How much does a website cost in 2026

Search for “how much does a website cost” and you’ll find offers at €199 and quotes at €15,000 for what looks like the same service. It isn’t. There’s no such thing as “a website” as a single product: there are different levels of complexity, quality and goals, and the market tends to mix them up.

Here you’ll find realistic ranges, what pushes the price up or down, and how to compare the quotes you receive. Figures refer to the Italian market.

Five things that set the price

1. The type of site. A five-page brochure site, a shop with a hundred products and a web app with user accounts are different jobs.
2. Template or custom design. A template is cheaper to build but has limits on speed, customisation and often security. Custom design takes more hours, and the result is built around your goals.
3. Who produces the content. Copy, photos and video are often not included. If they arrive ready, time and cost go down.
4. Integrations. Bookings, CRM, automated emails, AI assistants, syncing with your business software: each one has a development cost and often a recurring cost.
5. After launch. Hosting, domain, updates and maintenance. It’s the item that surprises people most, because it rarely shows up when comparing quotes.

Ranges, type by type

Type of site	Indicative investment	Time	For
Brochure site	€800 – €3,500	2–4 weeks	Professionals, local businesses, craftspeople
Company website	€3,000 – €8,000	4–8 weeks	Businesses that use the site to sell
Basic e-commerce	€2,500 – €6,000	3–6 weeks	Shops and makers with physical products
Advanced e-commerce	€6,000 – €15,000 and up	6–16 weeks	Large catalogues, B2B, complex pricing
Custom web app	€8,000 – €50,000 and up	3–6 months	Portals, business software, platforms

Brochure site. Custom or semi-custom design, 5–10 pages, mobile-friendly, basic SEO, a contact form. Below €800 it’s hard to find professional, made-to-measure work. Above €3,500 you usually get professional copy and photos, more languages or integrations.

Company website. It isn’t just bigger: it’s designed around the paths visitors take. Where they come from, what they need to see to trust you, what they should do next. Expect wireframes before development and a panel to update content yourself.

E-commerce. The range depends on platform and catalogue. A ready-made platform (like Shopify) is the fastest route for small and medium catalogues, but comes with monthly fees and commissions. WooCommerce runs on WordPress and needs constant maintenance. Custom development makes sense with thousands of products, complex pricing or integration with your business software.

Web app. Portals with accounts and roles, business software, complex booking, dashboards. They need analysis, a backend, a database and months of work. They pay off when they replace expensive manual processes.

The costs that come later

• Domain and hosting: roughly €50 to €300 a year. Cheap hosting slows the site down and hurts rankings.
• Maintenance and security: roughly €300 to €1,500 a year. A WordPress site needs frequent updates; a static site, like the ones we build in Astro, has far less to update.
• Ongoing SEO: a separate service with a monthly cost. A site optimised at launch doesn’t stay on top by itself.
• Content: photos, copy and video. If they’re not in the quote, someone will have to produce them.

Template or custom?

A template (WordPress with a premium theme, Wix, Squarespace) makes sense with a small budget, tight deadlines and standard needs. The limits are real: lower performance, limited customisation, the same structure as thousands of other sites.

Custom development starts from a blank page. It costs more up front, but the site is faster, more secure and grows with you. We use Astro for brochure and company websites, SvelteKit or Next.js for web apps: Astro produces light pages with no unnecessary JavaScript, and you can see it in loading times.

How to read a quote

• Check what’s included, line by line. Number of pages, design, SEO, mobile, integrations, copy, training.
• Ask who does the work. If part of it is outsourced, you should know.
• Ask for references. People who do good work have clients happy to talk about it.
• Be wary of very low prices. A €300 website is a template assembled in a few hours.
• Ask what happens after launch. Who updates it, who steps in if something breaks.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a professional website for less than €1,000? For a few pages, with a semi-custom template and content ready to go, yes. Expect limits on speed and SEO.

How long does it take? A brochure site 2–4 weeks, an e-commerce 4–8, a web app even months.

Do I pay every year? Yes: domain, hosting and maintenance are always there. With modern technology they stay modest.

Is SEO included? Usually the basics, meaning speed and page structure. Ongoing SEO is a separate service.

The right cost is the one that pays back

A €300 website that brings no clients isn’t a saving, it’s an expense you’ll have to make again. The right question isn’t “how much does it cost?” but “how long until I get the investment back?”.

If you’re considering a new website, tell us where you’re starting from: we’ll tell you what you really need, and what can wait.