How much does a website cost in 2026: real price bands, what moves the quote and the cost over time

"How much does a website cost?" is a fair question that deserves an answer with numbers, not an "it depends". Here are the price bands I actually use and, above all, the technical factors that move a quote in and out of them. With one caveat worth more than the figures: the development price is only part of what a site costs.

The bands I use

Indicative figures in euros, not an offer: the real quote comes from the project.

• Showcase website: from €2,000 to €3,500. A few pages, a clear presentation of the business, a contact form.
• WordPress site with a custom theme: from €3,500 to €6,500. More sections, content you can manage yourself, a structure designed to grow.
• WordPress e-commerce with WooCommerce: from €4,500 to €8,500. Catalogue, cart, payments, order management.
• Custom sites, apps and management systems: too varied for a generic figure, assessed after an analysis.

Integrations, AI, accessibility and infrastructure are estimated case by case.

What really moves a quote

The number of page templates, not pages

Ten structurally identical pages cost little more than one. Ten pages with different layouts are ten templates to design, build, make responsive and test. The right question is not "how many pages?" but "how many kinds of page?".

The content model

Free-form text is simple. Structured content (services with fields, projects with galleries, events with dates and places, product pages with variants) needs content types, fields, relationships and an admin designed to manage them. It is work that keeps the site tidy for years, but it has to be budgeted.

The design

A complete Figma file, with components and states, shortens development. A design to be created, with proposals and revisions, is a job of its own. Special animations and interactions are estimated separately.

Features and integrations

A contact form is trivial. A members' area, bookings, a configurator, a searchable map, a link to the management system are real development, with their own edge cases. Integrations especially depend on the quality of the APIs on the other side (I cover this in Integrating your management system, e-commerce and invoicing).

Quality requirements

Good Core Web Vitals on real-user data, WCAG AA accessibility, multilingual with correct hreflang, structured data: these are requirements you can meet or ignore, and they explain much of the difference between two quotes "for the same site".

Content

Copy, photos, translations. If they are not ready the project slows down; if they must be produced, they are a separate cost.

The cost over time

The right comparison is the three-year total cost, not the initial quote:

• domain and hosting;
• licences for themes, plugins and external services, often yearly;
• maintenance: updates, backups, security, fixes after updates;
• evolution: new sections, new features.

Two sites with the same initial price can have very different costs over time. A WordPress site with a multipurpose theme and thirty plugins needs more maintenance and carries more risk than one with a custom theme and few plugins; a static site needs even less. I explain this in WordPress maintenance: the real cost over time.

How to read a quote

• Stated assumptions and exclusions: what is included and what is not.
• Ownership: domain, hosting, code and accounts in your name.
• Method: previews during the work, phases, planned revisions.
• After delivery: support included, response times, maintenance.
• Pricing model: fixed price or day rate, and how out-of-scope requests are handled.

A quote that is just a number cannot be compared with anything.

Timing

A polished site usually takes 2 to 4 weeks, with a first reviewable version early on. Applications with a members' area and integrations take longer and are organised in phases.

Keeping spend under control

• An essential first version, then improvements based on real use.
• Content ready before starting.
• Explicit priorities: essential, useful, nice to have.
• A single decision-maker.
• Fewer dependencies: every plugin or external service is a recurring cost.

Three typical situations, without invented numbers

A professional who wants an online presence. A few page templates (about, services, contact), copy ready, no special features. It sits in the showcase band. Cost rises with a highly customised design or several languages.

A practice or business with several services and articles. More page templates, frequently updated content, a comfortable admin for writers, attention to SEO. It is the WordPress-with-custom-theme band, or a static site with a headless CMS if the writers are comfortable with a different tool. Cost grows with the number of templates and with features such as members' areas or advanced forms.

A business selling online. Catalogue, variants, shipping, payments, automated emails. It is the e-commerce band, but what weighs most here is the number of products, pricing rules and links with management and stock systems. If the sales process is unusual, custom is considered.

My take

I prefer to give clear numbers and explain what moves them rather than hide behind "it depends". The bands above are the ones I really use; my complete projects include 30 days of support after launch, and I work with weekly online previews, so you see what you are paying for as it takes shape.

But the advice I give most often is about afterwards: choose the architecture with three years in mind. For the same initial budget, a site with few dependencies costs less to maintain and breaks less. It is one reason why, when the project allows it, I propose a static site instead of a plugin-heavy WordPress: I cover it in From WordPress to Nuxt, GitHub and Netlify.

Why work with me

I have been programming since 1999, delivered more than 300 projects and work as an external developer with about 30 agencies, from Rome and remotely. After a call of about 20 minutes you receive a free written proposal, fixed price or day rate, with assumptions and exclusions stated.

If you want to know what your site would cost, tell me what you need. Details are in Website development.