How much does a website cost? What drives the price.

01Why there is no honest flat price

What

Cost blocks at a glance

One-off

Concept, design, content, build

Recurring

Domain, hosting, maintenance

A website consists of work that happens once and of costs that come back every month or year. If you only compare project prices, you often compare apples with oranges.

For total prices of having a website built, we found no public, independent study with a named publisher and year, neither for Switzerland nor for Germany (as of 14.11.2026). The ranges we found online come from agencies, hosts and portals that sell websites or plans themselves. That is why we don't give amounts here.

02What drives the price: scope, design and features

What

Effort drivers

Levers

Pages, languages, features

Tip

Start with a few strong pages

If you have customers in French- or Italian-speaking Switzerland, those languages come on top. Every language needs its own copy, its own review and its own addresses so that Google can tell the versions apart.

To save money, start with a few strong pages and expand later. What a business website really needs at the start is covered in our guide to a first website for small companies.

03Copy, images and logo: the items people forget

What

Content and brand

Who

You or professionals

Risk

The project waits for content

Some quotes only cover design and build. Copy, photos and logo then appear in the small print as "supplied by the client". So always ask who supplies what.

• Copy: if you write it yourself, it costs time instead of money. Our guide to page copy that turns visitors into customers shows how.
• Images: your own photos show your team and your work. Stock libraries such as Unsplash allow images to be downloaded and used for free. You may not sell them without significant modification.[4] For images showing people or brands, check carefully whether your use is covered.
• Logo and colours: without them, the design stands on shaky ground. What belongs to a consistent look is explained in our guide to a brand's visual identity.

A project can stall because the design is finished but the copy is missing. Plan time for content, even if you write it yourself.

04Running costs for domain, hosting and site builders

What

Costs per month or year

As of

14.11.2026, prices change

Watch out

Promotional versus regular price

These items come back every year. The prices below are examples from individual providers, not a recommendation and not a market average. They are as of 14.11.2026 and can change at any time.

Watch what happens after the promotion. Jimdo, for example, states that plans renew automatically at the regular price and that discounts and the free domain only apply to the first term.[9] IONOS notes that offers are only valid for a limited time and partly depend on minimum contract terms.[10]

Depending on the site, add email mailboxes, licences for themes or extensions, a tool for the cookie banner, and maintenance. WordPress itself is open source software under the GPL.[11] You still pay for hosting, domain and maintenance. For online stores, it is worth looking separately at what a Shopify store costs per month.

05Site builder, freelancer, agency or collective

What

Who builds it and how it is billed

DIY

Subscription and your time

Professionals

Hours or a fixed price

With a site builder you pay less money and more time. With professionals you pay for experience, speed and someone who spots mistakes early. We compare the differences in our guide on which way of working suits you.

With hourly rates, always ask for the estimated number of hours. A fixed price pays off when the scope is described precisely in writing. Anything not included can cost extra later.

06Free: what really costs nothing

What

Free plans and their limits

Free

Trial plans, Google profile

Still costs

Your time, your own domain

Many people search for a website built for free. Someone building a website for you without charging is the exception. With offers for 0 francs or 0 euros, check carefully whether a subscription with a minimum term sits behind them.

Building it yourself can be free, with limits:

• Wix: a free website runs on an address in the format siteprefix.wixsite.com, with 500 MB of storage. For your own domain you need a Premium plan, which also removes the Wix ads.[3]
• Jimdo calls its Free plan a trial phase with no time limit and no credit card.[9]
• You can test Hostpoint Sites for free for 30 days.[7]
• You can add a Google Business Profile at no charge.[12] It doesn't replace a website, but for local businesses it is a good first step. Our guide to setting up your profile on Google explains how.

In these cases, free means: someone else's address, the provider's ads or a trial that ends. And it costs your time.

07Comparing quotes: questions for every provider

What

Compare like with like

When

Before you sign

Key

Tax, scope, rights

Only compare quotes with the same scope. Check the tax first. In Switzerland, the standard VAT rate has been 8.1 percent since 1 January 2024.[13] In Germany, VAT is generally 19 percent.[14] If the quote doesn't say, ask whether the price includes tax.

1. Which pages, languages and features are included exactly?
2. Who supplies copy and images?
3. How many rounds of revisions are included?
4. In whose name are the domain and hosting registered?
5. Who holds the logins afterwards, and can you freely keep using the design and content?
6. What does maintenance cost per month or per change?
7. Are legal texts, cookie banner and accessibility part of the quote?
8. What happens if you switch providers later?

On question 7: what a website needs legally in Switzerland and Germany is covered in our guide to mandatory information and data protection. In Germany, the BFSG (Accessibility Strengthening Act) applies to e-commerce services for consumers, in our reading for example shops and online booking.[15] Micro-enterprises are exempt for services.[16] If in doubt, have a specialist check this.

08What you can do yourself and when help pays off

Yourself

Page plan, copy, photos

Professionals

Design, technology, legal

Honestly

No price ranges without a source

You save mainly by knowing what you want before the first meeting: a goal, a list of pages, draft copy and a few photos of your own. That makes every quote more precise and easier to compare.

From our work. With us, you first talk for 30 minutes by video, free of charge. Then you get a quote with a fixed price and a clear scope, and we only start once you agree. For the architect Dilsoz Kaidy, the work included a logo, a domain and a website in two languages; more in the Dilsoz Kaidy case study. For websites, Manu is your contact; see websites and landing pages.

Honest limits. We give no ranges for project prices because we found no independent source for them. The providers in this guide are examples, not a comparison of all providers. If someone quotes you a price without asking about pages, content and features, ask what exactly is included. If you are planning to rebuild an existing site, also read our guide to the steps of a website rebuild.