Website Costs & Prices 2026: The Complete Comparison

You want to have a professional website built, but nobody is honest with you upfront about what it really costs. Most providers hide their prices behind "On request". This article does things differently.

Here you get real numbers for every path, a clear comparison of the platforms, and a decision aid so you know exactly what fits your budget.

What does it cost to have a website built?

A professional website in 2026 costs between 800 and 2,500 euros with a freelancer, between 3,000 and 6,000 euros with a standard agency, and between 4,000 and 12,000 euros with a premium agency. AI website builders start at 0 to 50 euros per month, but require your full time commitment. Which path pays off depends less on the price and more on what the website is supposed to achieve for your business.

The honest truth upfront: A website is not a product with a fixed price tag, but a service. The price is based on the scope, individuality, technology, and whether the site should just exist or actively win customers. That is exactly why the offers fluctuate so much.

Here is a quick overview of the four paths before we go through each one individually.

Option 1: AI Website Builders (Wix, Squarespace, IONOS)

AI website builders are the cheapest entry point and at the same time the one with the highest hidden cost: your time. Tools like Wix, Squarespace, or IONOS offer AI generators that build a ready-made draft for you after a few questions.

What it costs: The rates are usually between 10 and 50 euros per month, depending on the provider and range of functions. In addition, domain and email are often extra. Over a year, you end up at around 150 to 600 euros, without ever having paid a cent for the design.

The real catch lies elsewhere. AI builders generate websites that look like AI builder websites. Anyone who has seen a few of them recognizes the pattern immediately. For a hobby project, that is enough. For a business that wants to appear professional and win customers, the design limit is quickly reached.

In addition, there is the point that providers do not emphasize: The time investment is huge. You build the page yourself, you maintain it yourself, and for every major adjustment you have to work your way through the editor or the AI dialog again. What an agency does in hours costs you days. And the result usually converts significantly worse because the technical foundation—i.e., loading time, SEO structure, and conversion optimization—is often weak with website builders.

Who it is for: Solopreneurs with the smallest budget, temporary landing pages, and private projects.

Option 2: Freelancers

An experienced web design freelancer is the golden mean for many small businesses: cheaper than an agency, more customized than an AI tool.

What it costs: A simple website with five to eight pages is usually between 800 and 2,500 euros. A professional business website costs between 2,000 and 5,000 euros. Hourly rates usually range between 60 and 120 euros.

What you get for it: A customized design according to your wishes, a direct contact person, and flexible collaboration.

The catch: You are dependent on a single person. If the freelancer gets sick, takes on new projects, or drops out, your project gets pushed back. In addition, strategic advice is often missing. A freelancer implements what you say. They rarely analyze what your website actually needs to turn visitors into customers.

Another point: Many freelancers work with WordPress. This is not fundamentally bad, but in the long run it costs you time and money for maintenance, updates, and security patches. More on that in a moment.

Who it is for: Small businesses with limited budgets who want something custom but do not have a complex project.

Option 3: Standard Agency (usually WordPress)

A classic web design agency offers the complete package: strategy, design, development, copy, and often SEO from a single source. Many of these agencies work with WordPress, the most widely used content management system in the world.

What it costs: The entry price is usually between 3,000 and 6,000 euros. A more extensive business website costs 6,000 to 12,000 euros. In addition, there is often a monthly support package of between 50 and 300 euros.

This support package is exactly the point you need to understand. WordPress websites consist of a basic system plus numerous plugins for functions like forms, SEO, or security. These plugins must be updated regularly. According to the State of WordPress Security Report 2026 by Patchstack, 91 percent of all new security vulnerabilities were in plugins and only 6 percent in the WordPress core itself. Outdated extensions are thus by far the largest gateway for attacks. That is why many agencies sell an ongoing maintenance package: they keep plugins, updates, and security up to date for you.

This is legitimate, but it adds up. At 150 euros a month, you pay 5,400 euros over three years just for maintenance, in addition to the one-off price. And you remain permanently dependent on the agency, because the system becomes vulnerable without ongoing care.

Who it is for: Businesses that need a complex system with many special functions and are willing to bear ongoing maintenance costs.

Option 4: Premium Agency with Framer

A premium agency does not just build a website, but a tool for acquiring customers. The difference lies in the standard and the technology. Modern premium agencies work with tools like Framer or Webflow, no longer with WordPress.

What it costs: A premium website lies once between 4,000 and 12,000 euros, depending on scope and complexity. The running costs, however, are minimal: You essentially only pay for the hosting of the tool—i.e., with Framer, from around 10 euros a month for a simple page and from about 30 euros a month for a professional business website with a blog and CMS.

The decisive difference: You pay more once, but after that you have no expensive maintenance package. There are no plugins that become outdated, no security vulnerabilities from third-party extensions, and no monthly dependency on an agency to keep your system alive. You maintain content like texts, images, or new blog articles yourself via a simple, built-in backend.

