What Does a Website from an Agency Cost in 2026

If you ask three agencies and get three completely different figures, it's rarely because someone is calculating 'wrong.' It’s because the question is often asked too early.

A website can be a digital business card – or your most important sales channel, a recruiting tool, a donation driver, a self-service portal. That's why the range in many guides is from "from 1,000 €" to "over 100,000 €." AgenturFinder

What we repeatedly see in projects: The biggest price differences don't arise from pretty details, but from an unclear idea of the scope. As soon as it's unclear whether you need a CMS, whether content is being migrated, whether tracking is set up in compliance with data protection laws, whether multilingualism is planned, whether a team has time for content internally – each offer will paint a different picture.

Our first 'secret ingredient' is therefore a simple heuristic we call the Scope Triangle: Goal, Risk, Operation. Goal means: What should the website visibly achieve (inquiries, applications, sales)? Risk means: What must not go wrong (security, law, downtime, brand impact)? Operation means: Who is maintaining content, who updates, who optimizes after launch?

If you answer these three corners cleanly, the price question suddenly becomes fair. And you no longer compare 'Agency A vs Agency B', but scope representations that really fit your project.

And something else that stands out more in 2026: AI and modules lower the costs for standard setups. At the same time, expectations for performance, data protection, accessibility, and security are rising. This doesn't compress the range – it makes it even wider.

You still want a number before you dive deeper. Understandable. Here are realistic ballpark figures for agency projects in 2026 – as a guide, not a 'price list.'

A Onepager (clear layout, strong main section, contact, easy to maintain) often falls in the range of 3,000–6,000 €, when an agency truly designs rather than merely adapting a template. Sascha Fix If you also have content created professionally, costs can rise significantly.

A classic Corporate Website (multiple pages, CMS, blog or news, clean structure, SEO basics) often lands around 6,000–15,000 €. Sascha Fix In Germany, some agencies cite similar mid-range values of 2,500–8,000 € for 'professional company websites' for 2025, depending on the amount of strategy, design, and technology involved. HEADON

An Online Shop rarely starts reasonably below 10,000 € and quickly reaches 50,000 €+ depending on assortment, payment, legal issues, integrations, and UX. HEADON

For portals, web apps, member areas, or complex integrations (CRM, ERP, booking, configurator), you often start upwards of 20,000 € – and yes, it can reach six figures if it’s more software than a 'website.' Internationally, surveys show similar ranges up to 150,000 $+ for web apps. GoodFirms

Our second heuristic is used to make these numbers tangible: "How much risk is attached to a click?" If a mistake is 'just' a wrong image, that’s different than if an error prevents orders or makes donation forms unusable. The higher the impact of a click, the more budget must go into stability, testing, and monitoring.

And another practical detail: The hourly rates often range roughly between 90 and 150 € per hour at agencies, freelancers usually lower. Sascha Fix What’s critical is not the rate – but how well the team sets up the scope, so you don’t end up paying twice.

When we explain budgets, we almost always say the same sentence: The page number is rarely the problem. The price arises where complexity comes in – and it is often well hidden.

First, there's the design degree. An adapted template can work. But as soon as you want your brand to truly feel like you (typography, imagery, tone, micro-interactions), design rounds, tests, and decisions arise. The transition from 'template adapted' to 'individual design' is often practically priced at 2,000–5,000 €. Sascha Fix

Then come functions: newsletter connection, appointment booking, application process, data import, filters, multilingualism. Some sources calculate roughly 500–2,000 € extra per feature – not because the feature is 'magical', but because it needs tests, error cases, and maintainability. HEADON

The most underestimated block is almost always content. Texts, photos, case studies, PDFs, translations: If you just 'somehow' copy content together, the website feels like an empty house. At the same time, good content creation costs real time. For professional texts and images, 500–2,000 € more is quickly due, depending on scope. Sascha Fix

And then there are the invisible things that are no longer optional in 2026: performance, data protection, security, accessibility. Mobile traffic has been over 60% worldwide for years. Statista If your site is annoying on mobile, it won’t work 'anyway.' It will simply be abandoned.

Our third 'secret ingredient' here is a small decision aid: Impact Budgeting. We prioritize not by 'nice to have', but by effect: What's measurably improving inquiries, donations, applications? What's reducing support effort? What's creating trust? This prioritization often saves budget without sacrificing quality – because you’re not investing in features that only feel good on paper.

And yes: That suits us at Pola. We not only build websites that look good. We build digital places that people can find, understand, and use – even when they surf slower, use assistive technologies, or just have little patience.

