What does a website cost?
Ask three people to quote you a website and the numbers you get back will probably differ tenfold. It is not that two of the three are trying to fleece you — it is that “a website” is as broad a term as “a car”. Here is what you are actually paying for.
The short answer
A brochure site for a sole trader or a small company sits roughly in these bands in 2026:
| Route | Price | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Site builder (Wix, Webnode, Squarespace) | CZK 0 – 500/month | Anyone building it themselves who is fine with a template |
| WordPress template from a freelancer | CZK 5,000 – 15,000 | Anyone who wants it fast and cheap |
| Custom build from a freelancer | CZK 10,000 – 40,000 | Anyone who wants their own look and a fast site |
| Agency | CZK 40,000 – 150,000 | Companies that need a team and processes |
| E-shop | CZK 30,000 and up | Anyone selling online |
The spread is enormous because every row buys you something different. It is not true that more expensive is always better — but neither is it true that cheaper is always the better deal.
What actually makes up the price
Scope
One page with sections stacked under each other is a different job from six separate subpages. Every extra page means design, copy, linking and testing. That is why price lists are usually split along exactly this line.
Who produces the content
This is the biggest hidden item. If you hand over finished copy and photos, the work is purely technical. If someone has to write the copy and pick the photos, add a third to the price without blinking. Be honest about it when you ask for a quote — a quote that ignores it will get more expensive later anyway.
Template or custom design
A template bought for a thousand crowns saves days of work. The price you pay is that a few thousand other people have the same site, it tends to be slow (it carries code for features you will never use), and bending it to your idea is often more expensive than building from scratch.
Extra features
A booking system, a payment gateway, an accounting integration, multiple languages, a client area — each of these is a project in its own right. When you see them in a quote for a few thousand, ask exactly what they include.
The costs that only show up later
The build price is not the total cost of owning a website. Budget for these as well:
- Domain — CZK 200 to 400 a year for a
.cz. You pay it forever, every year. - Hosting — CZK 0 to 2,000 a year depending on the type. A static site can be hosted for free; WordPress needs more.
- SSL certificate — free these days (Let's Encrypt). If someone is billing you for it, ask why.
- Updates — mandatory on WordPress, otherwise the site turns into a security hole. Either you handle them yourself or you pay CZK 300 – 1,500 a month for them.
- Content edits — a price change, a new photo, new copy. Either you can do it yourself, or it is billed by the hour.
A static site with no content management system has almost none of these running costs — there is nothing to update and no way in. That is one of the reasons I build brochure sites this way.
Five things to look for in a quote
1. A “free website” with a monthly fee
The model where you pay nothing up front but CZK 500 – 1,500 every month, forever. After three years you are at fifty thousand and the site still is not yours. Do the five-year maths before you sign.
2. Who will own the domain
The domain must be registered to you, not to your supplier. Otherwise, when you part ways, you can lose the address or have to buy it back. It is the single most common trap in the client–supplier relationship, and heading it off costs nothing.
3. Prices “starting from”
An asterisk next to a price means the real figure only appears later. Ask for a fixed price for a defined scope, or at least a written estimate with a ceiling that will not be crossed.
4. What is included and what is not
A form, a photo gallery, a cookie banner, a privacy page, deployment, search engine registration — all of it is either included or charged extra. Have it written out. The difference between two quotes is often not the price but exactly this.
5. Speed and mobile
More than half of all visits come from phones, and Google ranks sites partly on load speed. Ask for links to sites the supplier has built and run them through PageSpeed Insights. It takes a minute and tells you more than an entire portfolio.
What it costs with me
I have two starting prices: a one-page website from CZK 6,999 and a multi-page website from CZK 9,999. Both include custom design, responsive layout, SEO groundwork, a form, a gallery, analytics, GDPR, deployment and hosting. You only pay extra for add-ons that turn a website into a system — an admin interface, a booking system or a payment gateway; I quote those up front, based on the scope, never on the invoice. I am not VAT registered, so the price you see is the price you pay.
I know that is well below the market. The reason is simple: I build websites alongside my main job on enterprise systems, I carry no agency overhead, and I do not need this to feed me.