How Much Does a Website Cost in 2025? A Complete Overview
Is your business website due for an update? Looking to launch a blog or an ecommerce website? Or do you have another website project in mind but are working with a limited budget?
Whatever your situation may be, if you're wondering: “how much does a website cost in 2025?” then you've come to the right place. This article provides a detailed breakdown of the complete cost picture for a website.
How much does a typical website cost?
A simple website (such as a business website for freelancers and small-to-medium businesses or a blog) costs on average €100-200 upfront and €2-20 for monthly maintenance. This applies when you build the website yourself.
If you're working with a professional web designer or agency, costs typically range between €1,500-5,000 upfront and €50-100 for monthly maintenance.
WordPress, a website builder, or a professional web designer?
You can create a website in countless different ways.
These are the three most obvious choices:
- Build it yourself with WordPress (we use Cloud86)
- Create it yourself with a website builder like Wix, Webador or SquareSpace
- Hiring a professional website designer
Personally, I prefer not to use a website builder (option 2) for the following reasons:
- You have less functionality and flexibility than with WordPress
- WordPress isn't significantly more difficult to use
- Your website is owned by a third party, meaning you have to follow their rules
- Relatively high costs compared to what you get
That being said, many people swear by website builders. For those who have no experience with website development and want a simple website, it can be a good option.
In practice, what you tend to see is that many people eventually switch from a website builder to WordPress because they run into certain limitations. On the other hand, WordPress users practically never switch to a website builder.
Are you absolutely certain your website will remain extremely simple forever? For example, if you need nothing more than an “online business card,” then you probably won't be bothered by these limitations and a website builder will be more than adequate.
Building a website yourself with WordPress is something anyone can do – you don't need any technical knowledge. Plus, with WordPress you can install ready-made, free website templates where you only need to customize the text.
Having a website professionally designed can be a wise choice if you can afford the thousands of euros it costs and want to focus as much as possible on your core business.
WordPress website costs
When creating a WordPress site yourself, the cost breakdown typically looks like this:
| Cost item | Costs |
| Domain Registration | €10 – €15 per year |
| Web Hosting | €2 – €500 per month |
| Website template or theme | One-time payment of €0 – €500 |
| Website logo | One-time fee: €0 – €500 |
| Website Images | €0 – €100 per month |
Don't worry: small WordPress sites (let's say up to a few thousand visitors per month) will always fall on the lower end of this cost spectrum. No need to make any major compromises.
Hosting for new websites doesn't need to cost more than a few dollars per month, there are plenty of excellent free WordPress themes, you can use a free logo maker for your logo, and the internet is full of beautiful, copyright-free images that you can add to your site.
Overview of the most common website costs
This is what the different cost components of a website look like.
Domain registration (€10-€15 per year)
You can register a domain name for between €10-€15 per year. The exact cost depends on which TLD (top level domain) you choose (.nl, .com, .org) and your provider.
Registering a domain through a domain registration service like Cloudflare typically costs €1-2 less per year than through a hosting provider. However, registering your domain name together with your hosting is significantly faster and easier.
Free domains are available through subdomains, but these are only suitable for hobby websites at best.
Some web hosting plans include a free domain name for one year.
Web hosting (€2-€500 per month)
The type of hosting you need and how much it costs depends entirely on the type of website you have. More features, better performance, and the ability to handle more visitors means you'll pay more. Here's what you can expect in practice:
- Small to medium-sized blog or SMB website: €2-€20 per month
- Large blog or SMB website: €20-€100 per month
- Small to medium-sized ecommerce website: €20-€100 per month
- Large ecommerce website: €100-€500 per month
For most sites (think small blogs and simple business websites that receive a few hundred or a few thousand visitors per month), cheap hosting is more than adequate.
With a provider like Cloud86, you'll pay just a few euros per month for your web hosting. In return, you get extremely fast hosting and excellent support (available on weekdays between 9 AM and 5 PM).
If you absolutely require 24/7 support, take a look at Hostinger. This provider runs on the Google Cloud Platform, giving you access to the best server resources.
Website theme or template (€0-€250)
Premium website themes can cost hundreds of euros (you typically pay either annually or as a one-time fee). However, as a WordPress user, you also have access to a number of fantastic free WordPress themes.
