Send the same inquiry to five contractors and you'll get quotes ranging from €520 to €10,700. For the same thing. And contrary to appearances, usually nobody is ripping you off - each one is simply pricing a different scope, they just don't say it outright. In this article we break down a website quote into its component parts: what the price really consists of, what should be included from the start, and how to compare offers that look identical at first glance.
Price is a function of scope, not a price list
The question "how much does a website cost" is like asking "how much does a car cost". The honest answer is: it depends what it's supposed to do. A one-page business card site, a multi-page company website with a blog, and an online store with payments are three completely different projects - they differ in the number of subpages, logic, integrations, and the legal responsibility the contractor takes on.
That's why the first thing worth doing before collecting quotes is writing down the scope: which subpages, which features, who provides the content, what the site needs to connect to. Without that, every quote you receive is a quote for something different - and comparing them is comparing apples to bicycles.
What a quote consists of
In our quotes, the price always breaks down into several layers. We show them openly, because it's these layers - not "the agency's whim" - that determine the final amount.
The project base. That is, what must always be built for a given type of site: for a company website, a custom-designed homepage, offer and contact subpages with a form, a blog, a privacy policy and terms of service, search, a 404 page, an XML sitemap for Google. A store adds a product listing with filters, a product page with a gallery and variants, a cart, checkout, a "My account" panel with order history, and cross-selling mechanics.
Graphic design. This is where it's decided whether the site is built on a proven layout or designed from scratch for your brand - with mockups and a prototype for approval before the first line of code is written. The second approach costs more and takes longer, but gives you a site nobody else has.
Content. The most commonly underestimated part of any project. Service descriptions, "About us" copy, category descriptions, meta tags - someone has to write them. If you provide them yourself, you pay nothing. If we're to prepare them, we price it transparently, along with keyword research and an analysis of your industry competitors' content.
Integrations. Every connection to an external system - payments, carriers, warehouse software, BaseLinker, Allegro, price comparison sites - is separate work to build and test. For an online store, we configure two payment operators and two carriers as standard; importantly, one payment operator today means a whole package of methods at once: BLIK, cards, instant transfers, Apple Pay, and Google Pay under a single integration. Every additional operator or carrier beyond the standard is a surcharge known upfront, not a surprise on the invoice.
What should be included from the start
There's also a layer few people ask about in their request for quotes, and it's the one that can hurt the most: legal compliance and technical SEO. In our view, these are not "premium options" - they are the foundation that must be included in the price of every project. Specifically: a GDPR consent checkbox on every form, information clauses, a cookie banner with Google Consent Mode v2, and for stores the Omnibus Directive with automatic display of the lowest price from the last 30 days and full support for the 14-day right of withdrawal. Plus technical SEO: Schema.org structured data, meta tags, a sitemap, correct Core Web Vitals, and configured Google Analytics 4, Search Console, and Tag Manager.
If the offer you're comparing says nothing about these things - it doesn't mean they're included. Most often it means they'll show up later, as a surcharge or as a problem. We've described the full list of what's standard in every one of our projects in a separate article about our standard - it's worth treating as a checklist for the conversation with every contractor, not just us.
Why a cheap website can be the most expensive
We won't scare you with fines and disasters - let's do the math coolly. A €520 website without proper technical SEO, GDPR consents, and a sensible structure most often generates additional costs within a year: legal adjustments, a rebuild for search rankings, performance fixes on mobile. Each of these items alone can cost as much as the original site. As a result, after two years the total spend catches up with the offer that seemed "too expensive" at the start - except without the results a project done properly the first time would have delivered.
That's why, when comparing offers, it's worth asking not just "how much" but "what exactly is inside and what will cost extra". We've actually written a complete guide to vetting a web agency - from the portfolio to the technical questions worth asking before you sign a contract.
Calculate your quote in 2 minutes
So we don't leave you with theory alone: we've built a pricing calculator that walks you through the same questions we ask in the first conversation - site type, graphic design, content, integrations, payments, and shipping. At the end you get an indicative quote broken down into components. No email address required, no call from a salesperson, no obligations.
If you want to discuss the details after running the numbers - write to us. We reply within 24 hours, and we prepare full project documentation before the start of the collaboration, so you know exactly what you're paying for.
