# Website cost in 2026: from €0 to €50,000, and what drives the price

> Source: https://extradev.fr/en/blog/website-cost-in-2026-from-0-to-50000-and-what-drives-the-price
> Published: 2026-11-12
> Author: Vincent Roye
> Site: Extra Dev (https://extradev.fr)
> Lang: en-US
> Tags: prix site internet, création de site web, site vitrine, site e-commerce, régie, forfait

A website costs anywhere from €0 to over €50,000 depending on how it's built. 2026 price ranges by type of site, the hidden costs, and how to choose between a fixed price and a day rate.

A website costs between €0 and €200 a month with a website builder, €3,000 to €20,000 with an agency, and €5,000 to €50,000 for a custom-built site, according to Wix in 2026. That 1-to-250 spread isn't random. It reflects what your site has to do, not how good it looks. I read website quotes all year round, and the first thing most business owners do is compare the totals. The comparison that actually matters is what each line of the quote covers.

- 📊 **2026 price ranges**: from €0 to €200/month with a website builder, up to €50,000 for a custom build.
- ⚠️ **Recurring costs**: the domain, hosting and light maintenance add €100 to €300 a year.
- 💡 **Scope before price**: features, page count and customisation matter more than which provider you pick.
- 🎯 **My verdict**: a website builder for a brochure site, a senior developer paid by the day as soon as there's business logic involved.

Here's how to make sense of the prices: first the ranges by approach, then by type of site, then the factors that push the bill up or down, and finally how to pay for a custom site without nasty surprises.

## How much does a website cost in 2026, depending on the approach?

A website costs **€0 to €200 a month** with a website builder, **€400 to €3,500** with a freelancer, **€3,000 to €20,000** with an agency and **€5,000 to €50,000** for a custom build, according to Wix's 2026 guide. The approach you choose sets half the budget before anyone even mentions design.

The table below combines the price ranges from three French sources with the rate for a dedicated senior developer, so every figure stays comparable.

| Approach | Upfront budget | Recurring | When it's the right choice |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Website builder (Wix, Hostinger) | €0 to €200/month | Included in the subscription | Simple brochure site, testing a business idea |
| Freelancer or web designer | €400 to €3,500 | €100 to €300/year for light maintenance | Custom brochure site, few features |
| Web agency | €3,000 to €20,000 | Maintenance contract to negotiate | Brand identity, broad scope |
| Custom developer | €5,000 to €50,000 | Changes as you go | Business features, customer accounts, payments |
| Dedicated senior developer (Extra Dev) | €180/day, 10 days = €1,800 | No commitment, day by day | Evolving project, detailed specification |

SOURCE: fr.wix.com, wise.com, indy.fr, extradev.fr · UPDATED 11/2026

Extra Dev's rate is a day rate, not a fixed price: the total depends on how many days your scope requires. I'll come back to this below, because it's the fundamental difference from the other rows in the table.

### Why do the sources' price ranges contradict each other?

Because each source describes a different project under the same word, "website". According to Wise in 2025, a small business brochure site costs €800 to €2,000 with a freelancer and €2,000 to €5,000 with an agency, while XXL Studios quotes $1,500 to $8,000 for a freelancer and $5,000 to $30,000 for an agency.

The creator behind the Marchetti Design channel, who says he has priced more than 250 projects over 15 years, puts his completed projects between €5,000 and €35,000, with a quality floor of €1,500 to €2,000. The gaps come down to the size of the scope and the country's market, not to anyone getting it wrong.

**Focus on the logic, not a single figure: two quotes are only comparable if they cover the same pages, the same features and the same services.**

## How much does a website cost by type: brochure, e-commerce or custom?

A brochure site starts at around **€1,500** and an e-commerce site at around **€3,000**, according to the agency Burguin Digital. The type of site is the biggest price factor: the more features there are to build, the more working days it takes.

According to Wise (2025), a simple online shop costs €1,500 to €4,000 with a freelancer and €5,000 to €15,000 with an agency. For a custom site, the range goes up to €5,000 to €20,000 with a freelancer and €10,000 to €100,000 with an agency. The €100,000 site does exist, but it's a platform with accounts, payments and integrations, closer to an application than a brochure.

