How much does a website cost in 2026?
Short answer: for a local business, a well-made website costs between €600 and €2,500, paid once, plus €30–60 a year. Below you'll find where these numbers come from and how to compare quotes.
By Cristian Lazzarini and Ismail Xhakerri · updated 5 October 2026
The three options, with the numbers
Anyone looking for a website for their business almost always faces three options: build it yourself with an online website builder, take one on a monthly fee, or have it made once by a studio or a freelancer. They look like three prices for the same thing, but they buy different things.
| Option | What it costs | What you're left with |
|---|---|---|
| DIY (Wix, Squarespace and similar) | Ad-free plans at around €14–34 a month plus VAT, paid for the full year (Wix prices, March 2026), plus the hours you put in yourself | A website that lives on the platform: if you stop paying, it goes offline |
| Monthly-fee website | Often €30–100 a month, usually on 24- or 36-month contracts | Almost never the code, and sometimes not even the domain |
| A studio or a freelancer, paid once | €600–2,500 for a local business, plus €30–60 a year | Everything: domain, text, photos and code |
An honest comparison looks at three years, not the first month. A DIY site costs between €600 and €1,500 over three years, VAT included, plus the time you spend on it. A monthly fee of €49 comes to €1,764. A complete €1,190 website plus three years of domain and hosting comes to around €1,300, and it stays yours.
What pushes the price up
1. How many pages, and who writes the text
A single page, long and well made, is enough for a great many businesses: who you are, what you do, opening hours, where you are, how to get in touch. Every extra page (separate service pages, About us, gallery) is extra work, especially if whoever builds your site also writes the text. Good writing costs money, but it's the part that persuades people and the part Google reads.
2. The features
A menu or price list you can update yourself, bookings, several languages, a login area: each one has a cost. An online shop is a chapter of its own, because it brings payments, shipping and returns with it; for a proper e-commerce site, prices usually start from a few thousand euros.
3. The photos
Real photos of your business are worth more than any graphics. If you already have them, all you need is a good selection and some editing. If you don't, half a day with a photographer usually costs €300–600, and it's often the money best spent. Or you can follow the rules for taking good photos with your phone.
4. The Google side
A properly set-up Google Business Profile, titles and text written around real searches, structured data, speed on a phone. You can't see any of it, but it decides whether the website brings people in or stays a business card nobody can find.
What you pay every year
- .it domain: usually €10–20 a year.
- Hosting: from €0 for a static website on services like Cloudflare or Netlify, up to €50–60 a year for traditional hosting.
- Email with your own name (something like info@yourbusiness.it): from a few euros a month per mailbox, depending on the service.
- HTTPS, meaning the padlock: free everywhere. If someone charges you extra for it, ask why.
- Maintenance: optional on a static website, essential on WordPress, where plugins and versions have to be kept up to date.
How to read a quote
Before you look at the price, check five things. You'll find them explained one by one in the ten questions to ask before you sign:
- Is the domain registered to you?
- How long is the contract, and how do you cancel it?
- If you switch provider, what do you take away with you?
- Are the text and photos included, or do you have to supply them?
- Can you update opening hours, prices and photos yourself?
A low quote with a long contract often costs more than a high quote paid once. Always work it out over three years.
Our prices, for comparison
With us you pay just once: €590 for a one-page website, €1,190 for the complete one with menu or price list and bookings, from €2,500 for custom projects. The domain and hosting are registered in your name and cost €30–60 a year. What's inside each package is written on the pricing page; if you run a restaurant, there's also a guide dedicated to how much a restaurant website costs.
Further reading
Tell us about your business.
We'll reply within 24 hours with a clear quote, free and with no obligation. If you're not convinced, you're still left with a list of things to fix.