Guide · 7 min read · as of October 2026 · by Somers Design
What does a website cost? Honest prices for 2026
“What does a website cost?” is the question we hear most often – and the honest answer is: anywhere between nothing and several tens of thousands of euros. Nobody can plan with that. So here we set out what website builders, freelancers and agencies typically cost, what the price depends on and which running costs are missing from many quotes. We name our own prices at the end, too.
The short answer: guide prices for 2026
There are no official price statistics for websites in Germany. The following ranges come from market comparisons and our experience from more than 60 projects. They apply to a typical business website with five to ten subpages.
| Provider | One-off | Ongoing |
|---|---|---|
| Website builder, built yourself | €0 plus several days of your own work | around €10 to €45 a month |
| Freelancer | around €800 to €3,000 | hosting and care by arrangement |
| Agency | around €2,000 to €8,000, much more for large projects | often €50 to €150 a month |
| Online shop | from around €2,000, at agencies often €5,000 to €20,000 | care plus fees for payment and shop system |
What the price depends on
Two websites with the same number of pages can differ fivefold in price. It almost always comes down to the same points:
- Text and photos: Do you supply them yourself, or are they written and shot for you? Content is often the biggest item.
- Features: Appointment booking, shop, multiple languages, a customer area or a connection to inventory management each cost extra.
- Design: An adapted template is cheaper than a design of your own, but it also looks like one.
- Scope: Every service with its own subpage is good for Google, but also more work.
- Legal matters and accessibility: Data protection, consents and – for shops – the requirements of the German Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG).
The running costs that are often forgotten
Many quotes only give the price for building the site. But a website runs for years, and regular costs come up along the way:
- Domain: usually only a few euros a year for a .de address
- Hosting and security certificate: around €5 to €30 a month depending on the provider
- Email inboxes: often included in hosting, charged per person by Microsoft or Google
- Updates and backups: a regular effort, especially with WordPress and many plugins
- Changes: new prices, opening hours, photos – either done yourself or billed by the hour
- Licences: for templates, plugins, fonts and images, some of them annual
Where it gets expensive although it looked cheap
The cheapest quote is not always the cheapest result. We see three patterns again and again: a subscription with a long minimum term after which the website disappears when you cancel; a low entry price after which every small change is billed by the hour; and a quickly assembled template that has to be rebuilt completely after two years because it doesn't work on a phone or nobody can maintain it any more.
How subscription and purchase compare over several years is shown in detail in our guide Rent or buy a website.
Net or gross? A detail worth 19 per cent
Agencies and freelancers usually quote their prices without VAT. If you can reclaim VAT as input tax, that works for you. For everyone else – many medical practices, therapists and associations, for example – 19 per cent more is due than the big number on the quote. So always compare final prices.
We are a small business under § 19 UStG and do not charge VAT. The price we name is the amount you pay.
What a website costs with us
So that you can compare, here are our prices openly: a website costs from €990, one-off, an online shop from €2,000. In the first year, hosting and care are included; after that no base fee, or care from €29 a month, cancellable monthly. For larger projects – many subpages, several languages, connections to existing systems – we name the price after the first conversation.
What is special is the order: we first build a finished demo, free and within 48 hours. You only pay once you are satisfied. So you see what you are getting before you spend a single euro.
Conclusion
A good business website usually costs between €1,000 and €8,000 one-off, plus running costs of a few dozen euros a month. What matters is less the starting price than the total over the years – and whether the site belongs to you in the end. Compare quotes using the same questions, and always calculate with final prices.