How much does a website cost? Build and running costs in 2026

A business website in Germany usually costs around €3,000 to €15,000 plus VAT to build. On top of that come running costs of about €20 to €150 a month. Where you land in that range depends on the number of pages, the copy and the features. Here you’ll find typical prices for each route, the monthly costs and a checklist for comparing quotes.

The ranges are typical figures from the German market, before VAT, as of November 2026. Individual quotes can be lower or higher.

Website costs at a glance

• Build it yourself with a website builder like Wix, Jimdo or Squarespace: around €10 to €40 a month for the plan, plus your own time for setup, copy and images.
• Freelancer: around €1,500 to €8,000 for a website with 5 to 10 pages, depending on whether you supply the copy.
• Agency: around €8,000 to €30,000 for a business website with 10 to 20 pages. With a shop, several languages or integrations with your ERP and CRM, it can cost a lot more.
• Running costs: around €20 to €150 a month for domain, hosting, licenses and maintenance.

What drives the price

The price is driven mostly by the pages that get built and everything each of those pages has to do.

• Number of pages: Every service, industry and location with its own page needs a concept, copy and design. Ten service pages cost more than one “Services” page.
• Copy: If you write the copy yourself, you save money and your provider’s time. Copy written around the terms your customers search for usually costs more per page than the layout.
• Photos and graphics: A custom photo shoot costs extra. Stock photos are cheaper, but your customers often recognize them.
• Features: A contact form, appointment booking, multiple languages, a shop, a customer login or a calculator each add work.
• Editing by your team: If your team should add and edit pages on its own, the site needs a CMS with well-built templates.
• Migrating an old website: If you already have a site, old URLs need 301 redirects to the new ones. Otherwise you lose the rankings you’ve built up on Google.
• Legal and accessibility: A cookie banner, a privacy policy and, for online shops, the European Accessibility Act take time to set up and test.

How much does a website cost per month?

After launch, you pay to run and maintain the site. These costs come up almost every time:

• Domain: around €1 to €2 a month for a .com or .de address.
• Hosting: between €0 and around €30. A site on Cloudflare Workers often runs on the free plan, because requests for static files cost nothing there. The paid plan starts at $5 a month.
• Website builder: Since May 2026, Webflow’s Premium plan costs $25 a month billed yearly and $39 billed monthly.
• Licenses: WordPress adds a premium theme and plugins for forms, SEO, the cookie banner or backups, often €5 to €30 a month combined.
• Maintenance: Updates, backups and security checks usually cost around €50 to €300 a month as a WordPress maintenance plan. Systems without plugins need much less maintenance.

Email inboxes with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 aren’t strictly part of the website, but they often end up on the same invoice. Ask whether the quote includes them.

Website builder, freelancer or agency

A website builder is enough to get started if you have a small budget and some time. The limit shows up later: once the site grows, moving away from many builders and setting up redirects is a lot of work.

A freelancer usually costs less than an agency, and you always talk to the same person. Ask who covers for them during vacation or illness and what the handover looks like if you stop working together.

An agency brings copy, design and development in one team. That means more coordination and a higher price. It pays off on large projects with many people involved on your side.

How to spot a fair quote

Put every quote next to this list. If something is missing, ask before you sign.

• Every page is listed by name, not just “up to 10 pages”.
• The quote says who writes the copy and whether it targets search terms.
• The domain, hosting account and all logins are in your name after launch.
• Running costs are listed one by one, with term and notice period.
• For a relaunch, 301 redirects for the old URLs are included.
• The cookie banner, privacy policy and legal notice are set up or explicitly excluded.
• The number of revision rounds is fixed.
• The quote says what happens after launch: training for your team, support and the price of later changes.

Where to save and where not to

You can save on scope. Launch with the pages your customers actually search for and add the rest later. Prepare your services, prices and the most common customer questions yourself, which saves rounds of back and forth.

Cutting corners gets expensive in three places. Without redirects during a migration, you lose your Google rankings. If the copy doesn’t match what your customers search for, nobody finds it. And a slow site loses visitors before they see what you offer.

If you’d like to know where your project falls in these ranges, see how I build websites or go through the launch checklist first. For the running costs of WordPress and EmDash side by side, see EmDash vs. WordPress.