From a few hundred to 10,000 euros.

Short and honest: a website can cost anything from a few hundred euros to 10,000 euros or more. For a well-made website for a service business, most land between 1,500 and 5,000 euros. That’s a wide range, and it’s no accident, because "a website" can mean ten different things.

Two quotes both saying "1,500 euros" can mean something completely different. That comes down to a few things:

• "Bespoke" isn’t a protected word. One person means a ready-made template with your colours in it, another really builds from the ground up. Both are allowed to call it bespoke.
• Every extra feature costs money. A booking module, a shop, a multilingual site: with a freelancer each feature quickly adds 200 to 800 euros.
• With an agency you pay for the process. Project management, a second pair of eyes checking everything, several specialists. More expensive, but also more predictable.
• What quietly gets left out of a cheap quote. Text, photographs, being found on Google, upkeep. If it’s not in there, you pay for it later anyway.
• An hourly rate with no fixed agreement about the job. "Around 30 hours" becomes 42 hours in practice, and you pay the difference.

The lesson: never compare on the bare figure or the hourly rate alone. Ask for the total price for a precisely described job, and ask what does and doesn’t fall under it.

Roughly speaking there are three ways to get a website. They differ not only in price, but above all in how much work and knowledge stays with you.

Doing it yourself

You build it yourself, with a website builder or with an AI tool. Either way: doing it yourself isn’t free, and it almost always costs more time than you expect.

With a website builder (Wix, Squarespace, WordPress). Count on 0 to 500 euros to start, plus a subscription of roughly 15 to 79 euros a month (hosting is usually included). It asks for writing, some technical knack and an eye for design.

"200 euros and I simply have everything I need. Great!"

Business owner on Trustpilot, translated from Dutch

That exists. But it only works if your expectations are simple, and not if your site really has to bring in customers.

With an AI tool (Lovable, Wix AI, Framer). Those build a whole site from a few sentences. On paper often 25 to 50 euros a month, in practice 2 to 3 times that through usage. The heart of it: the tool doesn’t decide the outcome, the driver does. In inexperienced hands you get a generic, poorly findable site that breaks the moment you touch it. In experienced hands it’s one of the quickest ways to get a distinctive site that genuinely turns visitors into customers.

A freelancer

500 to 2,500 euros for a well-defined job, usually based on 60 to 90 euros an hour. But a freelancer isn’t only for a one-off: plenty of them also do ongoing work. Note what kind of builder someone is (front-end, back-end or full-stack), and look for one who, besides building quickly and beautifully, also understands marketing. Ask for the total price for the job, not the hourly rate.

An agency

1,500 to 5,000 euros and sometimes more, based on 90 to 150 euros an hour, plus 50 to 150 euros a month for upkeep. Best for: you want your whole online presence sorted properly in one go, with a team behind it and continuity. Check that you become the owner and that you can cancel monthly.

Seven short questions, no email address and no obligation. You get honest advice with a price range, built up from all your answers.

Whichever route you choose, one thing weighs heavier than the label. A website isn’t an end in itself, but a means to win customers. The finest design brings in nothing if nobody can find you, if visitors don’t know what to do, or if the site doesn’t match how you want to present yourself.

So look for someone who sees past a tidy site. Someone who also thinks about your brand and positioning, about being found on Google (search, or SEO), about the path that leads a visitor to an enquiry, about the technical side underneath, and about the words. That holds whether you do it yourself, hire a freelancer or bring in an agency. Ideally someone with their heart in it, who doesn’t get stuck in trends that have already passed, and who wants to think along with your business over the long term.

Whichever route you choose, there are always monthly costs running. At least hosting and a domain name, and often upkeep. Stop paying and your site goes offline. A website that’s "finished" and never costs anything again doesn’t exist.

You don’t have to buy all of this. But you do want to know what’s in play, so nothing catches you out. Always ask what happens after launch.

Most business owners don’t know this: under Dutch law, where I work, the builder is the owner of the site by default, not you, unless you agree that the copyright passes to you. Many countries handle it the same way, but not all, so check what applies where you are. The Dutch Chamber of Commerce puts it like this:

"The maker of the site automatically holds the copyright, so make clear agreements about this."

KVK (Dutch Chamber of Commerce), 9 tips for a business website, translated from Dutch

So paying doesn’t automatically mean owning. Agree in writing, up front, that the copyright passes to you. The same goes for your domain name and your hosting: put those in your own name from the start if you can. With most domain registries only the registered holder can move or transfer a name later, so make sure that holder is you.

Watch the term. If you have signed a subscription for a fixed period, as a business customer you’re usually stuck with it: the protection against silent renewal that consumers enjoy often doesn’t apply to companies. A provider who trusts their own work doesn’t need a long term. So ask whether you can cancel monthly.

"Suddenly everything is cut off on a Friday and my business can’t be reached by email."

Business owner on Trustpilot, translated from Dutch

If your site and your email sit with one party and you’re locked in, a dispute leaves you unreachable in one stroke.

• Doing it yourself: from a few hours to several weeks, depending on your pace.
• Freelancer: usually 2 to 8 weeks.
• Agency: usually 6 to 10 weeks; a shop 10 to 14 weeks.

One honest point you rarely hear: at least forty percent of that time sits with you. Supplying text, choosing photographs, giving feedback, making decisions. So set aside time for your own part up front.

If someone else builds your site, a large part of the result (and of the price) is decided by what you supply. This you can get ready in advance:

• Your domain name, ideally bought yourself, in your own name.
• Your text. Writing it yourself saves money and often sounds most like you, but that only works if writing suits you. Weak text costs you customers.
• Images. Your logo, and perhaps photographs of yourself, your work or your premises. Suggestions, not a must. Your own photographs usually work better than stock. AI images can work too, but be careful: they’re often recognisable as AI and that can hurt your credibility.
• Examples of sites you like, and why.
• Your goal. What should the site bring in: more calls, quote requests, bookings?

Take these six into every conversation. They separate a trustworthy party from the rest quickly. Tick them off during your conversation, or copy them into an email.

• Phantom invoices and fake listings. An invoice-shaped document for a "listing" you never ordered. In the Netherlands alone this kind of fraud costs business owners some 400 million euros a year. Never pay an invoice you don’t recognise.
• Only an hourly rate, no total price. The bill climbs with every round of feedback.
• No clear answer on ownership. Anyone who doesn’t say straight away that you become the owner has earned your suspicion.
• A long term with no way to cancel in between.
• A guaranteed number 1 on Google. Nobody can promise that.
• A reused template called "bespoke". Ask to see real work for comparable businesses.

Two camps collide in business forums. One says: cheap work is nearly always money thrown away. The other says: price and quality aren’t tightly linked in this trade, so judge the builder, not just the price tag. They both have a point.

The trap of the lowest quote is the site that looks fine but has still not brought in a single customer after six months. But expensive is no guarantee either. So compare on the total price for a clearly defined job, and on what you get back for it.

And for completeness: if it’s one small job (a logo, a single form, a technical fix), a freelancer serves you better and cheaper than an agency.

Want to know where your own site is getting stuck, before you spend a euro? The free check runs in a few minutes, and you see the outcome straight away, free and without waiting for a salesperson.