Learn by doing
How much does a business website cost?
The price comes down to a handful of decisions. Make them first, and quotes become much easier to compare.
By Max O’Sullivan · Guide and worksheet
What moves the price
- Pages
- How many pages, and how different they are. Ten similar service pages take less work than five pages that each do something new.
- Languages
- Each language is content to write and check, not a translation button. A good second language adds real work.
- Content
- Who writes the text and supplies the photos. If it’s you, the price drops, but the launch date depends on you.
- Features
- Contact links are simple. Property search, bookings, payments or a members’ area take much more building and testing.
- Connections
- Sending enquiries into a CRM, pulling listings from a feed or connecting a calendar. Each one needs to be built and tested.
- Upkeep
- Hosting, security updates, backups and changes after launch. Someone has to do them, and they cost money whether they’re in the quote or not.
A one-off price or a monthly price
With a one-off price, you pay to have the site built. Hosting, updates and later changes are usually paid for separately, often to someone else.
With a monthly price, the build and the upkeep are spread over time. Before you agree, check what the monthly fee includes, whether there’s a minimum term, who owns the domain and the content, and what happens if you want to leave.
Neither is better in itself. What matters is knowing the full cost over two or three years, and who to call when something needs changing.
Costs people forget
- The domain name, renewed every year.
- Business email, if it isn’t included.
- Writing, translating and checking the text.
- Photos, and the right to use them.
- Changes after launch, such as new services, prices or staff.
- Your own team’s time to review pages and answer questions.
Worked example: two quotes for the same clinic
Fictional training example — not a client project.
A small physiotherapy clinic gets two quotes. The first is a low one-off price for a five-page site in Spanish. The second is a monthly price for the same pages in Spanish and English, with hosting and changes included.
Laying both out with the worksheet shows the first quote has no English pages, no hosting and charges for every change. Once those are added, the gap between the two is much smaller than the headline numbers suggest. The clinic can now choose on what it actually needs, not on the first figure it saw.
Exercise: compare two website quotes
Copy these prompts into your notes and fill them in once for each quote.
Your working notes
Answer each question for every quote you have.
- Pages and languages
Which pages are included, and in which languages?
- Content
Who writes the text and supplies the photos?
- Features
What does the site need to do beyond showing information?
- Upkeep
Are hosting, updates, backups and changes included? If not, what do they cost?
- Ownership
Who owns the domain and the content, and what happens if you leave?
- Two-year cost
What will you have paid in total after two years?
What my websites cost
My websites start from €100 a month. The final price depends on the pages, languages and features you need. After a free first chat, I’ll tell you the price for what you need before any work starts.
See web design in Estepona or websites for estate agencies. Not sure what your site should include? Start with the website content planner.