How much does a website cost in 2026? Prices and comparison

How much does a website cost in 2026?

It's often the first question a business owner asks before starting a web project: how much does it really cost? Between €500 offers and €50,000 projects, the gap is huge, and hard to make sense of without a few pointers.

This article gives you a clear, honest picture of the prices charged in 2026, depending on the type of site, the technology chosen and the level of service.

The main price brackets

The cost of a website depends first and foremost on what you want to do with it. There are three broad families of projects, with very different price ranges.

The professional showcase site

A showcase site presents your business, your services and your contact details. It's the right fit for freelancers, craftspeople, SMEs and independent professionals who want a polished web presence without complex features.

Price range: €1,500 to €6,000

Below €1,500, you're usually looking at a barely customized template, with no built-in SEO strategy and little follow-up. Between €3,000 and €5,000, a reputable web agency will deliver a custom site that is fast, responsive and optimized for Google. Beyond that, you get into projects with advanced animation, specific integrations or a large number of pages.

At Vitalyn, our showcase sites start at €3,000, with a delivery time of 4 to 6 weeks.

The e-commerce site

An online store involves a product catalog, a checkout funnel, order management, a secure payment system and often connections to logistics or accounting tools. It is significantly more complex than a showcase site.

Price range: €3,000 to €20,000

A well-configured basic WooCommerce or Shopify store costs between €3,000 and €6,000. A Prestashop store with a large catalog, multi-currency support and logistics connectors easily exceeds €10,000. Custom e-commerce projects (marketplace, product configurator, subscriptions) start at €15,000.

At Vitalyn, our e-commerce projects start at €6,000, with a delivery time of 6 to 10 weeks.

The custom site or web application

No standard CMS: everything is built from scratch around your business needs. Customer portals, management tools, SaaS platforms, company intranets.

Price range: €15,000 to €80,000 and up

These projects involve an in-depth functional design phase, long development cycles and thorough acceptance testing. The budget depends directly on the number of features and the complexity of the data being handled.

What makes the price vary

Two projects that look similar can have very different budgets. Here are the main factors that drive the final price.

Design. An adapted template costs less than an original graphic design. If you have a strong brand identity and want a 100% unique site, expect an extra €800 to €2,000 for the design work.

Content. Copywriting, photo retouching, creating visuals: all of this has a cost if you don't provide it yourself. A 10-page showcase site with copy written by the agency adds €1,000 to €2,500.

SEO. A site delivered without search engine optimization is an invisible site. Building SEO in from the design stage (URL structure, tags, speed, internal linking) should be included in the quote. That's not always the case, so ask.

Specific features. Dynamic quote form, price calculator, customer area, online booking, multilingual support, connection to your CRM... every additional feature comes with a development cost.

Maintenance. A website is never really finished. Plan an annual maintenance budget (updates, backups, security, small changes) of €500 to €2,400/year depending on the provider.

Agency, freelancer or DIY: what's the difference?

There are three ways to get a website built, with very different levels of quality and pricing.

DIY platforms (Wix, Squarespace, Jimdo) offer subscriptions between €15 and €50/month. They're quick to set up, but the limitations are many: reduced customization, limited SEO, average mobile performance, and total dependence on the platform.

A freelancer usually charges between €800 and €5,000 for a showcase site. The price is often attractive, but you need to make sure they have the SEO, design and technical skills, and that they'll be available for maintenance over the long term.

A web agency is a bigger investment, but brings a full team (developer, designer, project manager, SEO consultant), proven processes and long-term support. It's the best fit for a project that has to deliver measurable results.

What not to forget in your budget

Some items are often left out of initial estimates.

Hosting and the domain name cost between €150 and €600/year depending on your needs. Low-end shared hosting can hurt performance and therefore your search rankings: don't cut corners here.

An SSL certificate is now included by most reputable hosts, but check that it's covered in the quote.

Premium plugin or theme licenses can add up to €200 to €800 on a WordPress or Prestashop project.

Training costs if you'll be updating the content yourself: reputable agencies include 1 to 3 hours of training.

Summary: price ranges in 2026

How do you get a reliable quote?

A serious quote should spell out exactly what's included: number of pages, features, SEO integration, design deliverables, training, maintenance. Be wary of quotes that are too vague or too low: they almost always hide extra costs or rushed work.

At Vitalyn, we put together a detailed, transparent quote after an initial 30-minute call to understand your project, your goals and your context. Reply within 24 hours, no commitment.

Request a free quote →

A few tips for choosing the right provider: look at their past work in your industry, ask for client references you can contact, make sure SEO is included from the design stage, and agree from the outset on who owns the site and its content at the end of the project.

Vitalyn is a web agency based in Besançon and Paris, specializing in custom website design, e-commerce and SEO for French SMEs and mid-sized companies.