The actual number, before the caveats: a professionally built website for a small service business should cost between €2,500 and €10,000.
That range covers a lot of ground. Here's what actually separates the price points.
How much does a web designer cost?
It depends entirely on what you're paying for.
A freelancer or platform build at €800–€1,500 is almost certainly using a template, writing generic copy, and shipping without any technical SEO implementation. The site will look functional. It will do almost nothing for visibility. If they're not talking about schema markup, metadata, and Google Search Console in the first conversation, it's not in scope.
A mid-range professional or small studio at €2,500–€6,000 is building something considered. Copy is researched and written for the actual visitor. Structure is deliberate. Technical SEO, schema markup, metadata, page speed, and Search Console setup are part of the brief, not an afterthought.
An agency at €10,000+ is adding layers of process, account management, and meetings. For most small businesses, you're paying for overhead that doesn't improve the site.
The question isn't "how much do web designers charge?" It's "What does the price actually include?"
What is the average price for website design?
The "average" is misleading because it pools €500 Fiverr builds with €50,000 enterprise projects. The meaningful comparison for a small service business is: what does a website cost when it's built actually to work?
Working means: custom copy written for the actual visitor, not filler text. Schema markup so AI tools and search engines understand what you do. Page speed that doesn't penalise your mobile rankings. Metadata is written for every page. A structure built around how visitors think, not how the business is internally organised.
That work costs a minimum of €2,500. For a 5–8 page service business site done properly, it usually lands at €3,000–€5,000.
How much should a 5–10 page website cost?
For a focused service business site, homepage, services, about, contact, and a few supporting pages, the number is €2,500–€5,000 if it's built properly.
What "built properly" includes at that price:
- Copy written for the visitor, not the business
- Technical SEO from day one: schema markup, metadata, sitemap, Search Console setup
- AEO schema so AI search tools can cite you
- GEO signals if the business is location-dependent
- Clean, fast build optimised for mobile
- No page-builder bloat
What it doesn't include: a large content library, custom web applications, membership systems, or e-commerce beyond a basic checkout. That scope is different work and is priced differently.
What's the difference between a fixed-price and an hourly web project?
Hourly billing is the client's problem. You don't know what you'll pay until it's done. The designer's incentive is time spent, not efficiency. Revisions cost money. Scope creep is a billing opportunity.
Fixed-price builds transfer the risk. The designer commits to a defined scope, you know the cost before work starts, and revisions within scope are included. The incentive is to work efficiently and ship clean, not to run the clock.
For small businesses, a fixed price is almost always the better deal, provided the scope is defined clearly up front. A vague fixed-price quote is just hourly billing with a ceiling you'll hit.
Can ChatGPT or AI actually build your website?
AI tools can generate HTML, write copy drafts, and suggest layouts. I use AI tools in my own process; they're useful for research, copy iteration, and code generation.
What they can't do is make the decisions that determine whether a site works.
Which schema types are correct for this specific service model? What is this business's actual differentiator, and how should it be expressed? What CTA matches the mental state of the visitor arriving from a specific search term? What's the right structure for a visitor who's ready to buy versus one who's still evaluating?
Those are judgment calls. They come from experience working on sites and watching what happens after launch. A site built entirely by AI tools looks like one: the structure is generic, the copy is plausible but hollow, the technical implementation is usually incomplete, and the decisions are made by averaging the training data rather than understanding the specific business.
AI is a tool. It doesn't replace the thinking.
What do you actually get for the price?
At €2,500–€5,000, you should get a site that tells the right person immediately they're in the right place. A structure Google can read. Copy, written for a specific visitor, not a hypothetical average. Schema markup that gets you surfaced in AI-generated answers. Page speed that doesn't cost mobile rankings. Metadata that earns clicks.
A site that works. Not just a site that exists.
The gap between those two things is what every business is actually paying to close.
The Launchpad is a fixed-price web design service starting at €2,500. You know the cost before work starts, and everything above is included.
→ See what's included in the Launchpad
Not sure if your current site is working for you?
The 5-Second Clarity Checklist runs you through the exact diagnostic I use before quoting any project.
TL;DR
A professionally built website for a small service business typically costs between €2,500 and €10,000, depending on scope and who builds it. Budgets under €1,500 almost always mean a template with no technical SEO, no schema markup, and no custom copy; it looks like a website but doesn't function like one. For most service businesses, the right range is €2,500–€5,000 for a focused build with proper technical implementation.
Key Takeaways
- The price range that matters for most small service businesses is €2,500–€5,000 for a properly built 5–8 page site.
- Budget builds under €1,500 almost always skip technical SEO, schema markup, and custom copy — the things that make a site actually work.
- Fixed-price builds are almost always better for clients than hourly billing. The incentive structure is different.
- AI tools can generate HTML and draft copy. They cannot make the strategic decisions that determine whether a site converts.
- The question isn't how much web designers charge. It's what's actually included at each price point.
- A site that exists is not the same as a site that works.