenever you ask.
Why is a built site more expensive than a builder subscription?
Because you're paying for work, not software. With a builder you rent a tool and do everything yourself. Here you get design, copy, setup and someone reachable — paid once instead of monthly.
Can I pay in instalments?
Two parts is usual: half when you like the draft, the other half at launch. No money moves before the draft.
What if I need more pages later?
They get added without rebuilding anything. You pay the actual effort — an additional page usually lands in the low hundreds at most.
For a first impression, yes. As your only home, no — and there are two solid reasons.
Free, set up in an hour — and the strongest lever a local business has.
Written by Florenz Hardt, Berlin. If any of this stops being true, tell me — I keep these up to date.