How much does a website cost in 2026? The guide to real prices

The truth is that the cost of a website depends on what you expect, who builds it, and what is actually included. And spoiler: most online comparisons overlook half the costs.

Whether you are a plumber in London, a personal trainer in Manchester or a marketing consultant in Paris, this guide is for you. We also have dedicated guides for tradespeople, restaurants, consultants and freelancers.

Let us not beat around the bush. Here are the five options available today, with what each one truly costs.

€0 - €30/month 10 to 40 hours of work

This is the "I will handle it myself" option. You sign up for Wix, Squarespace or WordPress.com, pick a template, and spend your evenings wrestling with the editor.

Actual pricing:

• Wix: free (with Wix ads + subdomain) or €12.50 to €26.50/month for something decent
• Squarespace: €16 to €33/month (no free plan)
• WordPress.com: free (very limited) or €8 to €25/month for a reasonable plan

What the prices do not include: your time. And your time is worth something. A self-employed professional who charges €50/hour and spends 30 hours tinkering with their site has just "spent" €1,500. Except they did not earn that money either.

The real issue: the result often looks like a template. Your site looks like 10,000 other people who picked the same layout. And more importantly, SEO, performance and responsive design require skills you may not have.

DIY works if you have time, a decent eye for design, and no urgency. For a side project or personal portfolio, it can make sense. For the business that pays your bills, it is risky.

€800 - €3,000 3 to 6 weeks

You find a developer or web designer on a freelance platform, LinkedIn, or through word of mouth. You explain your needs, they send you a quote, and they get to work.

Actual pricing (European market in 2026):

• 3-5 page business site: €800 to €2,000
• Business site with blog: €1,500 to €3,000
• Site with online booking: €2,000 to €4,000
• Average freelance day rate: €300 to €500/day

The pros: you have a dedicated point of contact, a custom result, and someone who (ideally) understands the web. It is a solid option if you have the budget and are not in a rush.

The risks: timelines often slip. The 3 weeks initially promised become 6, then 8. The freelancer has other clients, falls ill, or goes on holiday. And once the site is delivered, every change costs you between €50 and €150 per intervention. You end up paying €150 to update a phone number.

A good freelancer at €1,500 is a solid investment. But you need to find a good one, accept the timelines, and budget for ongoing maintenance.

€3,000 - €15,000 2 to 4 months

The agency is the premium option. You get a project manager, a designer, a developer, sometimes a copywriter. Briefings, mockups, back-and-forth, sign-off, integration, testing... It is an industrial process.

Actual pricing:

• 5-10 page business site: €3,000 to €8,000
• Premium business site with animations: €5,000 to €15,000
• E-commerce site: €8,000 to €30,000+
• Annual maintenance billed: €1,000 to €3,000/year on average

When it makes sense: if you have a complex project (e-commerce with 500 products, a platform with a client portal, a multilingual site), an agency has the resources to handle it. For a standard business website? It is like chartering a Boeing to go buy bread.

The common issue: you are paying for a structure (office space, employees, sales reps) as much as for the actual work on your site. And timelines are long because you are not their only client. A business site that could be built in a week takes two months because their schedules are full.

€0 - €15/month 1 to 5 hours + adjustments

Since 2024, AI website builders have exploded. You describe your business in a few sentences, and AI generates a site. In theory, it is magical. In practice, it is more nuanced.

Actual pricing:

• Hostinger AI Builder: included in plans at €2.99 - €11.99/month
• Wix ADI: free (limited) or €12.50/month+ for a usable result
• 10Web (WordPress + AI): €10 to €20/month

The honest result: AI produces something that looks visually coherent in 30 seconds. But as soon as you look closer, the copy is generic, the design is basic, and you spend 3 to 5 hours adjusting everything manually. The images are stock photos unrelated to your business. The SEO is approximate.

The real cost: it is cheap in euros, but you still need to know what you are doing. Choosing the right colours, writing copy that converts, structuring pages for SEO... AI gives you a foundation, not a finished site.

AI DIY tools are perfect for testing an idea quickly. But for a site that represents your professional business, "almost good enough" is not enough.

€39.90/month Delivered in 24h

This is the model we built with Madra. The idea is simple: combine the speed of AI with the eye of a human. You fill in a form, send your logo and information, and within 24 hours you receive a professional, turnkey website.

Actual pricing:

• 12-month commitment: €39.90/month (€478.80/year)
• 6-month commitment: €44.90/month (€269.40/half-year)
• No commitment: €49.90/month, cancel anytime

What is included:

• Custom design (not a template)
• High-performance hosting
• Domain name included
• SSL certificate (HTTPS)
• Basic SEO optimisation
• Unlimited content updates
• No hidden costs, no surprises

Why it works: AI handles the heavy technical lifting, which drastically reduces time (and therefore cost). A human then reviews every site, adjusts the design, and ensures everything is polished. You receive a result that would cost €1,500 to €3,000 from a freelancer, for a fraction of the price.

When a freelancer quotes "€1,500", when Wix advertises "€0", when an agency announces "€5,000"... it is never the final price. Here is what they systematically fail to mention.

Your website has to live somewhere on the internet. That costs between €50 and €300 per year depending on the quality. Budget hosting at €3/month with a basic provider is slow with minimal support. Reliable performance hosting like Vercel or Netlify for a professional site runs closer to €10-20/month.

yourbusiness.com costs €10 to €15 per year. Not expensive, but it is a recurring cost. And if you want a country-specific extension, it may be €12 to €18/year. Nothing dramatic, but it is one more thing to manage and renew each year.

The little padlock in the address bar. Essential in 2026 -- Google penalises sites without HTTPS. It can be free (Let's Encrypt) or cost €50 to €100/year depending on your host. And it needs to be configured correctly, which is not always straightforward.