The most honest budget planning doesn't end with 'website is online.' It begins there.

After launch, ongoing costs occur in three layers: operation, maintenance, further development. Operation is hosting, domain, email setup, possibly a consent tool. Maintenance involves updates, backups, security checks, small content adjustments. And further development is what makes successful websites: new landing pages, better texts, better conversion.

For operation, some numbers are pleasantly small but important: domain and simple hosting can be in the low hundreds per year; many guides mention about 60–120 € per year for domain and hosting in the basic setup. Designenergie As soon as performance demands rise (shop, high traffic, many assets), it becomes more.

Maintenance is where we like to speak clearly: If you ignore updates and security, your website will eventually become a risk. Internationally, annual maintenance costs are typically between 250–1,000 $ (small business website) and 1,000–5,000 $ (e-commerce or portal). GoodFirms This sounds like a lot – but it’s often exactly the budget that prevents you from paying ten times that in an emergency.

What we find helpful as a rule of thumb: Plan for 10–20% of the initial costs as a further development budget per year. This isn't a hard norm from a study, but our experience from projects that should actually unfold impact after launch. This gives you room for things like SEO finetuning, new content, better forms, performance optimization.

And here comes our purpose-driven view: Performance isn't just conversion. A slim, fast website transfers less data and consumes fewer resources. Sustainability on the web is often not an extra feature but a design decision: less ballast, clearer content, better technology.

So, when you look at ongoing costs, don't think 'subscription.' Think: operational security and growth.

Not every website needs to be rebuilt in 2026 immediately. Sometimes a relaunch is the right choice. Sometimes it’s just the most expensive way to mask an actually solvable problem.

In audits, we first look on two levels: substance and signal. Substance means: Is the system technically stable, secure, updatable? Is there a CMS that doesn’t break with every little thing? Signal means: Does the website appear as you want – and does it truly lead people to action (inquiry, donation, application)?

If the substance is good, optimization is often worthwhile: better homepage, clearer structure, faster images, clean redirects, stronger texts. This is often much cheaper than a rebuild and brings quick impact – especially if you need to save budget.

However, if the substance is bad, optimization becomes patchwork. Typical signs: outdated plugins, no clear component logic, no clean tracking, difficult editability, performance issues that can’t be 'optimized away.' Especially when you want new features (multilingualism, member area, shop), you’ll pay twice.

Our heuristic for this is called the "two-cycle test": Ask yourself if the existing website can support two more development cycles – that is, 'new contents, new function, new campaign' twice without everything falling apart. If the answer is no, a relaunch is often the cheaper decision over 2–3 years.

And one 2026 reality check: Requirements have increased. Mobile use is standard, Core Web Vitals are part of expectation, and accessibility has gained focus since 2025 due to the European Accessibility Act. If your website lags here, it’s not just 'unpleasant' but can cost reach and trust.

A relaunch doesn’t have to be maximal. We like to work in stages: first, the base clean, then extensions. This feels lighter for teams – and is often the most realistic form of budget planning.

The hardest part about comparing offers isn’t the math. It’s the illusion that two sums mean the same.

When you lay offers side by side, first look at the scope core: What is specifically delivered? Design system or just page layouts? CMS setup with roles and fields or 'you can change something later'? SEO basics actually implemented or just mentioned as a word?

Then look at the transitions, because that's where most cost traps arise: content migration, redirects, tracking, consent, form submissions, newsletter connection, multilingualism. These points are often hidden in footnotes – and reappear later as 'extra effort.'

We recommend a quick method that you can apply in 10 minutes: "Four Questions Before Signing"

1) What is explicitly not included?

2) What assumptions are you making about content (do I provide everything, do you do it, is it mixed)?

3) How are changes handled (hourly rate, change requests, buffer)?

4) What happens after the launch (support, bugs, small adjustments)?

If you clarify these four questions in writing, the chances of unpleasant surprises drop significantly.

Another point more important in 2026 than before: Rights and independence. Does the code belong to you? Do you have access to the CMS? Can you change hosting? Does the agency use proprietary modules that bind you? Open-source and clean documentation are often the calmer choice here.

And lastly: Check whether an offer allows time for quality. If testing, accessibility, or performance don’t appear, it doesn’t mean it 'happens automatically.' It usually means: You pay later – with time, nerves, or reputation.

You don’t need to understand every line. But you should, in the end, feel: This is not a purchase in the dark.