Custom-Coded Website Cost: What You'll Pay in Europe (2026)

A custom-coded website typically costs €4,500-22,000 excluding VAT when an experienced freelance developer in Western Europe builds it, and a very simple site can come in around €3,000. As with most development work, the price is hours times rate. The hours depend mostly on how many different page types you need, how much of the design starts from a blank canvas, and whether the site has to connect to other systems.

I build custom websites myself, so weigh my view accordingly. That's also why this guide covers when WordPress or a site builder is the smarter buy.

The short answer: three price tiers

The table shows my rough estimate of hours for three typical sizes. I've priced them at €75-120 an hour, the range Lancebase gives for freelance full-stack developers in Western Europe, and rounded the totals.

Rates vary a lot across Europe, and Nordic seniors sit near the top. LønRadar puts senior freelance IT consultants in Denmark at DKK 800-1,200 an hour, roughly €105-160 since the krone is pegged to the euro. At those rates, the mid-tier business site lands closer to €6,300-19,200. Agencies usually charge more again, because their rate also covers sales and project management.

My rule of thumb: count the page types you need, not the pages. Fewer than five page types and copy that's ready to go puts you in the first row. Several languages, old content to migrate or data pulled from your own systems puts you in the third. Once users need to log in, you're no longer buying a website but a web app, and the numbers in my web app development cost guide apply instead.

To see how websites compare with other project types, I've put everything side by side in my software development cost guide. And if you want to know what sits behind a freelancer's rate, read my breakdown of freelance developer rates in Denmark and Europe.

What you're paying for in a custom-coded site

"Custom-coded" doesn't mean every line is written from scratch. The site is built on a framework (a foundation of proven, ready-made code) such as Next.js, and the content usually lives in a headless CMS, a content system that manages text and images but not the layout. What you pay for is everything that makes the site yours: the design, the page types, the components and the editing setup.

Here's how the hours typically break down on a mid-tier business site:

That adds up to about 80-120 hours. If a designer has already delivered the design, say in Figma, the design hours drop out or shrink to a review. Turning a design into code still takes time, but you're not paying for the same work twice.

The CMS is easy to underestimate. The more freedom your editors need to build new pages, the more blocks have to be coded, combined and tested. A site where people only edit text and images on fixed pages costs far less than one where marketing assembles its own landing pages.

What pushes the price up or down

When two quotes for the same website are far apart, the gap usually comes down to the same handful of factors.

Page types matter most. A site with 50 product pages built on one template costs almost the same as a site with five. It's the fifth unique layout that costs money, not the fiftieth page of the same kind.

Languages are the factor European buyers underestimate most. A site in English, German and Danish isn't three times the work, but every page type has to handle translated content, a language switcher and separate URLs, and someone has to own the translations. If you also want hosting, forms and analytics kept inside the EU for GDPR reasons, say so up front. It's far cheaper to plan for than to retrofit.

Content is what most often causes delays. The code can be finished long before the copy is. Migrating an old site means dealing with messy formatting, outdated images and broken links on every page, so prune first: many old pages get no visitors and can be dropped or merged.

What the site costs after launch

The build is the big bill, but not the last one. Three costs come back every year.

Hosting comes first. A custom site can often be pre-built and served as ready-made pages, so it needs little server power. Vercel, the company behind Next.js, has a free plan, but Vercel's pricing page limits it to personal, non-commercial use. A business site needs a paid plan, starting at $20 a month. There are other providers, including European ones, and for a typical business site hosting is rarely a big line item.

Next is the CMS. Many headless CMSs have a free tier for small sites. Sanity, for example, has a free plan with limited user roles, while its Growth plan costs $15 per seat per month according to Sanity's pricing page. In practice, the cost grows with the number of editors.

Then there's maintenance. The framework and packages need updates, security fixes have to go in, and small change requests always turn up. A custom site has fewer moving parts than a WordPress site with lots of plugins, but it isn't maintenance-free.