Take Kadence for example. This theme is lightweight, fast, and extremely versatile. It's easy to use and looks stunning. The best news: Kadence offers a free version that leaves most paid WordPress themes in the dust. Additionally, Kadence gives you access to a collection of ready-made website templates if you don't want to build your site from scratch.
Kadence also has a Pro version (which we use for WebsiteGecko) that you can purchase for around 100 euros per year.
With this paid version, you get:
- Premium support (very helpful if you're new to building websites)
- More theme functionality
- Access to Kadence Cloud (convenient if you're planning to create multiple websites)
However, for most websites, the free version of Kadence will be sufficient.
Website logo (€0-€500 one-time fee)
With FreeLogo Design, you can create a decent logo in just a few minutes. Enter your site's name, select the type of logo you're looking for, and then choose from a wide variety of automatically generated logos. You can customize the colors and make other adjustments yourself. While this won't give you a unique logo, it's a great way to save money when you're just starting out.
If you're looking for a unique, professional logo, I recommend 99Designs. Having a logo created there will cost you between €150 and €500, depending on the experience of the designer you work with.
Another option you might want to consider is Fiverr, which is typically more affordable than 99Designs.
Website images (€0-€100 per month)
Images play a crucial role in making a website attractive. If you're planning to start a blog, you'll likely need a constant supply of images. These would be used for featured images as well as for visuals within your content.
As long as you properly cite your sources, you can use websites like Freepik, Pexels and Unsplash for free. For around $10 per month, you can also get a premium subscription to these sites, giving you access to more images and eliminating the need to provide attribution.
You'll find the best stock photos at a service like Adobe Stock. If you use this option, your monthly costs for images will easily approach $100.
Other costs: content, apps and integrations, SEO and marketing
Above, I've mentioned the most obvious costs associated with a website. However, websites come in all shapes and sizes, and expenses can appear in many more forms.
- Content. Depending on the writer's expertise and experience, content can cost between 5 and 20 cents per word. Some websites spend thousands of euros each month on content.
- Apps and integrations. Many apps (called plugins in WordPress) for your site are free or have free versions, but you'll need to pay for some. For example, reservation software will typically cost money.
- SEO. For SEO-related expenses, you might consider certain software for conducting keyword research such as SEMrush. The cost of such software typically runs around €100 per month.
- Marketing. To attract visitors to your website, you can focus on SEO. However, if you want immediate traffic, you'll need to use something like Google Ads or paid social media campaigns. These can cost hundreds or thousands of euros per month.
Remember: not every website needs all of the above. For a simple “online business card” type of site, you won't need to incur these kinds of costs.
Example: cost breakdown for a small business or freelancer website
After reading all of this, you might be thinking: “this is all well and good, but how do I apply this to the site I actually need?”
I'll clarify this by giving the example of a simple business site. Let's say a site for a freelancer offering coaching services. The goal is to keep costs as low as possible. You might have slightly different needs for your own site, but this example can at least help you better estimate your costs.
We'll express the costs here in monthly terms, although keep in mind that for things like hosting and domain names, you typically pay a year in advance.
- Domain name: €1 per month (€12 per year)
- Web Hosting: €2.95 per month through Cloud86 (€39 per year)
- Business email: free (included with hosting)
- Website template or theme: free (Kadence theme for WordPress)
- Website logo: free (via a service like FreeLogo Design)
- Website images: free (thanks to sites like Freepik)
- Website maintenance: free (simply update your plugins and theme yourself. This takes at most 10 minutes per month)
- Security: free (via plugins)
- Website statistics: free (via Google Analytics)
- Email newsletter: free for up to 2,000 subscribers (via Mailchimp)
- Total: €3.95 per month
Paying less than 5 euros a month for a website might seem too good to be true. But that really is how little a simple website can cost.
Conclusion
Creating a website yourself doesn't have to be expensive. However, if you outsource this job, you can typically expect to pay thousands of euros.
If you create a website yourself, you can be done for less than €100 per year. Most of this amount will go toward your hosting and domain name.
Of course, the total cost (including expenses you'll incur after your site goes live) depends on the type of website you're creating, and whether you'll be investing in things like a unique logo, content, marketing, and SEO tools.
However, many websites simply don't need all of this.
Want to build a website yourself? Check out one of our guides where we show the entire process step by step:
