These are market benchmarks from French sources, not price lists. Business prices in France are quoted before VAT (20% at the standard rate); if you're elsewhere in Europe, use them as a reference point and compare local quotes.
Price ranges by type of website
The type of site is the biggest price driver. France Num (in French), the French public portal for small-business digital transformation, publishes this grid based on estimates from two industry experts:
| Type of site | Indicative range (excl. VAT) | What you usually get |
|---|---|---|
| One-page site | €500 to €2,000 | A single page with your details and a contact form or call button |
| Brochure website | €900 to €5,000 | Several pages (services, work, contact), a tailored design, SEO basics |
| Online store | €3,000 to €10,000+ | Catalogue, online payment, order and delivery management |
| Platform or web app | €5,000 to €10,000, more if custom | Customer accounts, bookings, internal tools, SaaS |
Advertised prices vs real budgets
Other credible sources seem to disagree. A French survey of website pricing, the Observatoire de l'achat de sites internet relayed by France Num, analysed prices advertised by 255 agencies and freelancers: a fixed-price brochure site has a median of €1,200, with half of providers between €690 and €1,800. For a fixed-price online store, the median is €2,700.
Meanwhile, La Fabrique du Net (in French), a platform that matches businesses with agencies, reports a median budget of €3,500 for a brochure site and around €5,000 across all website projects (based on 3,137 budgets, October 2026).
Both are right. The first are entry prices: a basic package, often on a template, without copywriting or photos. The second reflect complete projects, once content, features and SEO are added. When you see “websites from €690”, the only question that matters is what's included.
Estimate your project in two minutes
Score one point for each item that applies to your project:
- more than eight pages;
- a fully custom design rather than a template;
- copywriting done by your provider;
- professional photos or video;
- more than one language;
- in-depth SEO work (keywords, local pages).
| Your situation | Category | Price benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| 0 or 1 point | Simple site | Market packages, around €1,200 median; a builder may be enough |
| 2 to 4 points | Complete brochure site | Around the €3,500 project median, within the €900–5,000 range |
| 5 or 6 points | Highly crafted brochure site | Top of the range, sometimes above €5,000 |
| Online sales, bookings, customer accounts or integrations | Online store or custom build | €3,000 to €10,000 and up, whatever your score |
It won't replace a quote, but it stops you comparing an €800 site with an €8,000 project as if they were the same product.
Freelancer, agency, subscription or DIY builder
For the same scope, price also depends on who builds the site and how you pay for it.
| Option | What you pay | Good choice if… | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY or AI builder (Wix, Squarespace, Shopify…) | A monthly plan, plus your time | Small budget, simple needs, you enjoy doing it yourself | Sales fees on some plans, limited design and SEO, hard to migrate |
| Freelancer | A fixed price or a day rate | A well-defined project, one point of contact | Availability, continuity if they stop, skills covered |
| Agency | A fixed price, often with a maintenance plan | The project mixes design, development, content and marketing | Higher price; check who actually works on your project |
| Subscription or rental | A monthly fee over a minimum term | Tight cash flow, you want everything included | Total cost over time, who owns the site and domain, exit terms |
Rent or buy? Do the maths
Renting feels safe: little or nothing upfront, everything included. Around Montpellier, we've seen rental plans from €75 a month. At that price, four years add up to €3,600, roughly the median budget for buying a brochure site outright. Before signing, ask about the minimum term, what happens when the contract ends, and whether you own the site, its content and the domain.
The less visible costs of builders
With a builder, the monthly plan isn't the only cost. On an online store, each payment carries a fee: France Num cites examples starting at 1.5% + €0.25 per online payment on Shopify and 1.9% + €0.30 on Wix. Add paid apps, premium themes and, above all, your own time. AI site generators, everywhere in 2026, follow the same model: a fast first draft, then the same work on content, SEO and updates.
Running costs: domain, hosting and maintenance
A website isn't a one-off purchase. Here's what to budget every year, based on benchmarks relayed by France Num:
| Item | Indicative cost | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | €5–50 a year excl. VAT | Depends on the extension; register it in your own name |
| Hosting, simple site | From about €5 a month excl. VAT | Included in builder plans; up to €20 a month for a brochure site on an online platform, per Afnic, the .fr registry |
| Hosting, database-driven site | €5–50 a month excl. VAT | Blogs, small stores, interactive sites |
| Hosting, online store | €5–200+ a month excl. VAT | Depends on catalogue and traffic; up to €100 a month for a minimal store on a platform, per Afnic |
| Maintenance | €49 a month (median) | Updates, backups, security; median of advertised offers in the Observatoire survey |
| Payment fees | A percentage plus a fixed fee per sale | Depends on the platform or bank |
Depending on your setup, add a professional email address, plugin or theme licences, and some budget (or time) to keep the site alive: news, photos, new pages.
Ongoing SEO, advertising and social media are separate monthly budgets if you're aiming for growth; our guide on how to grow your business online covers them.
What makes a quote go up or down
Two quotes for “a brochure website” can differ fivefold. The gap almost always comes from the same lines:
- Pages and layouts: ten service pages built on one layout cost less than ten unique pages.
- Design: an adapted theme costs less than a custom identity designed page by page.
- Content: copywriting, translation, photos and video are often the most underestimated item.
- Features: bookings, online quotes, payments, customer accounts, multiple languages.
- Integrations: till, CRM, invoicing software, delivery tools.
- SEO: technical basics only, or real keyword and local-page work.
- Redesigns: rebuilding an existing site means redirecting old URLs so you keep the rankings you've earned.
- Support: training, maintenance and changes after launch.
How to compare quotes
Ask every provider the same questions, and get the answers in writing:
- What's included, page by page and feature by feature?
- Who writes the copy and supplies the photos?
- Will the domain, content and code belong to me?
- Can I edit text, prices and opening hours myself?
- What does maintenance cover, and what will it cost after year one?
- Which SEO basics are included at launch?
- What's the schedule, and what could delay it?
Then compare quotes with the same scope: it's the only comparison that means anything. Watch for three red flags: a price with no breakdown, a domain registered in the provider's name, and a guaranteed first place on Google. If you're starting from scratch, our guide on how to make a website for your business helps you define the scope.
Two real examples
For Kalao Pizza, an artisan pizzeria near Montpellier, we started with a fast site and a database-driven menu, then trialled an online cart in beta before going further: a staged budget rather than everything at once.
For a hair or barber salon, online booking is the core need. Rather than relying on a booking platform, a salon can run its own booking engine: a higher upfront cost than a brochure site, but no commission on each appointment.
Planning a site? Our website design service explains how we work, in English or French, on site around Montpellier or remotely.