What does a website actually cost in 2026?
There is no single number, because a website's price is driven by scope, not a price list. A simple brochure site for a local business and a custom Shopify platform for a scaling brand are both "websites," but they are not the same project. This guide breaks down what actually moves the price, with realistic ranges for the Dutch market, so you can budget before your first call with an agency.
The short answer
In the Netherlands, a simple, professionally designed brochure website typically runs somewhere between €2,500 and €7,000. A custom-designed business website with more pages and functionality lands between €7,000 and €20,000. A Shopify webshop starts around €5,000 for a modified theme and runs well past €25,000 for a fully custom build with integrations. A complex web platform or web app is effectively open-ended, since it is closer to software development than website design.
Those ranges are a starting point for a conversation, not a quote. What actually determines where your project lands inside them is a short list of concrete factors.
What actually drives the price
Scope, not page count. Ten pages of static text cost far less to design and build than three pages with a custom configurator, a booking flow, or a multi-step checkout. Agencies that quote by page count are usually hiding the real driver of cost.
Platform choice. A template-based site, a modified Shopify theme, a fully custom front end, and a headless commerce build (Shopify Plus, Medusa) sit at very different price points, because they require very different amounts of custom engineering.
Content readiness. A project where the copy, product data, and photography already exist moves faster and costs less than one where the agency also has to source or write all of it. Content work is real work, and it shows up in the budget either way — better to know that going in.
Integrations. Payment providers, ERPs, CRMs, marketing automation, custom APIs — every system a site has to talk to adds development and testing time that a "simple website" quote does not include.
Design maturity. A project starting from an existing brand identity and design system moves faster than one that has to define visual direction from scratch. If branding and web design happen together, that work only gets done once.
Timeline. Compressing a normal 8–12 week project into three weeks does not reduce the work, it concentrates it — which usually means a higher rate, a larger team, or both.
Typical ranges in the Dutch market
These are general market indications for the Netherlands in 2026, not a DYSIGNS price list — think of them as the range a realistic quote should fall inside, so you can spot one that is unrealistically low or vague.
- Simple brochure site (5–10 pages, template-based or lightly customised): roughly €2,500–€7,000.
- Custom-designed business website (bespoke design, CMS, moderate functionality): roughly €7,000–€20,000.
- Shopify webshop (modified theme to fully custom build): roughly €5,000–€25,000+, depending on custom sections, apps, and Shopify Markets setup for multi-country selling.
- Web platform or web app (dashboards, portals, logged-in experiences): usually €20,000 and up, scoped like software rather than a website.
Anything quoted well below these ranges is usually a template with your logo dropped in, not a designed and built site. Anything quoted with no discovery conversation at all is a guess, not a scope.
Why we don't quote a fixed price up front
We don't work with a price list, because a standard price would give you the wrong picture of your own project — either scaring you off something simple or under-quoting something that actually needs real engineering. Instead, we start with a free, no-obligation conversation about what you're trying to achieve, then scope the work against that. It takes longer than sending a generic PDF price sheet, and it means the number you get back is actually about your project. If you want to skip straight to that conversation, get in touch or read more about how we approach web design and development and Shopify development.
Frequently asked questions
Is a cheaper website ever the right choice?
Sometimes, yes — if you genuinely need a simple, low-traffic site and a well-built template covers it, paying for a fully custom build is a waste of budget. The mistake is choosing cheap for a project that actually needs custom functionality, and then paying twice: once for the cheap version, and again to rebuild it properly a year later.
Does a more expensive website rank better on Google?
Not directly — price doesn't rank, technical quality does. But cheap, template-heavy sites more often skip the technical SEO fundamentals (page speed, clean markup, proper metadata, mobile performance) that do affect ranking, so there's a real correlation even without price being the cause.
Should I budget separately for ongoing work after launch?
Yes. A launch budget covers getting the site live; it doesn't cover content updates, conversion optimisation, or the marketing that actually drives traffic to it. Treat "get it live" and "make it perform" as two separate line items from the start.
How long does it take to get an accurate quote?
For most projects, one intro call plus a short scoping exchange is enough to return a real number, usually within a few business days — not weeks of back-and-forth proposals.