How much a website costs, and why nobody quotes you over the phone
Real price ranges in Spain, what actually drives a project's cost, the recurring fees nobody mentions and how to compare two quotes properly.
It is the first question in almost every call: “how much would a website cost me?” And the honest answer — “it depends” — sounds like a dodge, even when it isn’t. Let’s turn that “it depends” into something useful: what exactly it depends on, what people actually pay in Spain, and how to tell whether a quote is genuinely expensive or genuinely cheap.
Why nobody quotes you over the phone
Because “a website” isn’t a product, it’s a commission. It’s like asking what a renovation costs: the answer changes depending on whether we’re painting the living room or knocking down a wall and moving the plumbing.
Two businesses asking for “a five-page site” can be asking for things that differ by a factor of five. One wants a presence and a visible phone number. The other wants bookings with payment, two languages and a connection to their management software. Same page count, different projects.
That said, anyone who won’t give you a ballpark isn’t helping you either. Not being able to close a price without knowing the brief is one thing; hiding the numbers until you’re sitting in a meeting is another. So here they are.
The real ranges in Spain
These figures are orders of magnitude for small businesses and sole traders, with professional development and custom design. They aren’t fixed rates: they’re there so you know which league you’re playing in.
| Type of project | Usual range |
|---|---|
| Single page (landing) | €600 – €1,200 |
| Corporate site, 5-10 pages | €1,500 – €3,500 |
| Site with functionality (bookings, appointments, multilingual, blog) | €3,000 – €6,000 |
| Online shop | €3,500 – €10,000 |
| Custom project with integrations | From €8,000 |
If you’ve been quoted well below those ranges, it doesn’t mean it’s a scam. It means something is being cut, and it’s worth knowing what: almost always a bought template, the copy left to you, or maintenance excluded.
What actually drives the price up
This is the heart of it, and it’s rarely what people assume. Page count matters least. Going from five to ten pages of the same kind adds hours, but doesn’t change the nature of the work.
What really moves the price is this:
Functionality
A contact form is an afternoon. A booking system with availability, email confirmation and cancellation handling is an entire project inside the project. Every feature that stores data, takes money or sends notifications multiplies the work — and above all multiplies what has to be tested before launch.
Content
If you supply the copy and the photos, the project moves. If someone has to write it, interview you, run a photo session and wait for you to approve each version, that adds weeks and it adds money. It isn’t an optional extra: it’s a real part of the cost that many quotes hide by assuming you’ll handle it.
Integrations
Connecting the site to your invoicing software, a card terminal, a CRM or the booking system you already use. Every connection to an external system comes with its own documentation, its own failures and its own maintenance.
Custom design or template
A bought template costs €60 and is adapted in days. A custom design is weeks of work. The difference shows, and either choice is legitimate: what isn’t legitimate is charging for custom design and delivering a template with the colours changed.
The deadline
If you need the site in three weeks because you’re opening premises, that reshuffles the schedule of whoever builds it. Urgency costs money, the same as in any trade.
The costs that don’t appear in the initial quote
This is the part that causes the most trouble, because it shows up after you’ve already paid.
| Item | Indicative cost | Optional? |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | €12 – €20 a year | No |
| Hosting | €60 – €300 a year | No |
| Maintenance | €40 – €150 a month | Strongly advised |
| Plugin or theme licences | €50 – €400 a year | Depends on the build |
| Professional email | €50 – €80 a year | Effectively no |
Always ask what year two costs. A €2,000 site with compulsory €150/month maintenance costs €3,800 in the first year and €1,800 every year after. Another at €3,000 with €50/month works out cheaper from year two onward. The entry price isn’t the price.
Warning signs
“Websites from €299.” That price doesn’t even cover the work of understanding your business. It’s usually a template, generic content and a monthly fee where the real business sits.
A monthly fee with no ownership. There are models where you pay €60 a month forever and the site is never yours: stop paying and it disappears. It might suit you, but you need to know before signing, not after.
Lock-in. A maintenance contract with 12 or 24 months of lock-in is a sign that the confidence is coming from the contract rather than from the work.
The domain registered to the agency. The domain is yours, always. If it’s registered in the name of whoever builds your site, you don’t own your own address.
Nothing in writing. Without a written scope there’s no way to know whether something was included or is an extra. And everything ends up being an extra.
We go into this in more depth in how to choose a digital agency.
What any serious quote should include
Ask for these points. If one is missing, raise it before signing:
- Which pages and which features are included, listed out.
- Who provides copy and photos, and what happens if they arrive late.
- How many rounds of changes are included and what the next one costs.
- Estimated timeline and what it depends on.
- Whose name the domain, hosting and accounts are in.
- What maintenance covers exactly, and what it doesn’t.
- What a typical change costs after delivery.
- How everything is exported if you leave one day.
How to compare two quotes that look nothing alike
When you’re holding one for €1,400 and another for €3,200, the temptation is to look only at the figure. Do this instead:
Add two full years to each. Development, maintenance, licences and hosting. That’s the number you’ll actually pay.
Mark what’s in one and not the other. Nine times out of ten the difference isn’t margin: it’s content, or functionality, or revision rounds.
Ask both the same questions and compare how they answer, not just what they answer. A clear, unpatronising reply is worth more than a small difference in price.
So what will it cost you?
It depends — but now you know on what: how much functionality you need, who supplies the content, how many systems have to talk to each other, and when you need it.
If you want a real figure for your case, the first step isn’t asking five places for a quote: it’s being clear about what you need. Five quotes for a vague brief are five numbers that can’t be compared.
That’s what we look at in Ryojin.TECH’s free, no-obligation audit: what you have today, what you genuinely need, what can wait and what range your project sits in. Conclusions in writing, whether you work with us afterwards or not.
Request your free audit and we’ll give you a figure you can actually decide with.