What a business website should actually cost

Why the same website costs €300 or €13,000

Because "a website" describes three completely different things, and nobody says which one they mean.

At the bottom there's a template with your logo dropped into it. Someone spends a day swapping the photos and the text. That's a real product and it costs a few hundred euros. For some businesses it is genuinely enough.

In the middle there's a site designed around your business: someone thinks about who your customers are, what they need to see, and how to get them to contact you. That takes weeks, not days.

At the top there's software that happens to live in a browser: shops, booking systems, client portals, things connected to other systems. That's a project, and it's priced like one.

Realistic numbers

In the Netherlands, for a business working with a freelancer or a small studio, here's roughly where things land:

• One-page site, properly designed: €800 – €1,500
• Multi-page site with an editor you can use yourself: €2,000 – €5,000
• Webshop with real stock and payment handling: €4,000 – €12,000
• Booking systems, portals, custom functionality: €6,000 and up

The costs nobody mentions in the quote

Three things get left out of quotes surprisingly often, and they're the ones that catch people out later.

• Hosting and your domain: usually €10 to €40 a month. Make sure these are registered in your name, not your builder's.
• Content. Text and photography are the slowest part of most projects. Ask up front whether writing is included.
• Maintenance. Websites need updates and backups. Either you pay someone or you learn to do it: both are fine, but decide deliberately.

How to tell whether a price is fair

Forget the number for a moment and look at the quote itself. A fair one tells you exactly what you're getting: which pages, what happens after launch, who owns the domain, what a change costs later.

An unfair one is vague, priced by the hour with no ceiling, or padded with things you never asked for. If you can't understand what you're buying, that's not because you're not technical. That's a badly written quote.

The best question to ask any web designer: "What would you take out of this quote if I needed it to be cheaper?" The answer tells you everything.

One thing worth paying for

If your budget is tight, spend it on the thinking rather than the pixels. A plain website that's clear about what you do, who you help and how to reach you will out-earn a beautiful one that leaves people confused.

Beautiful and clear is better, obviously. But clear comes first.