It is the first question people ask us, and rightly so: nobody buys blind. The trouble is that a website cost has no single answer, and the ranges you find online mix up things that have nothing to do with each other. A 300 € site and an 8,000 € site can look alike on screen.
Let us start with orders of magnitude, then with what moves them.
The website cost ranges we see in France
For a tradesperson, a freelancer or a small outfit, before any subscription:
- A site you build yourself on an online tool: from 300 €, most of the cost being your own time.
- A brochure site by an independent: usually between 800 and 3,000 €.
- The same site from an agency: more like 2,000 to 8,000 €.
- Upkeep, once it is live: from 5 € to several hundred a month depending on what is included.
A brochure site price moves mostly with who builds it
At identical scope, the gap between an independent and an agency comes from overheads: offices, project managers, salespeople. A competent independent is therefore often noticeably cheaper, with no loss of quality: the gap pays for the structure, not the site.
What those figures do not explain is why two quotes from that same world can differ fivefold. That is where it gets useful.
What really sets a web design budget
Most people price a site by its number of pages. That is the least useful unit there is. Once a template exists, the sixth page costs a few minutes more than the fifth.
A web design budget is decided elsewhere.
The content. The words, the photos, the list of services, the opening hours. This is the line item that derails the most projects, and the one nobody budgets for. A site that is technically ready can sit waiting 3 months for its text.
What the site has to do. Displaying is one thing. Taking a payment, tracking stock, booking against your real calendar, opening a customer area: each of those verbs is a project of its own. It is also what separates a brochure site from a mobile app or a bespoke tool.
How bespoke the design is. This is what weighs most on a website cost at equal scope: a bought theme filled in, or a drawing made for you. The price difference is real, and so is the result, especially in a trade where every competitor bought the same theme.
The back and forth. Two rounds of changes are planned for. Eight is a different budget. That is not a commercial trap, it is real time.
The cost of building is not the cost of the site
A website is not an object you buy once. It lives, and its life costs money every month, whether that is written on the quote or not.
The four lines quotes forget
- the domain name, every year;
- hosting, every month;
- platform updates, without which it eventually breaks or gets hacked;
- changes: a price moves, a service is added, the hours shift.
That last point decides everything. Plenty of trade websites have been frozen for 4 years, not because the owner stopped caring, but because every change meant an email, a quote and an invoice. After 2 times, you give up. And the site starts lying about its own opening hours.
An honest quote either prices those four lines or says clearly that they are included. A quote that never mentions them has not given you the price of your website. It is also the first thing we look at when someone asks us for a rebuild of an existing site.
Paying once, or paying monthly
Two models exist, and they suit different situations.
Paying in one go. You pay for the build, the site is yours, and afterwards you manage it or pay for each intervention. That works when you have someone in house who can take over.
A small build fee, then a subscription. You pay little up front, then a monthly amount covering hosting, the domain and upkeep. It reads better in a budget, and it aligns interests: the supplier only gets paid as long as you stay.
The thing to check is the same either way. What happens if you leave?
Ask before signing, and ask for the answer in writing. A subscription with no fixed term costs you nothing to try. A 24 month commitment is a decision of an entirely different kind.
Questions to ask before signing
Whatever quote you are holding:
- Is the domain name in my name?
- Are content changes included, and how far? Changing a price and adding a page are not the same gesture.
- What happens if I cancel?
- Who writes the text?
- Will the site be readable on a phone, and tested on one?
If the answers are vague, so is the price. A supplier who will not answer those five questions in writing has told you something useful about what comes next.
And for a website for tradespeople, concretely
Ranges place you, they do not price you. A website cost depends mostly on what yours has to do, and no article can guess that. If you are starting from nothing, the website design and development page sets out what goes in and how it works.
Describe your project in a few lines and we will price it, with a written answer within two working days. It is free and commits you to nothing.
BloomwiseKey takeaways