Search for "website cost" and you'll find answers ranging from €200 to €20,000 — which isn't actually a contradiction, it's a reflection of how differently one "website" can be built. Here's what actually separates a €500 website from a €5,000 one, so you can figure out which one your business needs.
Why the range is so wide
A website isn't one product — it's a category that includes a single-page flyer site, a five-page business site with a booking form, and a full e-commerce store with hundreds of products. Pricing it as if it were one thing is where most of the confusion starts.
The honest starting point is to stop asking "how much does a website cost" and start asking "how much does a website like mine cost" — the answer changes completely depending on what "like mine" actually includes.
What actually drives the price
Four things move the number more than anything else: how many pages and how much custom content, whether the site needs live functionality like bookings or a product catalog, how much custom design versus template work is involved, and how fast you need it delivered.
A static site that explains your business and gets people to call or email is the simplest and cheapest category. Add online booking, payments, or a searchable product catalog, and the cost climbs — not because of design, but because that functionality has to be built, connected, and tested.
A realistic price range
For a focused, professionally designed small business site — a handful of pages, custom to your business, mobile-optimized — a realistic starting range in 2026 is roughly €490 to €1,500. A site with booking or a product catalog typically lands between €1,500 and €4,000. A full online store scoped to a real catalog goes higher, priced against what it actually needs to do.
Anything advertised well below that range for a genuinely custom site is usually a template with your logo dropped in, not a website actually built around your business.
Cheap website builders vs a real build
DIY builders can look appealing at €10–€30 a month, and for a true side project or hobby page, that's a fine choice. For a business that depends on its website to bring in customers, the math looks different once you account for the time spent building it yourself, the generic result most builders produce, and the ceiling you hit the moment you need something the template doesn't support.
The real cost of a DIY site is rarely the subscription — it's the weeks of your own time spent fighting a template, and the customers who leave because the result doesn't look like a business they trust.
Questions worth asking before you commit
Ask exactly what's included — pages, revisions, mobile testing, basic SEO — and what counts as an extra. Ask who owns the site once it's built, and whether you can move it elsewhere later. And ask what happens after launch: is there support, or are you on your own the moment it goes live?
A vague quote with no scope attached is the biggest red flag in this whole process — a fair price on a well-defined project beats a suspiciously low price on an undefined one every time.
Where we land
At Vienna AI Studio, focused small business websites start at €490, with clear scope agreed before any work begins — so the number you're quoted is the number you pay. AI-assisted development is what makes that price realistic without cutting corners on design or quality.
If you're not sure which category your project falls into, that's exactly what the first conversation is for — no commitment, just a clear answer before you decide anything.