For an online shop, the details are in the article on the [cost of a Shopify, PrestaShop or custom e-commerce site](https://extradev.fr/blog/prix-site-e-commerce-shopify-prestashop-sur-mesure). If your "website" is actually a redesign of an existing one, the maths changes: see [why a redesign quote ranges from €2,500 to €30,000](https://extradev.fr/blog/refonte-site-web-cout-2026-fourchettes-agence-regie-senior).

### When is a €500 website a trap?

Almost always, with a few exceptions. The creator of Marchetti Design says that for €500 you get a site copied from everyone else, with no thought given to your messaging, and advises steering clear. Burguin Digital goes further: faced with a €100 quote, "run", because the price often hides an auto-renewing subscription or poor-quality work.

The only defensible case is a motivated beginner who gives you a mates' rate to build their portfolio. In that case, you're paying for someone's learning, not for a sales tool.

## What drives the cost of a website?

The cost of a website depends on six things: the type of site, the number of pages, the features, the level of customisation, the services included and any additional costs. This list comes from the video "The (REAL) price of a website" on the WEB MARKETING TUTO channel, and I agree with it point by point, because it matches what I see in quotes.

A one-page site, a four-page site and an eighteen-page site don't involve the same amount of work. A blog, a booking system or a portfolio added to a brochure site each add to the total. So do custom design, bespoke development and copywriting.

Features matter more than pages. A customer account area, online payments or a connection to your business management software weigh more than ten pages of text. That's where the price leaves website-builder territory and enters the world of development.

### Which recurring costs get left out of the budget?

A domain name (your site's address) costs between €5 and €50 excl. VAT a year depending on the extension, according to France Num, the French government's programme for business digitalisation, in its update of 27 October 2026. According to Wise (2025), hosting (the server that makes your site available online) comes to €40 to €150 a year on WordPress, and light maintenance to €100 to €300 a year.

On top of that come paid theme or plugin licences, booking tools and email sending. The creator of the XXL Studios channel says these small monthly payments caught him off guard in the very first year of his online shop. Always ask the provider for a list of what you'll still be paying for after launch.

### Should you pay for a website at a fixed price or by developer days?

For a brochure site, a fixed price makes sense: the scope is known and the margin for error is small. For a site with business logic, I recommend thinking in days.

The WEB MARKETING TUTO video argues the opposite: charge according to the value delivered to the client, never according to time spent. That's advice for sellers. From the buyer's side, a value-based fixed price is a price you can't check. A number of days, on the other hand, can be compared: if someone quotes you 30 days for three simple features, you can see straight away that the line doesn't add up.

## Fixed price or day rate: how do you pay for a custom website without nasty surprises?

For a custom site, paying a day rate (you pay for developer days, not for a fixed project) protects your budget better than a poorly scoped fixed price, provided you start from a specification broken down into short blocks. In the interest of transparency: I run Extra Dev, which provides AI-augmented senior developers at €180 a day, so I'm obviously biased on this point.

An Extra Dev senior developer has at least 8 years of experience and starts in under 7 days, with a first profile within 48 hours, no commitment and no minimum number of days. They work directly with you in English. At €180 a day, a site that takes ten days of work comes to €1,800, and twenty days to €3,600. That's simple multiplication, not a promise: the number of days depends on your scope.

### How do you break down a website so the budget stays under control?

I always start from very clear specifications, never from a vague request, then break the work down into short, testable, independent blocks. Each block has precise acceptance criteria: "the visitor can pay by card and receives a confirmation email" can be checked, "a smooth payment experience" can't.

For an AI-augmented developer, using Claude Code for example (an assistant that writes and tests code from your instructions), this discipline makes all the difference. Tests need to run in a real browser, not just against generated code. The [Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot](https://extradev.fr/blog/claude-code-cursor-copilot-comparatif-2026) comparison covers these tools for decision-makers.

**A website budget stays under control one block at a time: you approve it, it ships, then you decide on the next block.**

### Which technology should you choose so the site can keep evolving?

For a brochure site or a blog, WordPress or a website builder is enough. For a site that will become a product (accounts, subscriptions, pages generated at scale for SEO), I prefer Next.js (a modern web framework), a PostgreSQL database and hosting such as Vercel. WordPress quickly becomes a drag on how fast you can evolve.

A clean database, an admin area, error logs and backups need to be in place from day one. Adding them later costs more than planning for them, and that's exactly the hidden cost described in the article on [annual application maintenance](https://extradev.fr/blog/cout-maintenance-application-par-an). To manage the work once it's under way, the [30-minute routine](https://extradev.fr/blog/piloter-dev-regie-distance-rituel-30-minutes) keeps things from drifting.

