"How much does a website cost?" is the most common question I get, and it is also the hardest one to answer cleanly. "It depends" is true but useless. So here is the version nobody in the industry likes to write: a transparent breakdown of what custom websites actually cost in 2026, what you get at each price point, and where the money goes.

The short answer

For a small-to-medium business in Europe, a real custom website from a serious freelancer costs €1,500 to €10,000 depending on scope. Anything below that is a template. Anything above it is either a large project (big catalog, custom app) or an agency markup.

Here is the breakdown.

Price point 1: €1,500–€2,500 — the one-pager or small brochure

This covers a single-page site or a small 3–5 page brochure site. Typical use: a local business that needs a presence, basic contact info, some photos, and maybe a simple contact form.

What is included:

  • Custom Figma design (desktop + mobile).
  • Fully responsive build in React or Astro.
  • Basic SEO: meta tags, schema, sitemap, robots.txt.
  • Contact form wired to email.
  • Analytics setup.
  • Deployment on a free hosting tier (Vercel, Cloudflare Pages).
  • Domain and DNS setup.
  • 30-day support window.

Timeline: 3–4 weeks. This is the entry point for a real custom site that is not a template slap-job.

Price point 2: €2,500–€5,000 — the standard business site

This is the sweet spot for most small-to-medium businesses. Typical use: a 6–15 page business site with a blog, service pages, multiple languages, a CMS, maybe a booking or inquiry system.

What is included on top of the previous tier:

  • Multilingual support (usually 2–3 languages).
  • Lightweight CMS (Sanity, Supabase-backed admin, or a simple markdown setup).
  • Blog system with individual post pages.
  • Multiple contact/inquiry flows.
  • Advanced schema markup (LocalBusiness, Article, Organization).
  • Performance tuning to 95+ Lighthouse mobile score.
  • 60-day support window.
  • Content staging environment.

Timeline: 5–7 weeks. This is where most of my client work lands.

Price point 3: €5,000–€10,000 — e-commerce or custom app

This tier covers online stores, booking platforms, customer portals, and anything with real database integration.

What is included:

  • Everything above, plus:
  • Database (usually Supabase Postgres).
  • Custom authentication (customer accounts, admin panel).
  • Payment integration (Stripe or local equivalents).
  • Inventory / booking / reservation management.
  • Order tracking or booking confirmation flows.
  • Email notifications.
  • More extensive QA (real payment testing, edge cases).
  • 90-day support window.

Timeline: 8–12 weeks. The White Sail Split project is roughly in this bracket.

Price point 4: €10,000+ — real complexity

At this tier the project is no longer "a website" — it is a small custom application. Large catalogs, multi-tenant architectures, complex integrations with third-party APIs, custom AI features, mobile apps. These are scoped individually.

Where the money actually goes

Clients often imagine they are paying for "the coding". That is maybe 30% of the time on a typical project. The rest is:

  • Discovery and planning (~10%) — understanding the business, writing the brief, mapping the content.
  • Design (~25%) — Figma work, iterations, style guide, responsive variants.
  • Development (~30%) — writing the code, including image optimization, schema, tests.
  • QA and performance (~15%) — cross-browser testing, real-device testing, Lighthouse tuning, fixing the long tail of small issues.
  • Deployment and launch (~5%) — DNS, analytics, handover, final sanity checks.
  • Post-launch buffer (~15%) — the initial support period, small fixes, honest padding for the unexpected.

When an agency quotes €15,000 for what looks like the same project, the extra is usually overhead (project managers, accounts, salespeople), not extra value for you.

The hidden costs people forget

Most quotes only cover the build. Real ongoing costs for a business website include:

  • Hosting: €0–€50/month depending on tier. Vercel and Cloudflare Pages are free for most small-business traffic.
  • Domain: €10–€20/year.
  • Email: €5–€10 per mailbox per month if you need @yourdomain.com.
  • Database (Supabase): Free for small use, €25/month after.
  • Payment processing fees: 1.4%+€0.25 per transaction on Stripe Europe.
  • Ongoing content updates: Either your time, or hourly developer time.
  • Occasional bug fixes and browser-update compatibility: Budget €100–€300/year for minor fixes.

A well-built site on a modern stack costs almost nothing to run. A WordPress site with plugin licenses, security updates, and shared hosting easily costs €300–€600/year just to keep running. I wrote about that gap in Why Your WordPress Site Is Slow.

Why the same "website" costs €500 or €10,000

Because "website" covers a huge range:

  • A template slapped on WordPress: €300–€800. Looks like everyone else's, slow, hard to update, expensive to run long-term.
  • A custom design in Figma + handed to Fiverr: €800–€1,500. Better design, usually worse code.
  • A serious freelance developer doing design + build + SEO + deployment: €1,500–€10,000. This is what I do.
  • A small agency: €10,000–€15,000. Same output, more overhead.
  • A large agency: €15,000+. Enterprise overhead.

Picking the right tier depends on how important the website is to your business. If it is a side concern, template it. If it is how customers find and judge you, invest properly.

Work with me

I am transparent about pricing before any commitment. Every project starts with a free 30-minute call where I understand the scope and give you a realistic quote in writing. No surprises, no hidden fees, no upsells after the fact. Email info@tonibarisic.com or use the contact form to start that conversation. See the portfolio for examples at different tiers.