"How much does a website cost?" is the first question I get. Asked like that, the answer runs from nothing to tens of thousands of euros. For a small business, a tradesperson or an independent professional, the useful range is much narrower. Here is what prices cover in 2026, what moves a quote, and what the site will cost you every year once it is live.
Four ways to get a website, four budgets
Before comparing quotes, you need to know what you are comparing. A do-it-yourself platform, a "free" site paid for by subscription, a site built by a freelancer and a site built by an agency are not the same product at different prices. They are four different products.
| Option | Upfront | Every year | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do-it-yourself platform (Wix, Squarespace, Odoo…) | €0 | €0 to €500 in subscription | A site online quickly, built by you. It lives on the platform: stop paying and it disappears. |
| "Free" site paid by subscription | €0 to €500 | €500 to €1,800, often over 24 to 48 months | A site built for you that remains the provider's property. When the contract ends, you start again from scratch. |
| Freelance developer | €800 to €3,000 | €80 to €170 (domain and hosting), maintenance optional | A custom site in your name, with one contact from quote to launch. |
| Agency | €3,000 to €8,000 and up | Often a maintenance contract, €600 to €1,800 | A team (project manager, designer, developer), more coordination, and a price that reflects it. |
These ranges match the prices published in 2026 and what I see around Lyon. They shift with the size of the site, but the orders of magnitude hold.
For the strengths and limits of each option, see the Wix, Squarespace, Odoo and WordPress comparison.
Odoo deserves a word, because more and more people mention it to me. Its Website app is free as long as it is the only app you use. As soon as you add invoicing, CRM or inventory, the subscription moves to about €20 to €30 per user per month, excluding VAT. It is a good choice if you want a complete business tool, less so if all you need is a site that brings in customers.
What a €1,490 small business website includes
My starting price is €1,490. The figure means nothing until you know what is in it, so here is the list:
- Up to six pages: home, services, about, service area, contact, and one page of your choice.
- A custom-designed theme, included in the price: no template bought and shared with others, a site that looks like you.
- A mockup approved before development, so you see the site before it exists.
- Help with the copy: you know your trade, I help you write it for your customers and for Google.
- Local SEO set up: keywords, tags, structured data, Google Business Profile linked to the site.
- A fast site: a score above 90 on Lighthouse, Google's measuring tool. A slow site loses mobile visitors and slips down the results.
- Domain name set up in your name.
- Legal notice and privacy policy, required for any business website in France.
- One hour of training so you can edit your pages yourself.
The quote is fixed: the price you sign is the price you pay. And the site is yours, code and content included. The details are on the website design page.
What pushes a quote up
Two six-page websites can have very different prices. The gap nearly always comes from the same places:
- The number of pages. Beyond six, each page needs structure, copy and SEO work. One page per service is often worth it, because each one can rank for its own search.
- The state of your content. Copy written from scratch, photos to commission: that is time, so money. Copy already written and real photos of your work lower the bill and raise the quality.
- Specific features. Online booking, a private area for your clients, a second language: each is priced separately.
- Taking over an existing site. If your current site gets visits, what it has earned on Google must be kept, page by page, with redirects. It is careful work and it belongs in the quote.
- Visual identity. No logo, no defined colours? They need to be created before the site, or alongside it.
All of this should appear in the quote before work starts. A price that moves mid-project usually comes from a quote that never asked these questions.
The costs that come back every year
A website does not only cost money on the day it is built. Here is what to plan for afterwards:
- Domain name: €8 to €20 a year for a .fr or a .com.
- Hosting: €70 to €150 a year for a small business site with a reliable host, once the first-year promotional price is over.
- Maintenance, optional: updates, backups, security, monitoring. Mine starts at €49 a month, with no minimum term and the first 3 months free. It includes hosting, the domain name and SEO follow-up.
A prospective client once told me his previous provider charged him a monthly fee he saw no point in. He ended up taking the hosting back himself to stop paying. Today his site is no longer really looked after and no longer brings him enquiries.
I would be sorry if one of my clients found my plan pointless, because what they pay for is specific: direct access to their site's statistics, SEO that is followed and adjusted, a site monitored around the clock and brought back at the first incident, daily backups stored elsewhere that survive even a data centre fire, like the one in Strasbourg in 2021, updates tested before they go live, and someone to write to whenever they need. In the end, it is peace of mind. It should be spelled out on the quote: if yours does not say what the plan contains, ask.
The three-year sum. A €1,490 site that you host yourself, domain included, comes to about €1,800 over three years. With my Essential maintenance, hosting and domain name included and the first 3 months free, it comes to about €3,100, for a site kept up to date, backed up, monitored and followed on Google. Either way, you own it. A "free" site at €79 a month costs €2,844 over the same period, and you still do not own it.
How to compare two quotes
Two quotes are not compared on their bottom line. Ask every provider these questions, and get the answers in writing:
- Is the price fixed, or can it change during the project?
- Who owns the domain name, the code and the content?
- How many pages, and who writes the copy?
- Is SEO included, and what exactly does that mean?
- What does the site cost every year, maintenance aside?
- If I change provider, what do I take with me?
A quote that does not answer these questions is not cheaper. It is vaguer, and the difference gets paid later.
What budget to plan, depending on where you are
You are starting out on a tight budget. Begin with a well-filled Google Business Profile, with photos and your first reviews: it is free, and it is often where customers find you. If you have time, a do-it-yourself platform can carry you for a few months.
You are a tradesperson, a shop or an independent professional, and you want steady enquiries. Plan €1,500 to €3,000 for a site that presents your services, ranks in your area and belongs to you.
You already have a site that gets visits. A redesign costs a little more, because what the old site earned has to be kept. An audit beforehand tells you what is worth keeping.
What about your project?
I build these sites for tradespeople, shops and independent professionals in Lyon and the north-west of Lyon, from Dardilly to L'Arbresle. The estimator on the home page gives you a price range in three questions. I then send you a fixed quote, written after a first conversation about your business. All my prices are also listed on the services and pricing page.