How Much Does a Website Cost in 2026? A Transparent Guide for EU Businesses

One of the first questions every business owner asks when thinking about a new website: how much does it actually cost?

The answer you’ll most often hear is “it depends.” Frustrating, but true. In Poland and across the EU, you can order a website for €200 and for €20,000 — and both will find buyers. The difference isn’t whether you have a site. It’s what that site can do for your business.

This article breaks the market into concrete price tiers, tells you exactly what you get at each level, and helps you make a decision that won’t cost you double in a year’s time.

Website price ranges in the EU (2026)

Under €500 — website builder or junior freelancer

This range covers website-builder templates (Wix, Squarespace, Webflow free tier) or quick jobs from beginning freelancers.

What you get:

3–5 pages from a pre-built template
Contact, about, services
Hosting on the builder’s cloud (often with their branding or subdomain)
Turnaround: a few days to a week

What you don’t get:

Custom visual design
SEO optimisation beyond basic settings
Core Web Vitals in the green
Support after handoff

Best for: solo freelancers taking their first steps online, one-off events, temporary landing pages. For a business that wants to win clients through the internet — not enough horsepower.

€500 – €1,500 — local freelancer or small agency

The most common segment. Most SMEs end up here looking for “something solid at a fair price.”

What you get:

5–10 pages with individual design or a premium template
WordPress or a page builder (Elementor, Divi)
Basic SEO (meta tags, headings)
Contact form, Google Maps integration
Turnaround: 2–6 weeks

What you often don’t get:

Real-device mobile testing
Performance monitoring after launch
Core Web Vitals — WordPress with plugins often loads in 4–7 seconds on mobile
Scalability for future needs

Hidden costs: premium plugins (€50–150/yr), security updates, hosting (€80–200/yr), premium theme (€80–200). Real cost in year two grows by €300–600.

Best for: local businesses with tight budgets not planning heavy SEO traffic or paid campaigns. A good start, but “we need a better website” often surfaces within a year.

€1,500 – €3,500 — sales-focused site from an experienced agency

Here you’re buying strategy, not just “a nice design.” The agency asks about your customers, competitors and goals before touching any code.

What you get:

Custom UI/UX design tailored to your brand
Fast, modern tech stack (Astro, Next.js, or premium WordPress)
Core Web Vitals in the green (LCP < 2.5 s, CLS < 0.1)
On-page SEO: schema.org markup, hreflang (for multilingual sites), sitemap
GDPR compliance: privacy policy, cookie consent
Analytics: Google Analytics 4 or Plausible (privacy-first)
Mobile and cross-browser testing
30–90 days of post-launch support
Turnaround: 2–4 weeks

Best for: B2B and B2C service businesses treating the internet as a client-acquisition channel. Clinics, law firms, agencies, consultants. This is where a website starts working.

€3,500+ — custom builds and e-commerce

E-commerce stores (Shopify, WooCommerce, custom), SaaS platforms, web applications, complex portals. Beyond the scope of most service businesses.

Why the cheapest website is often the most expensive

This isn’t an agency sales pitch. It’s arithmetic.

An example:

Website at €800 (WordPress with Elementor) — mobile load time: 5.2 s
Website at €2,500 (modern stack) — mobile load time: 1.1 s

What does that difference mean?

Google’s own data says: sites loading above 3 seconds see a 32%–90% higher bounce rate on mobile. Users close the page before they see anything.

Real maths:

1,000 visitors per month
Bounce rate 70% on slow site vs 40% on fast site
300 additional potential clients who stay and read your offer
3% conversion rate → 9 extra enquiries per month
Value of one client in services: €500–5,000

The price difference in build cost (€1,700) pays back in 1–2 months. If you don’t earn that on one client — stick with the cheaper option. If you do — the numbers speak for themselves.

What actually affects the price?

1. Technology stack

WordPress with plugins is free tooling with high maintenance overhead. Modern frameworks (Astro, Next.js) cost more to build but are cheaper to maintain and fast from day one.

2. Visual design

A ready-made template: fast and cheap. Custom UI/UX: more expensive, but your brand looks like your brand — not like 10,000 other sites running the same theme.

3. Copy and content

Are you writing the content yourself or commissioning it? Good copywriting is often 30–50% of the project’s value. A site without convincing text doesn’t sell, even if it looks beautiful.

4. SEO and technical setup

Basic meta tags are the bare minimum. Full optimisation (schema.org, Core Web Vitals, sitemap, hreflang) takes days of extra work — but those days determine whether Google likes you.

5. Number of features

A contact form is straightforward. A pricing calculator, online booking, CRM integration — every added feature is added hours.

How to choose: 5 questions to ask before you commission

1. How fast will the site load on mobile? Ask for past work and test it on PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev). Score below 70 on mobile = problem.

2. What’s included in the price, and what isn’t? Hosting, domain, premium plugins, content, stock photos — these are common surprises on the final invoice.

3. Who leads the project — who writes the code? Many agencies sell the project and hand it off to offshore subcontractors. Nothing wrong with that if you know about it and quality is maintained.

4. What does post-launch support look like? A website is a living product. Updates, bugs, content changes — who handles these and at what cost?

5. Do I get access to all accounts? Hosting, domain, Analytics, admin panels — everything should be in your name. Agencies that “hold” your accounts as leverage are a red flag.

WebForge Studio pricing — transparent by design

We build websites for service businesses in Poland and the EU. Our pricing is public because we believe transparency is the foundation of good work.

Package	Price	Timeline	Best for
Start	from €690	7 days	First steps online, simple service, pilot
Pro	from €1,390	14 days	Service business with a serious sales goal
Premium Business	from €2,290	21 days	Multi-service or multilingual site

Every package includes:

Custom UI/UX design
Core Web Vitals in the green (LCP < 2.5 s)
On-page SEO + schema.org
GDPR compliance
Analytics (Plausible or GA4)
One year of hosting
30 days of post-launch support

No hidden charges for “domain”, “SSL certificate” or “basic SEO”. It’s all in the price.

Summary

There’s no single answer to “how much does a website cost.” But there is a better question to ask yourself as a business owner:

What is a bad website costing you?

If you’re losing 3–5 potential clients per month because your site loads too slowly, doesn’t appear in Google, or doesn’t convince visitors — the difference between a cheap site and a good site isn’t a cost. It’s an investment with a measurable return.

Want to know how your current site performs? We run a professional 15-area audit — Core Web Vitals, SEO, conversion, trust signals — and deliver a PDF report within 24 hours.

→ Order a website audit (PL) · → See our packages