## What budget should you plan for? My verdict for your project

Go for a website builder (€0 to €200 a month) for a brochure site of fewer than ten pages, a freelancer (€400 to €3,500) if you want a polished design, and senior developer days as soon as your site carries business logic. The deciding criterion is simple: if a feature needs to store data or process a payment, you're no longer buying a website, you're buying software.

So my verdict has two parts. **For a brochure site, don't spend more than €3,500, and turn down any quote under €500.** For a site with accounts, payments or internal tools, ask for a detailed number of days per block, and pay by the day rather than a lump sum that hides the risk.

According to the France Num 2026 Barometer, only 64% of French small and medium-sized businesses have a website: so the question is no longer whether you need one, but how to avoid overpaying for yours. The [official France Num website](https://www.francenum.gouv.fr/guides-et-conseils/developpement-commercial/site-web/combien-payer-pour-un-site-web-ou-un-site-e) also lists the grants available to fund all or part of the build.

### When should you hire a senior developer rather than use a website builder?

As soon as your specification goes beyond what a website builder can do, or you plan to update the site every month. To put numbers on your own case, the [developer cost calculator: permanent hire, freelancer or dedicated developer](https://extradev.fr/calculateur-cout-developpeur) compares all three options over twelve months using your own figures. And if you're torn between hiring and a day-rate developer, the [12-month calculation at €180 a day](https://extradev.fr/blog/recruter-dev-senior-cdi-regie-180-euros-jour-calcul-12-mois) gives you the answer in figures.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does a brochure website cost in 2026?

A brochure website costs €800 to €2,000 with a freelancer and €2,000 to €5,000 with an agency, according to Wise in 2025. Burguin Digital puts the entry price at €1,500. With a website builder like Wix, expect €0 to €200 a month depending on the plan.

### How much does an e-commerce website cost in 2026?

A simple online shop costs €1,500 to €4,000 with a freelancer and €5,000 to €15,000 with an agency, according to Wise in 2025. Burguin Digital quotes an entry price of €3,000. Shops with a complex catalogue, specific payment methods or a connection to business management software go beyond these ranges.

### What are the hidden costs of a website?

They include the domain name (€5 to €50 excl. VAT a year according to France Num), hosting (€40 to €150 a year according to Wise), light maintenance (€100 to €300 a year) and paid plugin licences. On top of that come security updates and any changes you ask for after launch.

### Is a fixed price or a day rate better for a custom website?

For a brochure site with a known scope, a fixed price works well. For a custom site with business features, a day rate is safer, because you control the number of days and can stop after each block is delivered. At €180 a day with Extra Dev, the budget comes down to a simple multiplication.

### Could a €500 website work for my business?

Rarely. Content creators like Marchetti Design and guides like Burguin Digital's advise against very cheap websites: copied designs, hidden subscription contracts or poor quality. A budget of €1,500 to €2,000 is a realistic floor for a well-made brochure site.

## Sources

- [Combien payer pour un site web ou un site e-commerce ? — francenum.gouv.fr](https://www.francenum.gouv.fr/guides-et-conseils/developpement-commercial/site-web/combien-payer-pour-un-site-web-ou-un-site-e)
- [Combien coûte un site internet ? Les prix minimum à retenir — burguindigital.com](https://burguindigital.com/prix-site-internet/)
- [Frais de création d'un site internet : quel budget faut-il prévoir ? — indy.fr](https://www.indy.fr/guide/creation-entreprise/cout/frais-creation-de-site-internet/)
- [Combien coûte la création d'un site internet en 2025 ? — wise.com](https://wise.com/fr/blog/combien-coute-la-creation-dun-site-internet)
- [Combien coûte un site internet en 2026 ? Prix, tarifs et budgets — fr.wix.com](https://fr.wix.com/blog/prix-site-internet)
- [The (REAL) price of a website in 2025 — WEB MARKETING TUTO](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTbCWMkbak0)
- [How Much Does It Cost to Build a Website — XXL Studios](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-gmi1TdLdA)
- [How much does a website cost in 2027? The real prices — Marchetti Design](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obzpmZellbg)
- [How Much Should a Website Cost? — WebsiteBuilderExpert](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47fpBM7tZiU)