A business website can cost a few dozen euros a year or several thousand euros. The gap has less to do with technology than with what you are buying: time, an outside eye, a design, follow-up over time.
Here are real budgets for each way of doing it, then the expenses that continue once the site is live, and that quotes often forget.
With an agency: €2,000 to €8,000 for half of all projects
La Fabrique du Net, a directory of web agencies, publishes a survey drawn from the budgets of projects actually entrusted to agencies. In its July 2026 edition, building a business website has a median of €3,500 across 380 projects, and half of them cost between €2,000 and €8,000.
A few benchmarks from the same survey, all types of sites combined:
- a very small business spends €4,000 at the median;
- tourism, hospitality and restaurants make up the cheapest of the main sectors, at €4,000;
- a project led from the Paris region costs €7,500 at the median, against €5,000 in the rest of France;
- 80% of sites are delivered in three months or less.
What drives the bill up is mostly features. A redesign costs about 40% more than a new build (€7,000 against €5,000 at the median), and projects that call for a version in several languages have a median of €10,000.
An agency brings several trades together: a project manager, a designer, a developer, sometimes a copywriter. You pay for that team, and for not carrying everything alone.
With a freelancer: a quote, and two checks
A freelance developer or designer runs the project from start to finish. Their prices are given as a flat fee or by the day, and vary a lot. La Fabrique du Net publishes no median for freelancers: its survey covers agencies only. So be wary of price lists that circulate without a source.
Before signing, check two points the same survey highlights: who will handle upkeep if your provider is no longer available, and who owns the accesses (domain name, hosting, admin account). For the domain name, the answer must be: you. Afnic, which runs .fr, points out that a person named merely as administrative contact has no rights over the name.
Doing it yourself: little money, a lot of time
Building your site yourself mostly costs the domain name and hosting, or a subscription to a site builder. At the prices listed below, count from a few dozen to a little over a hundred euros before tax per year for the domain and basic hosting.
The real expense is your time. You write the copy, choose or take the photos, draft the legal notices, test the page on a phone, and keep it up to date. For a baker who starts at four in the morning or a home nurse between two rounds, that time is counted in evenings. It is a good choice if you enjoy it, and if you keep an hour a month to look after it.
The costs that add up, whatever the option
| Item | Price range | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| .fr domain name | €7.79 excl. tax per year on renewal at a large French registrar | Afnic bills registrars €5.07 excl. tax per year per name in 2026 |
| Shared hosting | €2.59 to €9.99 excl. tax per month on renewal | The first year is often cheaper |
| HTTPS certificate | free from Let’s Encrypt | Issued and renewed automatically |
| Photos | on a photographer’s quote | Usage rights are written into the contract |
| Copy | your time, or a quote | Also plan for updating it |
| Upkeep | your time, or a contract on quote | Updates, backups, fixes |
The domain and hosting prices come from La Fabrique du Net’s October 2026 price check. Its advice fits in one sentence: compare renewal prices, which last, rather than first-year introductory prices. A .fr advertised at €4.99 excl. tax the first year goes up to €7.79 excl. tax the following year.
Photos deserve a budget. Web users ignore generic stock photos of people, and stop on those of the business’s real people (Nielsen Norman Group). Whether you buy them from a photographer or a stock library, check that you have the right to publish them: the French administration points out that a business must hold the rights to the photos, texts and videos on its site.
Upkeep is part of the price. Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr advises applying updates without delay, making backups and renewing the domain name on time. If a provider takes care of it, have that follow-up priced from the start.
What a good quote spells out
To compare two proposals, ask them to answer the same questions:
- Will the domain name be registered in your name?
- What is included: number of sections or pages, copywriting, photos, mobile version, legal notices?
- Is hosting included, for how long, and at what price afterwards?
- How many rounds of revisions are planned?
- Who applies the updates, and at what rate?
- Will the accesses be handed over to you at the end of the contract?
- Who owns the copy and the photos?
- What is the delivery time?
If an answer is missing, ask for it in writing before signing.
And with the 29webs studio
The studio composes animated one-page sites, with a video background filmed from the scene you describe. You pay as you go, in credits, with no subscription: a whole site, with its copy, a looping background and four images, comes to $31 to $70, from the plainest render to the most spectacular. The price shows before each action, and a shoot that fails is refunded. The site goes live with one button, at an address.
In short: count €2,000 to €8,000 with an agency for most business websites, a quote with a freelancer, and above all your time if you do it yourself. Add the domain, hosting, photos and upkeep, and always have the domain registered in your name.
Sources
- La Fabrique du Net, Website prices 2026: real rates and monthly cost (July 2026 survey, October 2026 price check)
- Afnic, Billing scale for .fr domain names (2026)
- Afnic, Practical guide for the holder of a .fr domain name (2024)
- Let’s Encrypt, About
- Nielsen Norman Group, Photos as Web Content (2010, revised in 2026)
- Entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr, Mandatory notices on a company website (2026)
- Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr, How to secure your website? (2026)