Ask five studios what a website costs and you get five answers between 800 and 40,000 euro. Nobody is lying. The word website covers a one page site for a plumber and a platform with logins, and almost nobody tells you which one they are quoting.
This page gives you the real ranges for 2026, what moves a quote up or down, the costs that appear after the first invoice, and how the same site is priced differently in London, Berlin and Sofia. The numbers from my own projects are mine and every one of them has a link you can open.
The short answer
For a small or mid sized business in Europe in 2026:
| What you want | Typical European range | What I charge | Ready in |
|---|---|---|---|
| One page that leads to a call | 800 to 3,000 euro | from 399 euro | 5 to 7 days |
| Business site, up to 10 pages | 2,500 to 9,000 euro | from 999 euro | 7 to 14 days |
| Online store | 4,000 to 20,000 euro | from 799 euro | 14 to 21 days |
| Corporate site, several languages | 8,000 to 30,000 euro | from 1,999 euro | 21 to 30 days |
| Web application, logins, bookings | 15,000 to 100,000 euro | from 1,999 euro | 21 to 30 days |
Add 15 to 120 euro a year for a domain and hosting on a small site, more once a store gets traffic.
If you want one sentence: most small businesses in Europe should budget 1,000 to 6,000 euro for a site that actually works, and can pay a fraction of that in Eastern Europe without losing quality. The rest of this page is why that sentence is true and how to check it.
Where the money goes
A quote has two halves and most quotes show only the first.
One off. Discovery, structure, copy, design, build, launch, analytics, search console, and the handover that teaches you to change your own content. This is the number you see.
Recurring. Domain, hosting, certificate, updates, edits, backups, plugin licences, platform fees. This is the number that surprises you next spring. For many models the second number passes the first inside three years.
So compare quotes over three years, not over the first invoice. There is a table for that below.
Price by country in 2026
The same brochure site, quoted in four places, is genuinely four different prices:
| Where | Typical price, business site | Typical hourly rate |
|---|---|---|
| London, Zurich, Oslo | 8,000 to 25,000 euro | 90 to 180 euro |
| Germany, Netherlands, France | 5,000 to 15,000 euro | 80 to 160 euro |
| Spain, Italy, Portugal | 3,000 to 9,000 euro | 45 to 90 euro |
| Poland, Czechia, Hungary | 2,500 to 8,000 euro | 35 to 80 euro |
| Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia | 800 to 5,000 euro | 25 to 60 euro |
The gap is not a quality gap. It is office rent, salaries, account managers and sales commission. A developer in Sofia uses the same Next.js, the same Vercel and the same Stripe as a developer in Munich, and the same Lighthouse score comes out the other end.
What you do lose in the cheap column is process: fewer people, less project management, and a single point of failure if that person disappears. That is a real risk and the section on hiring safely below is about managing it.
Price by who builds it
| Provider | Price for a business site | Speed | Who answers when it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website builder, Wix or Squarespace | 15 to 50 euro a month, forever | hours | a support queue |
| Shopify for a store | 30 to 300 euro a month plus 0.5 to 2 percent of sales | days | a support queue |
| Freelancer | 800 to 4,000 euro | 1 to 4 weeks | that person, if free |
| Small studio or solo developer | 1,000 to 6,000 euro | 1 to 4 weeks | the person you spoke to |
| Agency | 6,000 to 30,000 euro | 1 to 4 months | an account manager |
None of these is wrong. A builder is the right answer if you might close the business next year. An agency is the right answer if you have a marketing department and a procurement process. Between them there is a wide gap where most small businesses actually live.
What moves the price
Scope. Ten pages and a hundred products is not three pages and ten products. This single factor explains most of the difference between two quotes for the same words.
Content readiness. If you have text and photos, the clock starts on day one. If they must be written and shot, add 300 to 1,500 euro and one to three weeks. Stock photos are cheaper and cost you the only thing that distinguishes you.
Integrations. Courier, accounting, inventory, CRM, booking calendar, card payments. Every real integration is 150 to 800 euro because it is tested with live data, not switched on with a checkbox.
Design. Template based is faster and cheaper and is a sensible choice while the business is still finding its shape. Bespoke earns its price once you know exactly who your customer is.
Languages. A second language is not double. Budget around 30 percent more, because everything gets translated, including the parts Google reads.
Compliance. GDPR consent done properly, and since mid 2025 the European Accessibility Act for e commerce and several other services, with an exemption for microenterprises under 10 people and under 2 million euro turnover. Built in from the start it costs nothing. Retrofitted it is a separate project.
The costs nobody puts in the quote
- Percentage of your sales. Hosted store platforms take 0.5 to 2 percent of every order on top of the monthly fee and on top of the card processor.
- Plugin subscriptions. A WordPress site with ten paid extensions is easily 300 to 700 euro a year before hosting.
