What does a good website cost for an SME?

Anyone who requests three quotes for a website often gets three amounts that are far apart. Usually the three quotes simply describe three different websites. If you understand which factors determine the price, you can compare quotes fairly and you also know what you are paying for.

In this article we deliberately do not mention any amounts. A price without context says little. We go through what drives the cost up, what brings it down and what comes on top after the launch.

The scope: how many pages and how many kinds of pages

The first factor is scope. A site with a home page, a services page, an about page and a contact page is a different project from a site with twenty services, five branches and a vacancies section.

More important than the number of pages is the number of page types. Ten service pages with the same structure need one design that is filled ten times. A home page, a project overview, a project detail page and a quote form are four separate designs. So with every quote, ask which page types are included.

Custom or template

A template is an existing design into which your own text and images go. It is ready sooner and costs less. The drawback: your site looks like other people's and you adapt your content to the form.

Custom work starts from your business. The design follows your services, your customers and your brand identity. That takes more time in the design phase, delivers a site that does exactly what you need and is often lighter and faster afterwards because it contains no superfluous code.

Speed is not a detail. For the loading time of the largest visible element, Google applies a threshold of 2.5 seconds or less, measured at 75 percent of page visits. A heavy site struggles to meet that threshold.

In addition, a number of features always add work:

• a form that sends enquiries to your mailbox or CRM
• an online shop with payments, shipping and stock
• an appointment system or booking module
• several languages, which in Belgium quickly means Dutch, French and sometimes English
• integrations with your accounting package, planning or customer database
• a blog or news section that you manage yourself

Multilingual sites are often underestimated. Every language requires translated copy, translated metadata and a structure that search engines understand per language.

Content: who writes the copy and who supplies the images

A website without good copy is an empty shop window. If you supply the copy yourself, the price goes down. If you have it written, it goes up. The same applies to photos: your own professional images of your team and your work are stronger than stock photos and require a separate photo shoot.

Also allow time for yourself. An agency can only build once it knows what you offer, for whom and on what terms. The better you put that on paper beforehand, the more smoothly the project runs.

Legal requirements that count

Two legal frameworks belong in every quote. The first is privacy legislation. According to the checklist of the Data Protection Authority, a cookie banner must have a button to refuse on the same layer as the button to accept. Cookies that are not strictly necessary may only be placed after consent.

The second is accessibility. The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025. According to the FPS Economy, websites and apps among others must be perceivable, understandable and usable for people with a disability. The Economic Inspectorate specifically checks e-commerce sites. Micro-enterprises with fewer than 10 employees and a turnover or balance sheet total below 2 million euros get five extra years. If you sell online to consumers, ask explicitly whether the quote takes this into account.

Hosting and maintenance after the launch

A website is not finished after the launch. Ongoing costs are added:

• Domain name: the annual registration of your address, through a registrar.
• Hosting: the server your site runs on. Fast, reliable hosting with backups and a security certificate is the basis.
• Maintenance: updates of software and plug-ins, security, following up on errors.
• Changes: new services, new photos, an extra page.

With every quote, ask which of these items are included, for how long and at what rate afterwards. A low build price with an expensive maintenance contract can cost more over three years than a higher build price with simple maintenance. Also ask who owns the domain name and the source code. That should be you.

Why a fixed price upfront

Working by the hour sounds flexible. In practice you only know at the end what you are paying. A fixed price upfront forces both parties to define the assignment sharply: which pages, which features, how many feedback rounds, which delivery date.

That has three advantages. You can plan your budget. You can compare quotes on the same basis. And discussions about extra work become easier, because it is clear what is included. We work from Ghent for SMEs across Flanders and always agree a fixed price upfront based on a written description.

What you can do now

1. Write down what your website needs to deliver: enquiries, sales, job applications or trust among existing customers.
2. Make a list of the page types and features you need and hold it up against every quote.
3. With every quote, ask explicitly about hosting, maintenance, ownership of the domain name and the legal requirements.

You can read more about how we build websites on our websites service page. Would you also like to know whether your business shows up in the answers of ChatGPT and Google? Then take a look at our sister agency hetgeobureau.be.