The cost of a professional WordPress website in 2026: what really moves the invoice

In 2026, a professional WordPress website sits between €1,500 for a solid brochure presence and €7,000 or more for a bespoke project, with the middle tier — the one that covers most SMEs — around €3,500. Those figures cover the build alone. The line item almost everyone forgets is what comes afterwards: hosting, updates, backups and fixes, which run from €90 to €590 per month depending on the level of service expected.

This page exists because the question “how much does a website cost” rarely gets a useful answer. Quotes run from €500 to €20,000 for what looks like the same brief, and the gap is not a matter of margin: it reflects scopes that have nothing in common. We set out here what sits behind each tier, based on our public pricing grid. Intended readers: SME owners and independent professionals preparing a budget who want to compare quotes without being caught out by a vague scope.

What are the real price ranges in 2026?

Here are our published rates, in euros excluding VAT. They serve as a concrete benchmark rather than an abstract range.

What each tier covers

Around €1,500 — a five- to eight-page site on an existing theme, customised to the company’s colours and structure. Contact form, legal notices, sound SEO foundations, a site that is fast on mobile in the sense of the Core Web Vitals. That is enough for a local business that needs to exist online and be easy to contact.

Around €3,500 — the tier that suits most SMEs. A design created for the company, around ten pages, content written for conversion rather than decoration, support for two or three languages, and analytics that are configured rather than merely plugged in.

From €7,000 — as soon as the work is development rather than assembly: a customer area, a connection to a business application, a catalogue with pricing logic, a bespoke plugin. The price follows the number of business rules to be translated into code, not the number of pages.

What really moves a quote?

Six variables explain most of the gap between two proposals. When you compare quotes, these are the items to line up side by side.

1. Design: reused or drawn from scratch. An adapted theme and a design created for the company often separate two quotes by a factor of two. Neither is wrong — one is an economic choice, the other an image choice.
2. The number of templates, not pages. Thirty blog posts use a single template. Five pages of different kinds require five. The work sits in the template.
3. Content. Copywriting, translation, photography, illustration. If the quote does not say who writes, the answer is: you. That is the leading cause of projects that drag on.
4. Multilingual support. The technical mechanism is set up in a day. What costs money is the translation, URL consistency and editorial upkeep over time — a subject we cover in our Polylang and WPML comparison.
5. Integrations. Every connection to an external tool — invoicing software, ERP, booking system, CRM — is a project in its own right, with its own error handling and edge cases.
6. Regulatory obligations. GDPR, accessibility in the sense of the European Accessibility Act, and the mandatory notices that apply to your sector. Handled from the design stage they cost little; added afterwards, they mean reworking what already exists.

What does a site cost once it is live?

This is the part quotes stay silent about, and the part that decides whether the site will still work in three years. A WordPress site is not a finished object: it is software connected to the internet, receiving regular security updates and living in an environment that keeps moving.

The hosting decision deserves to be made before going live, not after the first incident: we compared the options in our WordPress hosting guide. As for what maintenance actually covers, we set it out in the article on WordPress maintenance.

How do you read a quote without getting it wrong?

We see a lot of competing quotes during tender phases. The same grey areas come back every time. This list works as a reading grid — every point left without a written answer is a future cost.

• Who writes the copy, and in how many languages?
• How many rounds of feedback are included before billing resumes?
• Who owns the hosting account and the domain name at the end?
• Is the bespoke code delivered, documented, and under which licence?
• What happens if you change provider in two years?
• Are the premium plugin licences in your name or the agency’s?
• What is the response time if the site goes offline?

An honest quote answers these seven questions without being asked. A quote that does not address them is not cheaper: it is simply incomplete.

When a €1,500 site is the right choice — and when it is not

The lower tier works very well for a tradesperson, a practice or a local shop: the goal is to be found, credible and reachable. Spending €7,000 there would bring nothing measurable.

It is not the right fit if the site has to take orders with specific pricing rules, connect to your management software, handle customer accounts, or carry your paid acquisition. In those cases the initial saving is paid back in manual workarounds — and those cost you every month, in time.

The most reliable sign that you need to move up a tier: you are about to describe an internal process to the provider. A process is developed; it is not assembled.

Frequently asked questions

Is a WordPress site cheaper than a fully bespoke one?

Yes, at equal scope, because the foundation is proven and the plugin ecosystem avoids rebuilding common features. The gap narrows as soon as the project carries a lot of its own business logic: at that point you are developing in WordPress rather than with WordPress, and the cost converges with that of conventional development.

Why do some agencies advertise €500?

Because the scope is reduced to installing a purchased theme, with your text and your images. That is a genuine service and sometimes sufficient. It becomes expensive when it is sold as the equivalent of a site designed for your business.

Do you have to pay in one instalment?

The usual practice is a deposit at kick-off and the balance on delivery, sometimes with an intermediate milestone when the designs are approved. We also offer packages combining the build with monthly support, which are easier to read for an SME’s cash flow.

Does the price change in Luxembourg?

The build rates are the same. What changes is the usual scope: French, German and Luxembourgish multilingual support is the norm rather than the exception, which shifts the budget towards content. We cover this on our page dedicated to WordPress website creation in Luxembourg.

If you are preparing a budget, the most useful exercise is not comparing prices but comparing scopes. Describe what the site has to do — not what it should look like — and the gaps between quotes become readable. We produce that scoping free of charge: tell us about your project, and we will tell you which tier it falls into and why.

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