What really affects the price of a website

The price of a website depends mostly on six things: how many pages it has, whether the design is made for you, which features it needs (bookings, a shop, a calculator), who prepares the text and photos, how many languages it is in, and who looks after it once it is live. That is why two quotes for "a salon website" can look completely different. Here is each factor on its own, what it actually adds to the work, and where you can save without making the site weaker.

If you want a general overview of prices and payment models, start with how much a website costs in 2026. This article goes into the details.

1. How many pages, and how different they are

The number of pages is the first thing that sets the amount of work. But more important than the count is how different the pages are from each other.

• A one-page site (everything on one long page) is the least work and is often enough for a small café, a tradesperson or someone with a single service.
• A site with a few pages (home, services, about, contact) is the most common choice for a small business.
• A site with many similar pages (say, one page per service or per town) grows more slowly in price than in page count, because the pages follow the same template.
• A site with many different pages (a catalogue, a blog, careers, a page for each property) is the most work, because each has its own layout.

If you are unsure, read one-page or multi-page website. It is often wiser to start with fewer pages and add more once you see what customers look for.

2. Design: a ready-made template or made for you

A ready-made template is cheaper because the work was done in advance. You add your logo and swap the colours and photos. The downside is that thousands of other sites look the same, and the template was not designed with your customers in mind.

A design made for your brand takes longer: how the information is arranged, the fonts, the colours, how it looks on a phone, where the buttons sit. That is a big part of the real difference between a cheap and a professional website. The good news is that once the foundation is in place, every new page comes together faster.

3. Features: each one is separate work

A contact form, a map and a call button are standard. The price starts to climb with everything on top:

1. Online bookings. Connecting a booking system, opening hours, confirmations. See when online bookings are worth it, because sometimes a simple form does the same job.
2. An online shop. Products, a basket, payments and delivery are only part of the work. When selling online in the EU, the trader must give the buyer clear information before the purchase: the total price including taxes, delivery costs, who the seller is and how to contact them, and the right to cancel within 14 days [1]. All of that has to be written and laid out on the site. This is general information; for your own case, check with a lawyer or accountant.
3. Calculators, filters, customer accounts. Each of these is designed, built and tested separately.
4. Connections to other systems. Stock software, a CRM, accounting tools. This is usually where the most unknowns are.

Every feature costs twice: once when it is built, and then every month while someone maintains it, updates it and checks it still works.

4. Content: who writes the text and takes the photos

This is one of the most underestimated parts of the price. A site without text and photos is an empty frame. If you prepare them yourself, the project is faster and cheaper. If the studio does it, that is separate work: an interview with you, writing, editing, and sometimes a photographer.

For most small businesses the best option is in the middle: you supply the facts (services, prices, opening hours, what makes you different) and someone experienced turns them into clear copy. See how to write your website copy and which photos to put on your website. Real photos of your premises and team almost always work better than stock images.

5. Languages: each one is almost a new site

A second language is not a "translate" button. Every text has to be translated well, checked, and then kept up to date whenever you change something in the main language.

There is a technical side too. Google recommends giving each language version of a page its own separate URL, rather than switching the language automatically based on cookies or browser settings [2]. Google also advises against automatically redirecting visitors from one language to another, and warns that translating only the menus and buttons while the main text stays in the other language leaves visitors confused [2].

So add a second language when you genuinely have customers looking for it: a hotel with foreign guests, a company working with partners abroad. If you are not sure, start with one language and add another later.

6. Who looks after the site after launch

This is the part most often missing from the first quote. A site needs hosting, a domain, an SSL certificate, backups, updates and small changes. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warns that software no longer supported by its maker can contain bugs that criminals exploit, and advises moving to a supported alternative [3]. Websites are no exception: someone has to keep them updated.

The more features and languages a site has, the more of this work there is. There is more detail in website maintenance: what it includes and what it costs.

How to keep the price sensible

Anyone who has run a project knows this one: the scope keeps growing along the way. It is called scope creep. It usually starts with a vague brief and small additions that each look cheap on their own, and ends with a higher price and delays [4]. Here is how to avoid it:

• Write down on one page what the site needs to do and who your ideal customer is.
• Split features into "needed now" and "can wait".
• Prepare your text, photos and logo before work starts. There is a list in what to prepare before a new website.
• Start with one language, unless half your customers speak another.
• Ask what is included after launch and what a small change costs.
• Compare quotes over two or three years, not just the first payment. More on that in how much a small business website really costs.

If you would rather not weigh all of this up piece by piece, there is also a monthly model. At Studio V1 a website is about €50 a month and includes design, a build reviewed by a real developer, hosting, maintenance and minor updates, with a real person to talk to. The first month starts the build, and the site is live within 7 business days. See what the plan includes or how the work goes.

References

1. Your Europe (European Union). "Information you should get when buying, signing a contract." europa.eu/youreurope
2. Google Search Central. "Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites." developers.google.com/search
3. National Cyber Security Centre (UK). "Protecting your devices." ncsc.gov.uk
4. Wikipedia. "Scope creep." en.wikipedia.org