How much does a business website cost?

There is no universal price list for business websites, because the effort varies considerably from project to project: a compact presence with a few pages is something quite different from a multilingual site with a careers section, location pages and connections to internal systems. Anyone who wants a realistic answer to the cost question therefore has to clarify the requirements first – which is exactly the first step in our consulting and concept phase.

These factors determine the effort

• Scope and structure: What matters is less the sheer number of pages than the number of distinct page types – every standalone template (home, service page, team, careers, blog) needs to be conceived, designed and built.
• Design: A professionally customised theme is implemented faster than a fully individual design with its own visual language and tailor-made components.
• Content management system: Whether WordPress or another CMS – the choice of system influences implementation effort, extensibility and running costs.
• Features: Contact forms, multiple languages, job portals, event calendars, protected areas or newsletter integrations increase development and testing effort.
• Content: Copy, photos, graphics and translations need to be created or prepared – one of the most frequently underestimated items.
• Search engine optimisation: Clean technology, a sensible page structure and well-maintained meta data are the basis for visibility; ongoing SEO measures are a work package of their own.
• Accessibility: Many consumer-facing offerings have been subject to the German Accessibility Act (BFSG) since June 2025 – accessible implementation should be planned in from the start.

In practice it pays to distinguish between essentials and extras: a clean technical foundation, fast loading times, legally required pages and low-barrier implementation belong in every project. Elaborate animations, custom illustrations or special features, on the other hand, are deliberate investment decisions that should be measured against the expected benefit.

Another cost factor is the starting position: in a relaunch, existing content needs to be reviewed, migrated or revised, redirects from old to new URLs have to be set up, and existing search engine rankings need to be protected. This effort does not arise when building from scratch – but there you start without any existing content and structures. Both scenarios come with their own work packages, which a serious quote lists separately.

Often underestimated: content and running costs

In our experience, copy, images and translations delay website projects more often than the technical implementation does. So clarify early on who delivers which content: if the agency takes over copywriting and image selection, the project scope grows – if you contribute content yourself, it shrinks. Both approaches are legitimate, but they should be clearly defined in the quote.

Costs also arise after launch: domain, hosting and maintenance, regular updates of the CMS and its extensions, and, where applicable, continuous content maintenance. Factoring these items in from the start avoids surprises and allows you to compare different providers realistically – namely on the basis of total costs over several years rather than the project price alone.

When comparing quotes, it is also worth looking at quality characteristics that are not immediately visible: clean semantic structure, fast loading times, well-thought-out mobile presentation and maintainable code determine how well the website performs over the years and how laborious later extensions become. These points distinguish professionally implemented projects from merely visually appealing solutions.

A proven approach for limited budgets: start with a focused website that presents the most important content professionally, then expand the site in planned stages – for example with a blog, additional languages or a careers section. This spreads the investment without compromising the quality of the foundation.