- Edits after launch. Ask what a text or price change costs before you sign. If the answer is an hourly rate, your yearly bill can exceed the build.
- VAT. Depending on the country and the supplier, 19 to 27 percent may land on top of the number you were quoted. Ask whether the figure includes it.
- Content. If the words and photos are not yours, you will pay for them.
- Leaving. Ask today what it costs to take your site elsewhere. Ask before you need to.
- Your time. A project that drags for three months costs you more than the difference between any two quotes.
Three years, honestly
The same small store, three models, three years. Assume 4,000 euro of monthly sales.
| Model | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosted platform at 79 euro a month plus 2 percent of sales | 948 + 960 | 948 + 960 | 948 + 960 | 5,724 euro |
| Agency built WordPress, 4,000 build, 400 hosting and plugins, 900 maintenance | 5,300 | 1,300 | 1,300 | 7,900 euro |
| Owned custom store, 799 build, 249 a year optional plan | 1,048 | 249 | 249 | 1,546 euro |
Adjust the sales figure to your own and the ranking does not change. Renting costs forever. Owning costs once and then only upkeep.
Why a Bulgarian price is not a cheap price
I am in Sofia. My prices are the bottom of the European table, and the honest reason is arithmetic, not corner cutting: no office, no account manager, no sales team, no commission. One person writes the code and answers the phone.
What you can check rather than believe:
- provend.bg, a B2B catalogue for vending machines and parts. Lighthouse 100 out of 100. A brand new domain that within six months reached page one of Google for “vending coin mechanisms” and “refurbished vending machines”.
- djzlati.com, a wedding DJ. Ranked first for his main price query as of September 2026, and Google sent 306 visitors in six months at an average position of 8.9. Source: Google Search Console, 15.03 to 15.09.2026.
- djivankrisi.com, a DJ and host duo booked together.
Every site above is a real client, live right now, and the code and domain belong to them.
How to hire in Eastern Europe without getting burned
This is the actual question behind most searches for European website prices, so here is the practical version.
- Ask for live sites, not screenshots. Open them on your phone. Run PageSpeed on them yourself. A studio that cannot name a live client is quoting on hope.
- Insist on a fixed price and a fixed date in writing. Hourly billing across a border is where budgets die.
- Put ownership in the contract. Code, domain, hosting accounts and analytics in your name, from the day you pay.
- Pay in two parts. Half at start, half at launch. Nobody serious asks for everything up front.
- Check the time zone and the language. Bulgaria is CET plus one, one hour ahead of Berlin, which means a real working day overlap, not a night shift.
- Invoices and VAT. A registered EU supplier invoices with a VAT number and the reverse charge rule usually applies between EU businesses. Ask for the company number and check it.
- Start with something small. A landing page for a few hundred euro tells you more about a supplier than any interview.
When cheap is genuinely risky
Not every low quote is a bargain. Walk away when:
- The price is a single number with no scope and no date.
- There is no contract, or the contract does not say who owns the result.
- You are promised first place on Google. Nobody honest promises that.
- The site will be built on a platform you cannot export from.
- There is no named person, only a brand and a contact form.
- One hundred percent payment is required before anything exists.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest a decent website can cost in Europe?
Around 400 euro for a single page that is fast, works on a phone and drives a call. Below that you are usually buying a template with stock photos.
Why are your prices so much lower than an agency?
No office, no account manager, no sales commission. I write the code and I answer the phone. That is the advantage and also the limit: I cannot take five projects at once.
Who owns the code and the domain?
You do, from the day you pay. If you want to leave tomorrow, you take everything and there is no fee.
Is there a monthly fee?
No. There is an optional yearly plan from 149 euro for domain, hosting and changes. Without it the site still runs and you pay the domain and hosting directly.
How long does it take?
5 to 7 days for a landing page, 7 to 14 for a business site, 14 to 21 for a store. The clock starts when I have your text and photos, and the date goes in the contract.
Do you build WordPress?
No. Not because it is bad, but because a site with forty plugins has forty ways to break. If you already run WordPress and it works, I will not try to talk you out of it.
Can you work with a client outside Bulgaria?
Yes. Most of the work is the same conversation by video and email, and the invoice is a normal EU invoice.
What if something breaks after launch?
For the first three months it is my problem, not yours. You write, I fix.
Tell me what you do
I am Steven. I build the sites myself, from Sofia. Six live sites you can open and check, and 5.0 on Google from six reviews, each one tied to a named site.
Write through the form, three fields, and you get a price and a date within 24 hours. All prices and what each tier includes: website prices 2026.
Already have a site and want it moved rather than rebuilt: WordPress to Next.js migration. Need a developer inside your own team instead of a project: hire a Next.js developer, 380 euro a day.