WordPress requires regular updates (core, theme, plugins). If you skip them, you expose yourself to security vulnerabilities and bugs. Hiring someone to handle it: €200 to €600 per year. Doing it yourself: time, stress, and the risk of breaking everything.

Want to update your phone number? Add a service? Change your opening hours? If a freelancer built your site, every change costs you €50 to €150. Multiply by 4-5 changes per year, and you are looking at €400-600/year just for basic updates.

Having a website is great. Being found on Google is better. A professional SEO audit and basic optimisation costs €300 to €1,000. Without it, your site is a shop window on a street where nobody walks.

Here is the honest comparison. We have added up all the costs, including the ones that are usually forgotten.

This table speaks for itself. When you add everything up, Madra sits between DIY and a freelancer in terms of price, but with freelancer-level quality and AI-level speed. It is the best of both worlds.

And note: for freelancers and agencies, we have not even counted post-delivery modifications. Add €400 to €1,000/year if you plan to update your site over time. With Madra, content changes are included.

Enough theory. Here is what we concretely recommend, based on what you can invest.

Let us be honest: with less than €500, your options are limited but not non-existent.

• DIY with Squarespace or Wix: if you have time (15-30h) and a minimum sense of design. Budget: €200-350/year.
• Madra with no commitment: €49.90/month, try it for 2-3 months to see if it works for you. Budget over 3 months: €149.70. And you get a real professional site in 24h.
• Madra with 12-month commitment: €478.80 for the year. It fits the budget, and you have total peace of mind for 12 months.

Our take: if your website is your primary tool for finding clients, do not compromise. €39.90/month is a business lunch. The return on investment from a single client gained through your website pays for several months of subscription.

This is the most common budget range for a self-employed professional or small business. You have real options here.

• Junior-to-mid-level freelancer: a decent business site for €1,000-1,800. Watch out for timelines and the cost of future modifications.
• Madra with 12-month commitment: €478.80/year all-inclusive. You keep budget available for other investments (Google Ads, business cards, etc.).

Real-world example: a personal trainer in Bordeaux is deciding between a freelancer at €1,500 and Madra at €39.90/month. With the freelancer, she waits 4 weeks and then has to pay for hosting plus every change. With Madra, she has her site in 24 hours, can focus on her clients, and updates her class schedule whenever she wants at no extra cost. The same logic applies if you're looking for an affordable small business website or if you're a freelancer just starting out.

If you have more than €2,000 to invest in your website, it means you have specific needs. And that calls for strategy.

• A senior freelancer: justified if you want a highly specific design, complex animations, or a custom feature (client portal, product configurator, etc.)
• An agency: justified if you have a complex project (e-commerce, multilingual, CRM integration) or if you need comprehensive strategic support
• Madra + invest the rest in marketing: use Madra for the site (€478.80/year), and invest the rest in what truly makes a difference: Google Ads, advanced SEO, professional photography

Our honest advice: for 80% of self-employed professionals and SMEs, a business website does not need to cost €5,000. What makes the difference is not a €10,000 site with parallax effects and animations. It is a clean, fast, well-ranked site with a clear message. And you can have that for €39.90/month. If you want predictable costs with no surprises, the subscription model is worth considering.

You see "create your website for free" offers everywhere. And technically, it is true: you can have a site for €0. But let us look at what "free" really means.

• A subdomain like yourname.wixsite.com (not very professional when you hand over your business card)
• Platform ads displayed on your site (nothing like it to inspire trust)
• Limited and overused templates
• No real SEO, no real customisation
• Virtually no support

Credibility. A prospect who lands on "yourname.wixsite.com" with a Wix banner subconsciously thinks you are a beginner or that you do not take your business seriously. It is unfair, but it is reality.

Clients. A free site that does not convert is a site that costs you money. Every visitor who leaves without contacting you is a potential client lost. Out of 100 visitors per month, the difference between a 1% conversion rate (free site) and 3% (professional site) is 2 extra clients. If your average transaction is €200, that is €400/month in lost revenue.

Time. The hours you spend wrestling with a limited free editor are hours you are not spending on prospecting, serving your clients, or growing your business. And your time is your most valuable resource.

We always talk about the cost of a website. Rarely about what it brings in. Yet that is the only question that matters.

Let us take a concrete example. You are an electrician in Marseille. Your average job is worth €150.

• Your site costs €39.90/month with Madra
• Thanks to SEO, you receive 150 visits per month after 6 months
• With a 2% conversion rate, that means 3 quote requests per month
• You convert 2 of those quotes into clients, generating €300 in revenue/month
• Your ROI: €300 - €39.90 = €260.10 net profit per month, just from the website

And this calculation is conservative. Many tradespeople and self-employed professionals report much higher average transaction values. A single client gained through the site can pay for 6 months to a year of subscription.

A website that generates revenue is not about the price. It is about:

• Visibility: being found on Google when someone searches for your service in your city (local SEO)
• Credibility: a professional design that inspires trust within 3 seconds
• Clarity: a simple message that says what you do, for whom, and how to get in touch
• Speed: a site that loads in under 2 seconds (Google favours fast sites)
• Action: a visible call-to-action button, a clickable phone number, a simple contact form

None of this has anything to do with the price you paid. An €8,000 site with no SEO will generate nothing. A €39.90/month site with proper optimisation can generate dozens of enquiries per month.

Your website is not an expense. It is an investment. It is your sales rep who works 24/7, never takes a holiday and never asks for a raise. The question is not "how much does it cost" but "how much is it costing me not to have one".

Every day without a website, potential clients are searching for your service on Google and landing on your competitors. It is as simple as that.