As a rough guide, set aside 5-15% of the build cost per year for hosting, the CMS, updates and small fixes. A pre-built site with few integrations sits at the low end, a multilingual site with integrations at the high end. I break these costs down further in my guide to web app maintenance cost, and most of it applies to websites too.

Is custom code cheaper over three years?

Rarely, if price is all you look at. Here's a worked example with round numbers for a business site of 10-15 pages. The figures are my own assumptions, not market prices, so use them to follow the logic rather than as a budget.

The gap shrinks from €8,000 to €6,350 over three years, but it doesn't close. So a custom site has to pay for itself through something other than lower running costs.

That might be more leads because the site is fast on mobile, or hours saved because leads land straight in your CRM instead of an inbox. It might be a design that sets you apart from competitors using the same theme, or fewer emergencies, like a plugin update that breaks the site. If the site brings in a handful of extra clients a year, the difference is usually covered. If it does none of those things, WordPress is the sensible choice.

When custom code is worth it, and when it isn't

Price alone rarely settles it. What matters is what your site needs to do over the next few years.

Custom code pays off when

• Speed matters to your business, for example because most visits come from mobile or from ads you pay for.
• The site has to work with your own systems: prices, stock levels or case studies from a database, or leads that should go straight into your CRM.
• Your design is part of your brand, and you don't want to compromise to fit a theme.
• Nobody on your team wants to look after plugins. Every plugin is third-party code you depend on for security fixes, and a custom site has far fewer of them.
• The site may grow into a platform with logins or a client area later. Building on a framework from day one makes that step easier than starting over.

Skip custom code when

• Your budget is under about €3,500. A ready-made WordPress theme or a site builder like Squarespace or Webflow gets you further.
• Your marketing team needs to build landing pages with completely free layouts every week without involving a developer.
• You're selling products online. A standard platform like Shopify is almost always cheaper and better than a custom-coded shop.
• You need a feature that a mature WordPress plugin already covers, such as a course module, and it doesn't need customizing.

If the second list sounds like you, the honest advice is a good WordPress developer or a site builder, not me. For a full side-by-side on speed, security and editing, see my comparison of WordPress vs a custom website.

Next steps: how to get a quote you can rely on

An accurate quote needs an accurate brief. Here's how to get there:

1. List your page types: homepage, service page, case study, blog post, contact. How many pages of each type matters less.
2. Decide who edits the site, and how freely. Do they only change text and images, or build new pages from blocks?
3. Gather the content, or agree who will write it. If old content needs migrating, count the pages.
4. Write down which systems the site must connect to: CRM, newsletter, booking or your own data.
5. Ask for a quote that splits the hours by phase, so you can see where the money goes. My guide on how to compare software development quotes shows what to look for.

A website with a clear scope is well suited to a fixed price. On larger projects I start with a fixed-price discovery phase, and you own the code from day one. You can see what's included, and how I work, on my page about custom websites for businesses.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a custom-coded website for a fixed price?+

Yes, and websites are one of the best fits for fixed pricing. The condition is that page types, design and content are agreed before work starts, so both sides know exactly what the price covers. Also agree how changes are handled along the way, for example that new page types are priced separately. Vague requests are what most often cause disputes over a fixed price.

Will I be able to edit the content myself?+

Yes, as long as the site is set up with a CMS, which a business site almost always should be. You can edit text, swap images, publish blog posts and create new pages within the page types and blocks that have been built. A completely new layout, on the other hand, needs a developer, so agree up front how much freedom your editors need.

Do I own the code and design once I've paid?+

You should, but it has to be in the contract. Some suppliers keep the rights or host the site in a way that makes it hard to move. Insist that the code lives in your own repository and that the domain, hosting and CMS accounts are in your name. With me, you own the code from day one. Whoever you choose, ask before you sign.

Do I pay VAT when I hire a developer in another EU country?+

Usually not on the invoice, if you're a VAT-registered business. For business-to-business services across EU borders, the reverse-charge procedure normally applies: the supplier invoices without VAT, and you account for it at your own country's rate. Make sure your VAT number is on the invoice. Rules differ if you're not VAT-registered, so check with your accountant.