How much does a website cost in 2026 - complete pricing guide

Introduction

"How much does a website cost?" is probably the most common question I get from potential clients. And the answer is always the same - it depends. But that's not very helpful, so I decided to put together real prices you'll encounter on the Czech market in 2026. No fluff, no marketing speak.

The prices in this article come from my experience and what I see from colleagues in the industry. These aren't numbers pulled from thin air - they're amounts you'll actually pay when you get a website made professionally in Czechia.

💰 Website pricing categories - from business card to complex app

"Website" can mean absolutely anything. A simple five-page site with a contact form is fundamentally different from an e-shop with thousands of products or a custom web application.

Generally, websites fall into four basic categories by complexity and price:

📄 Business card website

• 1-5 pages
• basic presentation
• CZK 15,000 - 50,000 (~EUR 600 - 2,000)

🏢 Company website

• 5-20 pages
• blog, SEO
• CZK 50,000 - 200,000 (~EUR 2,000 - 8,000)

🛒 E-shop

• catalog, cart, payments
• custom even over a million
• CZK 80,000 - 500,000 (~EUR 3,200 - 20,000)

⚙️ Custom web application

• software in the browser
• CZK 200,000 - 2,000,000+ (~EUR 8,000 - 80,000+)

These ranges are quite wide because every project is different. We'll break down what exactly affects the price in the following sections.

There are cheaper options too - Wix, Squarespace or WordPress with a ready-made template can be done for a few hundred euros. But that's a different category. Here we're talking about professionally built custom websites.

🏗️ Company website - what affects the price

A company website is the most common type of project. Typically it's a business presentation with service info, references, a blog and a contact form. The price depends on several factors.

🎨 Design

• template or custom design
• original design starts at CZK 25,000, easily over CZK 80,000
• UX design adds CZK 10,000 - 30,000 but pays off for most websites

💻 Technical implementation

• WordPress with customizations CZK 20,000 - 60,000
• modern framework (Next.js, Nuxt, Astro) CZK 40,000 - 120,000
• headless CMS another CZK 15,000 - 40,000

✍️ Content

• copywriting CZK 1,500 - 4,000 per page
• product or team photography CZK 5,000 - 20,000
• translations for multilingual sites CZK 2,000 - 5,000 per page

🤖 How AI affects website pricing

In 2026, AI-assisted development is increasingly reflected in website prices. Developers working with AI tools can deliver projects faster - and that shows in the final price. For simpler websites, AI-assisted development can reduce costs by 15-30%. For more complex projects the savings are smaller, since AI helps mostly with routine work, not architecture design or business logic.

What to watch out for - a lower price doesn't mean lower quality, but it depends on how the developer uses AI. An experienced programmer with AI tools delivers a site faster at the same quality. A beginner who relies mainly on AI might deliver a site with technical debt that only shows up later.

AI-Assisted Web Application Development

Read more

🛍️ Custom e-shop vs off-the-shelf solution

For e-shops, the decision between an off-the-shelf solution and custom development is even more significant than for company websites. The price difference can be tenfold.

📦 Off-the-shelf solutions

Shoptet, Shopify or WooCommerce have a huge advantage in upfront cost. Shoptet can be set up from CZK 15,000 (basic setup and template customization) to CZK 80,000 (major visual changes, integration with accounting, carriers and payment gateways). Monthly fees for Shoptet range from CZK 500 to 5,000 depending on the plan. WooCommerce on WordPress costs CZK 30,000 - 120,000 for setup and customization, with no monthly platform fees (but you need hosting).

🔧 Custom e-shop

Starts at around CZK 200,000 and there's practically no upper limit. A typical custom e-shop for a mid-sized company costs CZK 300,000 - 800,000. Why such a big difference? Because everything is built from scratch - product catalog, cart, order process, admin panel, warehouse and accounting integrations.

When does a custom e-shop make sense? When you have a specific business model that off-the-shelf solutions can't cover. Like a product configurator, non-standard pricing logic, or you need to process thousands of orders daily and off-the-shelf performance isn't enough. If you're selling 50 products with no special requirements, go with an off-the-shelf solution - you'll save hundreds of thousands.

🚀 Web application - a different price league

A web application is a fundamentally different type of project compared to a presentation website or e-shop. We're talking about software running in the browser - CRM systems, internal tools, customer portals, booking systems or SaaS products.

The price depends mainly on business logic complexity. A simple booking system for a hair salon might cost CZK 100,000 - 200,000. An internal order management system for a manufacturing company CZK 500,000 - 1,500,000. And a full-blown SaaS product easily over CZK 2,000,000 before it hits the market.

Applications also differ significantly in development approach. While a website is usually delivered as a one-off, applications are typically developed iteratively - you start with an MVP (minimum viable product) for CZK 200,000 - 500,000 and then gradually add features. This is the smarter approach because you find out what users actually need before spending the entire budget.

Another factor is infrastructure and security. Applications work with user data, so you need to handle security, backups, GDPR compliance and often scalability. These are costs you don't deal with for a regular company website.

🔍 Hidden costs - hosting, domain, maintenance, content

The price for creating a website is just the beginning. A lot of clients are surprised how much it costs to run and maintain a website. And these are costs that never end.

