Quotes for the same website brief often differ tenfold. One company quotes 20,000 CZK (about 920 USD), another 200,000 CZK (about 9,200 USD), and both are talking about the same website.
The difference is almost never that the more expensive one can do ten times more. It lies in what is included in the price and how much of the work you are left to do yourself.
This article gives concrete price ranges from the Czech market, explains what is usually not included in the price, and describes when a template is enough and when a custom solution pays off.
Three ways to get a website
The choice is not between cheap and expensive. It is about how much of the work you do yourself and how closely the website needs to match your company.
Each option suits a different situation and none is objectively better.
Website builder or ready-made template
You build the website yourself in a tool such as Webnode or Wix, or from a purchased WordPress template. The cost is a few thousand CZK a year plus your time.
This makes sense for a sole trader who needs an online business card and has no budget. You will hit the limits as soon as you need something non-standard.
Template customised by a supplier
Someone chooses a template, adapts it to your brand, fills it with content and launches it. This is the most common option on the Czech market.
The price ranges from roughly 30,000 to 150,000 CZK (about 1,400 to 6,900 USD) depending on the scope. For this price you get a working website, not an original.
Custom website
Designed from scratch around your processes, with its own design and integration with the systems you use.
It starts at roughly 150,000 CZK (about 6,900 USD) and has no upper limit. It pays off when the website is your main sales channel or when you have specific requirements.
How much does it cost to hire a website designer
The price depends less on whether you hire a freelancer or an agency and more on how they charge. You will usually come across three models.
- Fixed price. You agree the scope and the total in advance. You know what you will pay, but every change outside the brief costs extra.
- Hourly rate. You pay for the time actually spent. This suits projects with an unclear scope, but the final total is hard to predict.
- Monthly fee. Common for ongoing work after launch. You pay for a set number of hours or a defined service each month.
Freelancer or agency
A freelancer is usually cheaper, and you talk directly to the person doing the work. The risk is that one person rarely covers design, development and copy equally well, and if they fall ill, the project stops.
An agency costs more because you also pay for project management and a team. In return, you get several specialists and one party that is accountable for the whole result.
What is usually not included in the price
This is the most common source of disappointment. The quote fits, the website is finished, and then come items nobody had budgeted for.
The following five items are either left out of quotes or hidden in a footnote.
Copy. The biggest hidden item. The supplier usually expects you to provide the copy, while you assumed the opposite. Copywriting usually costs tens of thousands of CZK.
Photos and graphics. Your own photos cost anything from a few thousand CZK for buying licences to tens of thousands of CZK for a photo shoot.
Content migration. Transferring existing pages and, above all, redirecting old URLs. If this is skipped, you lose your search rankings.
Running costs. Hosting, domain, certificate, template and plugin licences, updates. Usually a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of CZK a year.
Changes after launch. A website is never finished at launch. Agree in advance how many hours of changes are included in the price and what the rest costs.
How much does a website cost per year
The build price is a one-off. To see what the website really costs you, add the running costs for the years you plan to use it.
You can work it out in three steps.
- Take the build price from the quote, including copy and photos if you need them.
- Add the annual costs, such as hosting, domain, licences and maintenance, multiplied by the number of years.
- Divide the total by the number of years. That is your real annual cost.
An illustrative example. A website that costs 5,000 USD to build and 1,000 USD a year to run costs 8,000 USD over three years, or roughly 2,700 USD a year. A cheaper build with higher running costs can end up costing the same.
What website maintenance covers
Maintenance is more than hosting. It typically includes updating the system and plugins, backups, security monitoring and fixing whatever an update breaks. Some suppliers also include a set number of hours for small changes.
How much maintenance costs depends on how many plugins and integrations the website has. Each one needs updating and testing, so a simple website is cheaper to maintain than one connected to several systems.
What really determines the price
The number of pages is the least important factor, yet it is what quotes are most often based on. Other things matter more.
Four of them explain most of the difference between quotes.
How many unique templates the website has. Twenty pages built from three templates are a fraction of the work compared with five pages that are each different.
Integration with systems. Booking, stock, invoicing, CRM. Each integration is a separate project.
Who creates the content. A website with copy and photos supplied by you is significantly cheaper than one where the supplier has to prepare them.
Who manages the website. A project without a clear owner on your side drags on, and delays cost money.
When a template is enough
A template is not a worse choice, it is a different choice. For many companies it is the right one.
Three situations where paying for a custom website makes no sense.
The website is a business card. Customers come to you through recommendations and the website only confirms that you exist and how to contact you.
