Website costs: what you get for €1,500, €5,000 and €15,000

A website quote can run from a few hundred to tens of thousands of euros. That makes choosing difficult. This article shows, concretely, what you can realistically expect at three common budgets: €1,500, €5,000 and €15,000. No marketing fluff—just deliverables, timelines and practical trade-offs.

I lead development teams and advise entrepreneurs daily on these choices. The examples below are realistic for small to mid-sized projects. Every project differs, so I give indicative ranges.

What each budget typically delivers

~€1,500 (basic)

• Audience: freelancers, new businesses, simple brochure sites.
• Pages: 1–5 static pages (home, services, about, contact, privacy).
• Design: a ready-made template or slight template customization (WordPress or similar).
• CMS: standard WordPress or another out-of-the-box CMS; short handover (30–60 minutes).
• Responsive: yes, basic mobile layout using responsive rules.
• SEO: basic on-page SEO (meta tags, sitemap). No full strategy.
• Performance: basic optimizations (image compression, caching). Core Web Vitals get a basic check, no deep optimization.
• Accessibility: minimal (headings and contrast), not full WCAG compliance.
• Hosting & domain: usually arranged by the client; hosting setup can cost €50–€300/year.
• Maintenance: optional, hourly or monthly.
• Timeline: 2–4 weeks.

Extra costs (indicative): content creation (copy/photos) €200–€1,000 depending on scope.

~€5,000 (standard)

• Audience: SMEs without complex back-ends, businesses focused on conversion.
• Pages: 5–15 pages, includes a blog or news section.
• Design: semi-custom design with 2–3 revision rounds.
• CMS: WordPress or a simple headless setup with content workflows.
• Responsive: full mobile and tablet support with a small test matrix.
• SEO: on-page optimization, technical SEO check and basic indexation setup. See Google’s SEO Starter Guide: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide.
• Performance: focused Core Web Vitals work, lazy-loading and basic asset bundling; measurable improvement expected (read about Core Web Vitals: https://web.dev/articles/vitals).
• Accessibility: medium level; color contrast and ARIA for key components.
• Integrations: contact forms, newsletter, Analytics, basic CRM or payment integration.
• Hosting & security: managed or VPS hosting, backups, basic hardening.
• Maintenance: optional 3–12 month SLA.
• Timeline: 4–8 weeks.

Extra costs (indicative): third-party integrations or licenses €100–€1,000; hosting €100–€600/year.

~€15,000 (advanced)

• Audience: scaling SMEs, B2B lead-gen sites, or more advanced e-commerce.
• Pages: bespoke content types, product pages, landing pages.
• Design: full custom UX and UI, prototyping and several user testing rounds.
• CMS/architecture: custom architecture (headless or advanced WordPress), content modeling and role permissions.
• Responsive & performance: full audit and optimization for Core Web Vitals; performance budget and monitoring.
• SEO: full technical SEO implementation and structured data. Follow best practices in search essentials: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials.
• Accessibility: aim for WCAG compliance, with audit and fixes (see WCAG 2.2: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/).
• Integrations: multiple API connections, payment flows, ERP/CRM sync.
• E‑commerce: from simple shops to complex flows—can increase cost significantly.
• Testing: cross-browser/device testing, user testing and acceptance testing.
• Security & hosting: managed hosting with incident response, backups and security hardening.
• Maintenance: SLA with response times, monitoring and monthly updates.
• Timeline: 8–16 weeks.

Extra costs (indicative): complex integrations or commerce extensions can range from several hundred to multiple thousands of euros.

Quick comparison table

Practical tips when requesting quotes

• Define scope precisely: number of pages, revisions and who supplies content.
• Compare deliverables, not just price. A lower price can mean no backups, no training or poor performance.
• Ask for expected improvements in LCP/CLS/INP and for monitoring plans (see Core Web Vitals: https://web.dev/articles/vitals).
• SEO basics: ensure sitemap and robots.txt are included and tested per Google’s guidance (https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide).
• Accessibility: decide whether WCAG compliance is mandatory. Full compliance costs time and budget.

Practical checklist before signing

• Scope: clear list of pages and features.
• Acceptance criteria: what counts as ‘done’ (functionality, visuals, performance).
• Hosting & backups: who manages and what are the costs (€50–€600/year indicative).
• Maintenance: monthly hours or pay-as-you-go.
• Ownership & access: code, domain and analytics accounts.
• Support: bug and downtime response times.

Procurement steps for smarter buying

• Prepare content and priorities—saves development hours.
• Start with an MVP and scale. That’s often the most pragmatic approach.
• Get 2–3 quotes with the exact same scope.
• Ask for a timeline with milestones.
• Include a technical acceptance step: performance and basic accessibility checks.

Final note

A low budget forces trade-offs. That can be good: faster to market and quicker learning. It can also create technical debt that costs later. Spend where it matters: clear content, a simple conversion path and baseline performance.

Want a tailored estimate? Request a quote via /quote or read more about general pricing on /website-laten-maken-kosten.

Sources referenced: Google’s SEO Starter Guide (https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide) and Core Web Vitals guidance (https://web.dev/articles/vitals). Also consult responsive design basics for mobile considerations: https://web.dev/articles/responsive-web-design-basics/ and WCAG 2.2 for accessibility requirements: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/.