This is exactly how we work at Webnity X. As a specialized Framer Agency, we build exclusively with Framer, not because it is modern, but because it delivers measurably better results for our clients: faster loading times, higher conversion rates, and no monthly maintenance effort. If desired, we also use SEO and GEO to ensure that the website is found on Google and in AI searches. Other premium agencies like Vierless rely on Webflow and follow a similar approach: build once to a high standard, then maintain it yourself.

Who it is for: Businesses that view their website as a sales and marketing tool and expect measurable results.

Framer vs. WordPress vs. Webflow: What is the difference?

The technology behind your website determines running costs, loading times, and maintenance effort. This is more important than ever in 2026 because fast loading times directly influence Google ranking and conversion. An analysis by Portent across more than 100 million page views shows that B2B websites with a loading time of one second have about three times higher conversion rate than pages that take five seconds. According to Google, the probability of a bounce also increases by 32 percent when the loading time climbs from one to three seconds.

WordPress is flexible and widely used, but brings complexity: plugin dependencies, regular security updates, and often slower loading times. Framer and Webflow are modern no-code platforms. They deliver clean, fast HTML without plugin chaos and without classic maintenance effort.

A technical point that is crucial for the future: Framer delivers server-side rendered HTML. This means the content is immediately visible in the source code without having to load JavaScript first. This is not only good for Google, but also for AI crawlers like ChatGPT's, which do not execute JavaScript. A technically clean base is therefore a prerequisite for appearing in AI answers at all. We explain how this works in detail in our article Why doesn't ChatGPT find you?.

Direct comparison of platform prices

To give you a concrete idea of the running costs, here are the entry-level prices of the common platforms for a professional business website. Important: These are the pure platform costs, not the costs for design or buildup.

These prices serve as a guide and change regularly. Always check the current rates directly on the linked official sites. What is striking: the pure platform costs barely differ. The real cost difference does not arise from the tool, but from the way the website is built and maintained.

What influences the price of a website?

Five factors determine where your offer lands within the ranges.

First, the scope. A five-page business website costs less than an online shop with 200 products, booking system, and member area. Second, individuality. A completely custom design costs more than an adapted template, but delivers a unique appearance. Third, content. Many agencies bill copy and photography separately. If you supply your own content, you save. Fourth, SEO and technical optimization. A website that no one finds brings no revenue, which is why a solid basic SEO optimization should always be included. Ask for it explicitly. Fifth, ongoing support, which fluctuates heavily depending on technology and provider.

The honest calculation over three years

Most entrepreneurs only look at the upfront price. The more honest calculation looks at the total cost over three years, because that is where the true cost of an option is revealed.

The decisive point: The premium agency with Framer seems expensive in the first year, but over three years it is below the WordPress agency with ongoing maintenance. The reason is the lack of monthly maintenance costs. You pay once for quality instead of permanently for upkeep.

And the most important aspect is missing from any table: A professionally built, fast, and conversion-optimized website brings noticeably more inquiries than a self-assembled one. For a typical B2B project value, just two additional inquiries per year are often enough to refinance the entire investment. A good website is therefore not an expense, but an investment that yields interest.

Frequently Asked Questions about Website Costs

What does it cost to have a simple website built? A simple website with around five pages and without an online shop costs between 800 and 2,500 euros with a freelancer, and between 3,000 and 6,000 euros with an agency. AI builders like Wix or Squarespace are available starting at about 15 euros a month, but then you build and maintain the site yourself.

What does a professional website cost with an agency? A professional business website with a web design agency in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland costs between 4,000 and 12,000 euros. Premium agencies with custom design and modern technology like Framer are often between 4,000 and 10,000 euros.

How much does a website cost per month? Running costs depend heavily on the technology. With a Framer website, you essentially only pay for hosting from around 10 euros a month, because maintenance and security updates are eliminated. With a WordPress website with an agency support package, on the other hand, monthly costs are often between 100 and 300 euros.

Is it cheaper to build a website yourself or have it built? In terms of pure acquisition, doing it yourself is cheaper, but in terms of time, it is expensive. What you piece together over many hours, a professional builds in significantly less time, and the result usually converts better. For businesses that want to acquire customers, professional web design is therefore an investment, not a pure expense.

What does it cost to have a website built with AI? AI website builders like Wix, Squarespace, or IONOS cost between 10 and 50 euros a month. The result is online fast, but limited in design and performance, and only partially suitable for professional business presentations.

Which is better, WordPress or Framer? That depends on the usecase. WordPress is flexible and good for very complex systems with many special functions, but causes ongoing maintenance efforts due to plugins and updates. Framer is faster, lower-maintenance, and delivers clean HTML that is good for SEO and AI visibility. For most B2B websites, Framer is the more economical choice in 2026.

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