How much does a website cost: how the price is built and how to read a quote

Published on 4 November 2026by Tauro Lab8 min read

In short A website costs anywhere from a few hundred euros, if you build it yourself, to several thousand if a professional produces text, design and dedicated features. An Italian guide from 2024 puts a five-page site between 700 and 2,000 euros and an online shop between 3,500 and 15,000. Those are estimates: the real price is hours of work, plus domain, hosting and maintenance every year.

How much does a website cost? From a few hundred euros to several thousand, and the range does not narrow until you say what the site has to do. That is not a dodge: the price of a website is hours of work, and the hours depend on pages, text, features and who does what. Here are the figures that circulate, with their source, the items that push them up, the running costs and a way to tell whether a quote is missing a line.

How much does a website cost: the figures that circulate and what they are worth

The ranges below come from a guide published by Punto Informatico in October 2024, one of the few Italian guides that gives numbers and explains where they come from. We quote them as orders of magnitude, not as a price list: Tauro Lab does not publish prices, because a serious quote comes after understanding the project.

Type of site	Range given by the guide	What it usually assumes
Single page	600 to 800 euros	one page, text and photos supplied by you, template design
Standard site, at least 5 pages	700 to 2,000 euros	standard structure, content ready, no links to other software
Editorial site or blog, over 15 pages	1,300 to 2,100 euros	many similar pages, little design work per page
Online shop	3,500 to 15,000 euros	catalogue, payments and shipping; the number of products and any link to your management software move the figure a lot

Two warnings. Those figures assume text and photos come from you and the design starts from a template: everything missing gets added. And a figure given over the phone before any questions is the price of any website, not of yours.

The price is hours: the items that push it up

Behind every quote is the same sum: hours of work at a rate, plus hard costs such as domain and hosting. Know which items eat hours and you can read the price.

Types of page, not number of pages

Ten service pages on the same layout cost little more than three. One page with a quote calculator, a members' area or a form that writes into your management software costs more than ten pages of text. Count the types of page, not the pages.

Text and photos

The item that most often disappears from quotes and reappears later. If you write the text and have the photos, the work shrinks to laying them out. If someone has to produce them, that is hours of writing, interviews and a photo shoot: fair to pay for, but it must be in the quote, not discovered at the second meeting.

Features and connections

Bookings, payments, a second language, a customer area, a link to your management software or your stock. Every feature brings planning, programming and testing, and often an outside service with a subscription. Drop the ones you would not use in the first year: they can be added later.

Template design or design made for you

A well-adapted template works for many businesses and costs less. Design from scratch makes sense when you have to stand apart from competitors selling things similar to yours. Whoever prepares your quote should also tell you when the template is enough.

What Italian law requires anyway

Some things are not options and belong in every quote for a site run from Italy. Anyone with an Italian VAT number and a website must show that number on the home page: article 35 of Presidential Decree 633/1972, in force until 31 December 2026 and then replaced by the new consolidated VAT code (Legislative Decree 10/2026): ask your accountant for the updated reference. Limited companies must also show registered office, companies register office and number, paid-up capital, any liquidation and sole shareholder (article 2250 of the Civil Code). A contact form collects personal data, so a privacy notice is needed. If the site uses non-technical cookies, the banner must follow the Italian data protection authority's guidelines of 10 June 2021: scrolling is not consent and users must be able to refuse by closing the banner. Legal texts are checked by a professional, not by the designer.

If you sell online

An online shop comes with rules that turn into design hours. Consumers have fourteen days to withdraw (article 52 of the Italian Consumer Code), so returns and refunds must be designed into the purchase flow. The final button must read "order with obligation to pay" or an equivalent wording, otherwise the consumer is not bound (article 51, paragraph 2). And since 28 June 2025, e-commerce services must meet the accessibility requirements of Legislative Decree 82/2022, which implements the European Accessibility Act; microenterprises are exempt, meaning fewer than ten people and no more than two million euros in annual turnover or balance sheet total. What building a shop involves is on our e-commerce page.

The costs that stay after launch

The price of the site is one sum, keeping it alive is another. Figures change with platform and supplier, but these items need a written answer:

domain and hosting, renewed yearly, registered in your name;
software updates and security checks: who does them and how often;
changes to text, photos and prices: you make them from the dashboard or you pay by the hour;
outside services with a subscription: bookings, email on your domain, chat;
for an online shop, payment fees and the platform subscription, if there is one;
paid advertising, which is a separate budget and should be decided separately.

How much they weigh depends on how the site is built: many third-party components mean more frequent updates, a site programmed for you depends on who looks after it. The comparison is in WordPress or custom development.

The missing-line test

Take the quote and look for these lines. Each one missing is a cost that will arrive later or a right you do not have. You only need to read.

Domain and hosting registered in your name, with the credentials handed over at the end.
Who writes the text and who supplies the photos, page by page.
The list of pages and features, each with a name.
VAT number on the home page, privacy notice and cookie banner, where they apply.
Page titles and descriptions for Google, written rather than left blank.
If you are rebuilding a site, redirects from the old addresses to the new ones.
An hour of training on the dashboard, if you will edit content yourself.
What happens after launch: what is included, for how long and how quickly they respond.

The lowest quote is often lowest because line 1 or line 6 is missing. Ask for them to be added and compare again: sometimes the order flips.

The three-year cost, with invented figures

An installation company receives two quotes for six pages. The first asks 1,200 euros plus a compulsory 50 euros a month for "management and hosting", with the domain registered to the supplier. The second asks 2,400 euros, domain and hosting in the company's name for about 120 euros a year, and changes by the hour when needed, say 200 euros a year.

Over three years the first costs 1,200 plus 1,800 in fees, that is 3,000 euros, and the domain is not the company's. The second costs 2,400 plus 360 plus 600, that is 3,360 euros, and everything is in the company's name. The method matters more than the numbers: add up three years, then look at what you own at the end. For what drives the cost of a rebuild, see when to redesign your website.

Half a page before you ask for quotes

Write half a page on what the site must do, who will use it, which features you need in the first year and who supplies text and photos. Send the same page to everyone, so the quotes talk about the same thing and the missing-line test works. For the steps in order there is how to start a professional website; to decide who to send it to, web agency or freelancer.

We quote only after asking questions, and we write in every line of the list above. What we do is on the websites page; to start from your own business, write to us.

Frequently asked questions

Is a fixed price or an hourly quote better?

For a site with defined pages and features a fixed price is better, with a list of what is included. Still ask how many hours were estimated per item: if the supplier cannot tell you, the price was guessed, not built. Changes after launch work well by the hour, with a written rate.

Can I pay in stages?

Normal practice: a part on signing, a part when the draft is approved, a part on publication. Each stage should match something you can see. Be wary of anyone who asks for everything upfront or will not tie the last instalment to handing over the credentials.

What do free or very cheap monthly website offers really include?

Usually a template, space on the supplier's domain and a fee that keeps running. Fine for trying things out. Before putting your company name on one, check whether you can use your own domain, export the content, and what remains if you stop paying.

Is the site mine once I have paid?

Domain, hosting and content must be yours, in writing. For the code it depends on the contract: under Italian copyright law a transfer of rights has to be proven in writing, so if the quote says nothing the question is open. Ask for a clear sentence before you sign and, if the site matters to your business, have a lawyer read it.

Sources

Written by the Tauro Lab team, a web agency and software house in Turin. About us