How much does a business website cost? Compare quotes fairly
Neaptide · September 7, 2026 · 7 min read
Compare three website quotes on the same scope. See what the headline price leaves out, how to budget for running costs and what to ask before hiring an agency.
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Three agencies quote €6,000, €8,500 and €10,500 for your website. The first looks like the easy choice—until you discover that you must supply the copy and arrange the CRM integration. The second leaves out analytics and editor training. The third includes all four. Before comparing prices, make the scope comparable.
A website budget includes development, content, connected services and ongoing operation. “Turnkey website” has no universal price or list of deliverables. Even the same page count can hide very different amounts of work. Send each agency the same brief and ask them to separate included work, exclusions and recurring charges.
Define the job before requesting a price
Describe the outcome your business needs. For example: a visitor chooses a service and submits an enquiry; the sales team receives it in the CRM with its source; an employee can update the service description without a developer. This gives an agency something specific to estimate.
- Pages and templates. Ten pages using one layout are a different job from ten unique designs. List the pages and reusable sections.
- Content. Who writes the copy, supplies photography, migrates existing material and approves translations? Specify quantities, languages and owners.
- Features. For an enquiry form, define the fields, validation, destination and failure behaviour. “CRM integration” alone is not a useful specification.
- Editing and handover. List what staff must be able to change and which accounts, source files and instructions you expect to receive.
- Launch. Clarify domain work, redirects from old URLs, analytics, scenario testing and correction of defects found during acceptance.
Three quotes, one scope: a worked comparison
This is a hypothetical example, not Neaptide pricing or a market average. All amounts are in euros, excluding tax and recurring costs. The agreed scope is a small, single-language business website: specified pages, design and mobile layout, CMS, copy, a form connected to the CRM, analytics, editor training and launch. We assume the same amount of work in each quote; quality still needs a separate assessment.
| Quote | Initial price | Missing work to add | Comparable total |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | €6,000 | Copy €1,500 + CRM €3,000 | €10,500 |
| B | €8,500 | Analytics and training €1,200 | €9,700 |
| C | €10,500 | All agreed work included | €10,500 |
Once the scope matches, A costs as much as C. B is €800 cheaper than either. That does not make B the winner: compare quality, delivery dates, integration responsibilities and support. It does make the financial comparison meaningful.
Do not enter an unknown extra as zero. Ask for an estimate or a range with clear conditions for refining it. If your team supplies the copy, record their time separately. It is a demand on staff even if it creates no new supplier invoice.
Budget for the months after launch
Separate the one-off launch cost from the next 12 months of operation. Running costs may include the domain, hosting or a platform subscription, paid apps, email, maintenance and content updates. For each item, record the billing period, currency, limits and payer. Do not simply multiply every price by 12: some charges are annual or usage-based.
Shopify, for example, distinguishes app subscriptions, usage charges and one-time purchases. Some apps bill outside Shopify. A single line for “platform subscription” therefore does not tell you the full cost of operating a store.
Agree how the finished website will be checked
- “The form works”: submit a test enquiry and find it in the CRM; test a failure and retry. Agree who handles integration problems.
- “Easy CMS”: have a member of your team try changing a service description, an image and the page title and description used in search results. Check whether instructions and training are included.
- “Fast website”: agree on the pages, devices and test conditions. One impressive score does not describe the whole user experience.
- “SEO included”: request deliverables such as editable metadata, a sitemap, indexing controls and redirects where old URLs change.
web.dev distinguishes lab tests from real-user data. Lab tests help before launch; field data shows what happens under real conditions. A strong Lighthouse score is one useful test result, not a promise of identical performance for every visitor.
Technical search preparation is not a ranking guarantee. Google explicitly warns that nobody can guarantee a number-one ranking. A quote should describe work and acceptance criteria, not promise a top position without qualifications.
Fixed price or time and materials?
A fixed price is easier to compare when you have agreed the work, the number of revision rounds and how the finished site will be checked. If an integration needs investigation first, commission a separate discovery stage with a clear deliverable. For hourly work, ask for rates, time records, a budget for each stage and a way to approve extra spending. Either way, agree which changes count as additional work.
If the budget is too high, reduce the first release: a second language or customer portal might wait if it is not essential to the main journey. Record what is deferred and ask about the cost of adding it later. Do not quietly remove a necessary step in handling enquiries just to lower the headline figure.
Neaptide’s published starting prices
As of 7 September 2026, Neaptide’s service page lists landing pages from US$2,900, corporate websites from US$8,200 and web applications from US$14,000. These are starting points for different project types, not a quote for the hypothetical site above. Confirm the deliverables, tax treatment and final price in a proposal for your project.
For a useful estimate, share the page list, available content, required integrations and target launch date. State what your own team will supply. This reduces assumptions that might otherwise become extra charges.
A worksheet for comparing quotes
Download the Markdown worksheet and copy it into your working document. Complete one column per quote, leaving unclear items as “not confirmed”. Ask each agency the same questions, then update the totals.