You do not know what you need. A company’s first website gets rebuilt within two years anyway. In this case the cheaper option is the more sensible one.
Your budget is under 50,000 CZK (about 2,300 USD). You will not get a custom website for that amount, only a bad custom website.
On the other hand, going custom pays off when the website is your main sales channel, when you have specific processes or when you need integration with internal systems.
How to compare quotes
Website quotes can almost never be compared directly, because each describes something slightly different. So convert them to a common basis.
Ask the same four questions about each one.
What exactly is included in the price. Itemised, not just the word “website”. Especially copy, photos, migration and training.
How many templates and how many pages. This is the only comparable measure of scope.
What the annual running costs are. Hosting, licences, updates, support. Over three years this is often comparable to the price of the website.
Who owns the website. Who owns the domain, the hosting and the logins. And whether you can take the website to another supplier.
Common mistakes when budgeting for a website
Most budget problems are not caused by a bad supplier but by a few avoidable decisions on the client’s side.
- Budgeting only for the build. The running costs come every year and add up quickly.
- Choosing the cheapest quote without checking it. A low price often means something you need is missing.
- Paying for features you may need one day. Add them when you actually need them.
- Leaving no reserve. Changes come up during every build, so keep part of the budget aside.
- Leaving the domain in the supplier’s name. Register it to your company from the start.
What not to forget in a redesign
A new website can wipe out traffic you have built up over years overnight. All it takes is for the URLs not to be carried over.
Three things belong in the brief before work begins.
Redirecting old URLs. Every old URL must have a successor. Without this you lose rankings and links.
Keeping content that works. Check in Search Console which pages bring in traffic, and do not delete them.
Tracking from day one. Set up Analytics and Search Console before launch, not after.
We cover everything to check in our article on technical SEO. Migration is the moment when the most things break.
Common questions about price
The five questions we are asked most often in website enquiries.
The answers apply to small and medium-sized companies.
Why is one quote three times more expensive?
Almost always because of scope, not quality. The more expensive quote usually includes copy, photos or integrations that are missing from the cheaper one.
If you cannot tell from the quotes, ask directly what is and is not included in the price.
How long does the build take?
A template website takes one to two months, a custom website three to six months. The most common causes of delay are copy and approvals on the client’s side.
If you want to meet the deadline, prepare your content before the build starts.
What are the annual running costs?
For a template website usually a few thousand CZK, for a larger project a few tens of thousands of CZK including support and updates.
The key thing is to ask what happens when an update breaks a feature. Who fixes it and at what cost.
Do we need a new website, or is updating the current one enough?
If the current website is technically sound and just looks dated, updating it will be cheaper. If it falls apart on mobile and nobody knows how it works, it is time for a new one.
It also depends on whether the website brings in traffic. A website that works should be rebuilt more carefully.
How much should go on SEO during the build?
The basics belong in the build and should not be an extra. Structure, URLs and speed are incomparably cheaper to sort out before launch than after.
We cover the cost of ongoing work afterwards in our article on SEO pricing.
Where to start
Before you send an enquiry, write down what the website should do. Not how it should look, but what should happen when someone visits it.
Then prepare an answer to the question of who will supply the copy and photos. This is the biggest hidden item and also the most common reason for delays.
Would you like advice on whether a template is enough for you or whether a custom solution makes sense? We build websites and are happy to go through it with you via our Contact page.
Frequently asked questions about how much a website costs
How much does a small business website cost?
It depends mainly on whether a template is enough for you. For most small businesses a template customised by a supplier is the sensible choice, which ranges from about 1,400 to 6,900 USD depending on scope. Remember to add copy, photos and running costs to that figure.
How much does a professional website cost?
A professional website usually means one built by a supplier rather than by you in a website builder. Depending on scope, that is either a customised template or a custom website, which starts at about 6,900 USD. The result depends more on a clear brief and good content than on the price alone.
How much does it cost to create a website?
If you create it yourself in a website builder, you pay an annual subscription and invest your own time. Once a supplier does the work, the price grows with the number of unique templates, integrations and the content they have to prepare. Ask for an itemised quote so you can see where the money goes.
How much does website maintenance cost?
There is no single figure. A simple template website with few plugins needs little maintenance, while a website with integrations needs testing after every update. Ask the supplier for a fixed monthly fee and a list of what it covers, including who fixes problems after updates.
USD amounts are approximate, converted at the Czech National Bank rate of 21.75 CZK per USD on 9 October 2026.
