In Ireland in 2026, most small business websites land somewhere between €500 and €4,000 as a one off build. A single page sits at the bottom of that. A proper site of four to eight pages with a contact form sits in the middle. Add an online shop, a booking system or anything custom and you are looking at €3,000 to €12,000 and up.
On top of the build there is a running cost of roughly €100 to €600 a year for the domain and hosting, before anyone touches the site again.
Why the range is so wide
A website is not one thing. It is a bundle of jobs that get sold as one thing. Design, writing, photos, build, forms, payments, search setup, hosting, and someone to fix it when it breaks.
Two people can quote you for "a website" and be quoting for completely different amounts of work. One is dropping your logo into a template and handing you the keys. The other is writing your copy, shooting your photos, building custom, and staying on afterwards. Both are honest. They are just not the same job.
So before you compare prices, get every quote to say what is actually included. That one habit will save you more money than haggling ever will.
Price by what you actually need
| What you need | Typical Irish price, 2026 | Time |
|---|---|---|
| One page site (who you are, what you do, how to contact you) | €500 to €1,500 | 3 days to 2 weeks |
| Small business site, 4 to 8 pages, contact form | €1,500 to €4,000 | 2 to 4 weeks |
| Site with bookings, payments or customer logins | €3,000 to €8,000 | 4 to 8 weeks |
| Online shop | €3,000 to €12,000 | 4 to 10 weeks |
| Custom build with automation or software behind it | €8,000 upward | 8 weeks plus |
These are the ranges I see quoted around the Irish market, not a survey figure. A Dublin agency with offices, a team and account managers will usually quote at the top of each band or well above it. A freelancer or a small studio sits lower. Get two or three quotes and compare what is included, not just the total.
What actually drives the price up or down
- Number of pages. Every page is design, writing and testing. Five pages is not five times one page, but it is not the same either. Be honest about how many you genuinely need. Most small businesses need fewer than they think.
- Custom design or a template. A template is cheap and fast and looks like other sites. A custom design costs more because someone is drawing it from scratch for you. If you sell on price, a template is often fine. If you sell on taste or trust, custom pays for itself.
- Who writes the words and takes the photos. This is the hidden cost that catches people out. If you send over your own text and images, the build is quicker and cheaper. If the builder has to write your copy and organise photography, that is real work and it goes on the bill.
- Selling online. A shop means products, prices, stock, payments, delivery rules and tax settings. It is a different scale of job to a brochure site, and it is the single biggest jump in most quotes.
- Bookings, logins and integrations. Anything that talks to another system, a calendar, a CRM, an accounts package, adds build time and adds things that can break later.
- Search visibility. Basic setup, fast pages, correct page titles and a Google Business Profile should be part of any decent build. Ongoing SEO work is a separate service with its own monthly cost. Do not assume it is bundled in.
The running costs nobody mentions
The build price is the headline. These are the numbers that follow you every year afterwards.
- Domain name. Roughly €20 to €40 a year for a .ie, or about €12 to €20 for a .com. Make sure it is registered in your name, not your builder's.
- Hosting. Anywhere from free to about €25 a month depending on what the site does. A simple site genuinely can be hosted for nothing on modern platforms. Do not let anyone charge you €30 a month for hosting a five page brochure site and call it a service.
- Shop platform. If you are selling, budget from around €29 a month for a Shopify style plan, plus card fees on every sale.
- Maintenance. Typically €50 to €300 a month depending on how much is actually being done. Ask exactly what you get for it. If the answer is vague, that is your answer.
How I price it, and why
I am one person building with AI tools, so there is no agency overhead sitting in my prices. Here is exactly what I charge, in public, so you can compare it against whatever else you have been quoted.
Launch package: €99 to go live, then €39 a month
This is for a business that has nothing online right now and needs to exist this week. A clean one page site with your photos, your services and your contact details. The €39 a month covers hosting, updates when you need them, and keeping your Google details right. No contract, cancel whenever. I look after it, you never touch it.
One off builds you own outright
| Build | Price |
|---|---|
| Landing page, one page, one clear action | €300 to €800 |
| Full site, 3 to 5 pages | €800 to €2,500 |
| Site with forms, bookings or integrations | €2,000 to €5,000 |
| Maintenance, if you want it | €100 to €300 / month |
Two routes because businesses want different things. Some want it handled for a small amount monthly and never want to think about it. Some want to pay once, own the files and have full control. The monthly route costs less on day one and more over five years. The one off route is the opposite. Pick whichever suits how your business actually runs.
I sit below the market ranges above because there is no office, sales team or project manager to pay for out of your quote, not because the work is thinner. Where a job genuinely needs more, I say so before we start, not halfway through.
You can see live examples of what I build on the services and demos page. Everything there is real and clickable.
Common questions
Is a cheap website worth it?
Sometimes, yes. If you are a sole trader who just needs to be findable, look real and get phone calls, a small tidy site does that job perfectly well. A €6,000 site will not make your phone ring more if a €600 one already answers the question your customer is asking.
Where cheap goes wrong is when there is nobody behind it. The site gets built, the builder disappears, and a year later nothing can be updated and nobody has the login. Cheap build with a clear owner and a way to make changes is fine. Cheap build with nobody accountable is expensive later.
How long does a website take to build?
A one page site is realistically a few days to two weeks. A four to eight page site is two to four weeks. A shop or anything with bookings is four to ten weeks.
The honest bit: most delays are not the builder. They are waiting on content. Your photos, your service list, your prices, your about page. If you have those ready on day one, the whole thing moves at roughly double the speed.
Do I have to pay monthly?
No. You only ever have to pay for a domain and hosting, and hosting for a simple site can be close to nothing. Everything beyond that is optional.
A monthly fee is worth paying when it buys real work: updates, backups, security patches, content changes, someone who answers when something breaks. It is not worth paying when it is just hosting with a fancy name on it. Ask what happens in a month where you request nothing. If the answer is "nothing", you are paying for insurance, not a service, and you should price it accordingly.
Can I not just build it myself on Wix or Squarespace?
You can, and for some businesses that is genuinely the right call. Budget roughly €200 to €400 a year plus a few of your own weekends.
The real cost is your time and the ceiling. Those builders are fine until you want something specific, and then you are stuck inside what the platform allows. If your website is a formality, do it yourself. If it is how customers decide whether to trust you, pay someone.
Want a straight quote?
Fifteen minutes on a call. You tell me what the site needs to do, I give you a real number and a real timeline. No pressure. If building it yourself is the smarter option for you, I will say so.