How Much Does a Professional Website Really Cost?

It’s the question every client asks, and rightly so: “How much will it cost?”. Often, however, in the digital market, you face a jungle of quotes: from the cousin who does it for €300 to the agency asking €5,000 for what, on the surface, seems to be the same job. Why is there such a difference?

The truth is, on the web, you are not buying an off-the-shelf product, but an engineering and communication service.

The “Hidden Costs” of Low Cost

A low-cost site (under €500-800) is usually a pre-made template, bought for a few euros and filled with your content without any logic.

The technical problem: The code is messy and unoptimized. Google will struggle to read and index it.
The business problem: The design is identical to a thousand other companies. There is no differentiation.
The result: You spent little, but that site is a “sunk cost.” It won’t bring leads, it won’t convert, and you’ll likely have to rebuild it from scratch within a year.

What Are You Paying for in a Professional Site? (The Investment)

When a professional presents you with a quote, the cost doesn’t just cover the hours of writing code. You are investing in a set of fundamental assets:

Analysis and Strategy: Before writing a line of code, we need to understand who your ideal client is and how to talk to them. The site must be a sales tool, not a poster.
Technical Performance: Optimizing images, configuring caching, writing clean code (perhaps using technologies like Astro or React) to ensure the site loads in milliseconds.
Mobile Adaptability: It’s not enough for the site to just “shrink” on a phone. The mobile user experience must be designed for touch, with accessible menus and readable text.
Maintainability: A professional site is built to last. The code is modular, allowing future updates without “breaking” the entire system.

Conclusion: The Price of “Not Working”

A slow, malfunctioning website costs much more than the price you paid the developer: it costs you in lost customers and damaged reputation. In the digital world, the golden rule applies: the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten. Investing in quality today means positioning yourself above the competition tomorrow.