web design pricing Archives - Medusa Creative Studio

Everyone who has ever asked for a website quote knows how the conversation goes. You ask “how much does it cost,” and you get “it depends, let’s schedule a call.” An hour later you still don’t have a number, but you have the feeling it will be expensive and that nobody will tell you how much until you prove you’re ready to pay.

I understand why agencies do it. An €800 website and a €15,000 website are not the same product, and nobody wants to sound expensive before explaining what they actually deliver. But the result is that clients enter the process blind – they don’t know whether €2,500 is too much or too little, whether 6 weeks is a realistic timeline, and what exactly they’re getting for the money.

This guide is an attempt to break that open. Below you’ll find concrete pricing for three realistic website packages, six factors that actually move the price, a comparison of freelancers versus agencies versus DIY solutions, hidden costs nobody mentions in the first conversation, and a clear protocol for getting an accurate quote instead of a “call to discuss.”

What Affects Website Pricing

Before you see numbers, here are six things that actually determine the quote. Each one can double the price or cut it in half.

Project scope. A 5-7 page presentation site is a completely different project from a 40-page site with a filtered catalogue and a blog. Page count isn’t the only measure – a page with simple text and a page with an interactive configurator are two different worlds for a developer.

Custom design vs. template. A premium WordPress theme adapted to your brand colours and fonts costs 3 to 5 times less than a custom design created from scratch by a UX designer. A template is a legitimate choice for 70% of small businesses. Custom makes sense when the brand must visually stand out – portfolio studios, agencies, luxury products.

CMS and technology. WordPress with Gutenberg is the most affordable path for most business sites. Headless Next.js with WordPress as a back-end, or Shopify with a custom theme, push the price 40 to 80% higher – but deliver performance and flexibility that standard WordPress doesn’t provide out of the box.

Integrations. A contact form is essentially free. CRM integration (HubSpot, Pipedrive), booking systems, payment gateways, ERP synchronisation for inventory – each of these adds €300 to €2,000 in development, plus ongoing maintenance complexity.

Content. If you supply text and photos, the agency only implements. If the agency writes copy, handles SEO per page, and produces or processes photography – that’s an additional €800 to €3,000 depending on scope. This is the most common hidden cost, because clients think they’ll get around to writing it themselves.

Hosting and maintenance. A one-time build is one cost. A website after launch needs WordPress updates, plugin updates, backup, monitoring, and security checks. That’s €40 to €150 per month depending on complexity. Anyone who doesn’t budget for this will pay double when something breaks in month eight.

Three Realistic Packages with Price Ranges

The prices below are realistic for the European market in 2026, based on what serious agencies charge – not hobbyist freelancers or boutique digital studios billing at New York rates.

A range exists because every project has its own variables, not because the agency is uncertain. For a detailed breakdown of our packages, see our web design pricing page.

Starter – €1,500 to €3,000

For: Small businesses, consultants, tradespeople, local service providers, new startups that need a professional online presence without e-commerce. Companies with 1 to 10 people who don’t have a marketing team.

What’s included: 5 to 8 static pages (Home, About, Services, Portfolio, Contact, plus 2 to 3 additional), WordPress with a premium theme adapted to brand identity, responsive design, contact form, Google Maps, Google Analytics / GSC setup, basic on-page SEO (meta tags, heading structure, alt text), SSL certificate, basic backup.

Timeline: 4 to 6 weeks, 1 to 2 rounds of revisions included.

When it’s not enough: If you’re planning online sales, a multilingual version, bookings, CRM integration, or if your brand needs to be at world-class studio level visually – Starter won’t deliver.

Business – €3,500 to €7,000

For: Companies with 10 to 50 employees, B2B services, professional practices, medium-sized shops, agencies selling their own services. Businesses that seriously count the website as a sales channel, not just a business card.

What’s included: 10 to 20 pages with distinct layouts per section, custom design or deeply customised premium theme, WordPress with Gutenberg blocks for easy future editing, blog module (categories, tags, pagination, related posts), advanced SEO (schema markup, XML sitemap, speed optimisation), one CRM or booking integration, up to 3 languages if multilingual is needed, 30 days of post-launch support.

Timeline: 6 to 10 weeks, 2 to 3 revision rounds.

When it’s not enough: If you need full e-commerce with over 200 products, industry-specific requirements, or your brand experience must be at Awwwards level with advanced animations.

Enterprise – from €8,000

For: Larger companies, e-commerce brands with 100+ products, SaaS companies, media outlets, projects where the website directly generates revenue and where the cost of the site is smaller than the cost of one month of failed business.

What’s included: Custom design from scratch with full design system documentation, headless architecture (WordPress + Next.js) or completely custom stack, advanced animations (GSAP, ScrollTrigger), e-commerce with local payment gateways if needed, complex integrations (ERP, CRM, marketing automation), multilingual with geo-detection and proper hreflang implementation, full performance tuning (Core Web Vitals, lazy loading, CDN), accessibility audit.

Timeline: 3 to 6 months.

Freelancer vs. Agency vs. DIY

Three paths – three prices, three risks, three outcomes. None is wrong, but each has hidden costs people don’t calculate until they’re already in them.

DIY (Wix/Squarespace) makes sense if you’re a solo consultant with a budget under €1,000 for the full year and if you’re not sensitive to how the site looks. The platform can change its rules, pricing, or shut down a feature – and your site goes with it.

A freelancer is an excellent option if you find an experienced one (check a portfolio of at least 5 completed live projects, not 5 mockups) and if you understand that when they go on holiday, your site goes with them. Response times and support continuity depend entirely on one person.

An agency is the only path if the website directly affects revenue and you need someone to answer when something breaks at 3am. You pay more for team redundancy, documented processes, and contractual accountability.

Hidden Costs Nobody Mentions

These are the items that don’t appear in the headline quote but will appear on invoices 6 to 18 months after launch.

Hosting and domain: €20 to €150/month for managed WordPress hosting, €15 to €50/year for domain renewal. Always paid directly to the provider – not to the agency.

Plugin licenses: Many professional plugins (SEO, forms, caching, security, e-commerce extensions) have annual renewal fees. Budget €0 to €300/year depending on the stack used.

Content updates: If you don’t manage content yourself, every text change, new page, or product addition costs time. Either build a CMS that lets your team work independently, or budget for a maintenance retainer.

Photography and video: If your site uses placeholder stock images at launch, replacing them with real business photography typically costs €300 to €1,500 for a half-day shoot.

Ongoing maintenance: WordPress core updates, plugin updates, security patches, and backup monitoring are not automatic. A monthly maintenance retainer (€80 to €400/month) keeps the site healthy and someone accountable when it’s not.

How to Get an Accurate Quote

Follow these four steps and you’ll get a useful quote in 48 hours instead of scheduling three discovery calls.

1. Write a one-paragraph brief. Type of site, number of pages you can name, what the site needs to do (sell, inform, generate leads), and any integrations you know you need (booking, payment, CRM).

2. Name a budget range. “I’m thinking €3,000 to €5,000” is more useful than “what does it cost?” It tells the agency which package to scope and prevents a mismatch between their proposal and your expectation.

3. Ask for a fixed price, not an estimate. A fixed-price quote forces the agency to define scope. A time-and-materials estimate can expand indefinitely. If they won’t give a fixed price for a defined scope, ask why.

4. Check who specifically will build it. Ask directly: is this built by a senior developer, a junior, or outsourced? The answer tells you more about risk than any portfolio does.

Send us a one-paragraph description of your project and we respond within 48 hours with a written scope and a fixed price. No “let’s schedule a call” as a first response.