🌐 Domain

• .cz domain costs around CZK 200 - 300 per year, .com around CZK 300 - 400
• if you want multiple domains, costs multiply, but it's still small change

🖥️ Hosting

• from CZK 50/month for shared hosting (fine for small sites)
• CZK 300 - 1,500 for a VPS server
• CZK 2,000 - 10,000 for managed cloud
• hosting quality directly affects site speed and search rankings

🔄 Maintenance and updates

• WordPress needs regular updates - otherwise it becomes a security risk
• monthly WordPress maintenance CZK 1,000 - 3,000
• sites on modern frameworks CZK 500 - 2,000 monthly

✍️ Content

• the biggest hidden cost long-term
• a blog post from a copywriter costs CZK 2,000 - 8,000
• two articles per month = CZK 4,000 - 16,000 monthly just for texts

SSL certificates are free these days through Let's Encrypt, so that's no longer a cost. If you need an extended certificate (EV SSL) for an e-shop, count on CZK 2,000 - 8,000 annually.

⚖️ Hourly rate vs fixed price

When you get a quote for a website, it'll be either a fixed price for the whole project or an hourly rate. Both have their pros and cons.

📋 Fixed price

Gives you certainty about what you'll pay. You know upfront and can approve it in your budget. Downside - the vendor builds in a risk premium (typically 15-30% extra). Changes during the project are billed separately and usually expensively.

⏱️ Hourly rate

On the Czech market in 2026: CZK 800/h for juniors, CZK 1,200 - 2,000/h for experienced freelancers and mid-sized agencies, CZK 2,000 - 3,500/h for large agencies. More transparent - you pay for actual work done. The risk is a higher final price.

An interesting AI effect - hourly rates haven't changed, but developers with AI tools get more done in the same time. A project that would take 80 hours without AI, an experienced developer with AI finishes in 50-60 hours. The project price ends up lower even though the hourly rate stays the same.

My recommendation? For well-defined projects (company website with a precise brief), a fixed price is fine. For projects where requirements will change (applications, complex e-shops), hourly rates are fairer for both sides. The ideal is a combination - fixed price for the defined scope with an hourly rate for any changes and extensions.

✅ Where to save and where definitely not

The website budget isn't unlimited, so it makes sense to look for savings. But there are places where cuts hurt more than they save.

💡 Where it pays to save

Unnecessary features at launch. Don't build a website with everything you can think of. Start with what you actually need and expand gradually. A chatbot nobody will use or a complicated calculator that a simple form could handle - that's money thrown out the window.

Stock photos instead of photography. Quality stock photos (Unsplash, Pexels - free, or Shutterstock - approx. CZK 200-600 per photo) are perfectly fine to start with. Professional photography makes sense but doesn't have to be day one.

Animations and effects. Subtle animations bring a website to life, but overdone effects cost a lot of development time and often slow down loading. Less is more.

A developer with AI instead of a cheap amateur. For an MVP or simpler website, a better choice is an experienced developer who uses AI tools rather than a cheap beginner. A pro with AI delivers a website faster, with better quality and at a comparable price - because AI saves them hours of routine work, while experience ensures proper architecture and maintainability.

🚫 Where you definitely shouldn't save

Mobile responsiveness - over 70% of visitors come from mobile. A website that doesn't work properly on phones is useless in 2026.

Loading speed - every extra second reduces conversions by 7-10%. Cheap hosting and unoptimized images will cost you more in lost business than what you save.

SEO fundamentals - proper page structure, meta tags, technical SEO. Without it, Google won't find you. Retrofitting SEO on a poorly built website is more expensive than doing it right from the start.

Security - especially for e-shops. A customer data breach can cost you fines in the hundreds of thousands and loss of trust that's hard to buy back.

🔎 How to compare quotes

You have three quotes for a website and the prices differ threefold. How do you tell which one is fair?

✅ Checklist for comparing quotes

• ⏹️ Is the scope clearly defined (number of pages, features)?
• ⏹️ Does the price include custom design, or is it a template?
• ⏹️ Is a CMS for content management included?
• ⏹️ Does the quote include basic SEO?
• ⏹️ Is a responsive mobile version mentioned?
• ⏹️ What's the delivery timeline and how many revision rounds?
• ⏹️ What does operation and maintenance cost after launch?
• ⏹️ Who owns the code and data after delivery?
• ⏹️ Is there a warranty on functionality?

Conclusion

Website pricing in 2026 ranges from tens of thousands for a simple business card site to millions for a complex application. The most important thing isn't finding the cheapest quote, but understanding what you're paying for and what value it brings.

A company website for CZK 80,000 - 150,000 that brings you customers and represents you well is a better investment than a CZK 30,000 website that looks cheap and impresses nobody. At the same time, a CZK 300,000 website with features you don't need is unnecessary luxury.

My advice - define what you actually need from the website, get at least three quotes, compare them by scope (not just price), and choose a vendor you trust and get along with. A website is a long-term project and you'll be working with your vendor for months, maybe years.

Useful links

• PageSpeed Insights - test your website speed
• Shoptet - most popular Czech e-shop platform
• WordPress.org - open-source CMS
• Nuxt.js - modern Vue framework
• Let's Encrypt - free SSL certificates