Why website pricing feels opaque
Ask ten developers what a website costs and you will get ten different answers. This is expected: a "website" can mean anything from a single landing page to a SaaS platform with fifty features.
What is less reasonable is the vagueness some providers maintain on purpose. "Send us your specifications and we will send a quote." In practice, the proposal is then calibrated to the perceived budget of the client.
The approach taken here is the opposite. After delivering dozens of projects since 2019, the usual order of magnitude is well known. There is no reason to hide it.
Simple showcase website pricing in 2026: 1,500 to 3,000 euros
This is the most frequent need. Whether you are a freelancer, craftsperson, restaurant owner or consultant, you need a website that:
- Presents your business clearly
- Displays correctly on mobile
- Appears on Google for the profession plus city combination
- Includes a functional contact form
- Builds trust with prospects
What this price includes
- One to five pages (Home, Services, About, Contact, Legal)
- Custom design, not a WordPress theme applied as is
- Responsive, suited to mobile, tablet and desktop
- Baseline SEO: title tags, meta descriptions, heading structure, loading speed
- Functional contact form
- Deployment and domain configuration
- Brief training on editing the text if needed
Delivery timeline
Two to three weeks after client content is validated (text and images).
Who this format is for
Most freelancers and small businesses. If you do not need e-commerce, booking management or regular editorial publishing, this format meets the need. It is the default recommendation for clients with a measured budget and straightforward requirements.
Advanced showcase website: 3,000 to 6,000 euros
The scope broadens: several services to detail, a blog embedded in a content strategy, a bilingual site, animations, multi-step forms.
What is included on top
- Five to fifteen structured pages
- Fully custom design with UX/UI mockups before development
- Multi-language support (French and English, with per-language SEO: hreflang, dedicated sitemaps)
- Integrated blog with content management
- Advanced SEO: Schema.org, dynamic sitemap, rich snippets, structured data
- Animations and micro-interactions
- Third-party integrations (Google Maps, social media, analytics tools)
Delivery timeline
Three to six weeks. The schedule depends mostly on how quickly the client provides content: text, photos, feedback on mockups. Actual development time rarely exceeds three weeks.
Who this format is for
Small and medium businesses, liberal professionals, retailers with a broad offering, and any company expecting its website to contribute concretely to lead generation.
Custom web application budget: 6,000 to 20,000 euros and above
The scope moves beyond a showcase site. The subject becomes a business tool: internal CRM, booking platform, SaaS, client portal, dashboard, integrated payment system.
Examples of projects delivered or quoted
- Internal CRM with client management, PDF quote generation and reporting: 8,000 to 12,000 euros
- Simple SaaS with authentication, Stripe subscription and dashboard: 10,000 to 15,000 euros
- Marketplace platform with multi-vendor, payments and commissions: 15,000 to 30,000 euros and above
- Web3 application with smart contracts and wallet connect: 10,000 to 25,000 euros and above
Delivery timeline
One to three months depending on complexity. An MVP is always delivered first, before secondary features are added.
Who this format is for
Startups, small and medium businesses with specific operational processes, and companies whose needs are not covered by existing software. If a daily two-hour spreadsheet routine is involved in managing clients, the investment usually becomes relevant.
Additional costs to plan for (beyond site creation)
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Domain name (.fr, .com) | 10 to 20 euros per year |
| Web hosting | 5 to 30 euros per month depending on traffic |
| SSL certificate | Free (Let's Encrypt) or included with hosting |
| Monthly maintenance | 150 to 400 euros per month |
| Post-delivery modifications | 50 to 100 euros per hour |
| Professional photo shoot | 200 to 800 euros (recommended) |
| Content writing | 50 to 150 euros per page if text is not provided |
The photo shoot is the most frequently underestimated line item. A visually accomplished site remains poorly convincing when its imagery comes from generic stock libraries. Allocating 400 euros to a photographer visibly changes the final result.
What drives a website's price up
Items that logically increase the cost
- Business features: a contact form is not comparable to a booking system with online payment
- Custom design: a UX/UI mockup produced by a designer represents a substantial workload
- External integrations: APIs, payment gateways, CRMs, ERPs. Each connector is a project of its own
- Multi-language: each language implies dedicated SEO (hreflang, sitemap) and full content translation
- Admin area: autonomous content management requires a dedicated back-office
What should not warrant a surcharge
- Follow-up meetings, which are part of the engagement
- "Project management fees", which belong to the developer's work
- "Deployment fees", which correspond to delivery
- Responsive design, which is no longer an option in 2026 but a prerequisite
Freelance versus agency pricing: where the budget goes
A fullstack freelancer carries neither offices, nor sales staff, nor a dedicated project manager, nor heavy accounting overhead. The entire budget goes to development. In an agency, a significant share of the price covers structural costs.
| Service | Web agency (range) | Freelance developer (range) |
|---|---|---|
| Simple showcase site | 3,000 to 8,000 euros | 1,500 to 3,000 euros |
| Advanced showcase site | 6,000 to 15,000 euros | 3,000 to 6,000 euros |
| Custom application | 15,000 to 50,000 euros | 6,000 to 20,000 euros |
The price gap does not automatically mean a quality gap. It reflects structural costs first. A senior freelancer with seven years of experience can produce an equivalent or better result than an agency outsourcing to a junior developer.
How to identify a suspicious quote
Unusually low quote: under 1,000 euros for a showcase site
The question to ask: what does this rate actually cover?
- A free WordPress theme with a logo added
- A site with mobile loading times above six seconds
- A provider unreachable a few days after delivery
A 500-euro site is possible. It will match the scope that comes with that rate. And will likely need to be rebuilt within eighteen months.
Unusually high quote: above 8,000 euros for a five-page showcase site
For a 10,000-euro quote covering five pages without complex functionality, a line-by-line breakdown should be requested. The charge often covers "project management days", "scoping meetings" and "validation phases" whose operational reality deserves scrutiny. Actual development work on five pages represents two to three weeks at most.
An approach grounded in transparency from the first exchange
Four elements help produce a meaningful quote:
- The main objective: online presence, lead generation, e-commerce, internal tool
- The list of three to five priority pages or features
- A budget range, even approximate, so the proposal can be calibrated from the start
- Two or three websites appreciated visually, as a stylistic direction
With these four elements, a precise quote can be produced within 48 hours.
Have a project being scoped? Get in touch for an exchange and an estimate. Reply within 48 hours.