Price and budget are two different numbers
The price is what appears on the quote. The budget is everything your project needs until the website is live and doing its job in the first months after launch. That is why website projects rarely fail because of the price. They fail because of the items nobody wrote down.
Picture two offers of CHF 4,000 each. One includes copywriting, image selection and the tracking setup, the other does not. The second offer is not cheaper. It moves part of the work over to you, and that work costs you either time or outside help.
A solid website budget answers four questions, not one.
The four items in a website budget
1. Build: the one-off amount
This is the part every quote shows: concept, design, build, the technical groundwork for Google and AI search, testing and launch. We publish three options for it.
- Website without a CMS, CHF 3,500 one-off plus CHF 25 per month for hosting. Unlimited pages, unlimited feedback rounds, and we take care of content updates.
- Website with a CMS, CHF 4,500 one-off plus CHF 25 per month for hosting. Same scope, but you edit texts, images and new pages yourself.
- Custom software, quoted by effort. As soon as an online shop, appointment booking, a customer area with login or a connection to existing software is involved, the project needs its own backend logic. We quote that by effort so you only pay for what you actually need.
All prices exclude VAT, and hosting can be cancelled monthly.
2. Content: the item that gets underestimated most
Texts, photos, project descriptions and possibly translations. This item appears in almost no quote, yet it decides whether a website goes live in four weeks or four months. If texts and images already exist, the build gets noticeably shorter. If they do not, that is not a problem, but it is a line in the budget: either as time in your team or as support from outside.
An honest observation from practice: companies that plan to handle content on the side tend to lose more time than money. If you already sense it will be tight, budget for the item from the start.
3. Running costs
These are small amounts, but they run for years.
- Hosting: CHF 25 per month with us, cancellable monthly.
- Domain: usually CHF 10 to 20 per year depending on the extension.
- Content maintenance: either time in your team if you edit yourself, or part of our support if we handle it.
What matters is less the amount than the structure. A low entry price combined with a high monthly subscription is often the most expensive option over four years. Project every offer over 48 months and offers become comparable.
4. A reserve for the first months after launch
Adjustments always follow a launch. A page is missing, the form should ask something different, a new service comes along. Our packages include the feedback rounds and ongoing support. With other providers, every change is billed by the hour. Clarify exactly that before you sign, because this is the item most likely to surprise you in year one.
A benchmark in six questions
If you want to know which range your project falls into, you do not need to book a consultation for it.
The website budget calculator asks the six questions that actually separate the price levels: new website or relaunch, scope, the features you need, the state of your content, who maintains the content later and when the site should go live. You then see which of the three packages fits your project and what it costs.
Two things the calculator does not do. It does not invent a number, it shows the published package price. And it asks for no registration, the result appears on screen straight away. Only if you want the estimate in writing do you leave your name and email address.
What moves the price, and what does not
Number of pages: barely anything
The most common assumption is also the most wrong one. Both website packages include unlimited pages. A site with eight subpages costs the same with us as one with twenty. What creates work is not the quantity but the number of distinct page types and the content that has to go on them.
Who maintains the content: the real difference
This is the decision worth CHF 1,000, and the only one that is awkward to change later. Editing yourself pays off when content arrives regularly: blog posts, news, job ads, new offers. If your site stays largely stable and you have something adjusted twice a year, the package without a CMS is the cheaper and simpler choice.
Rule of thumb: from roughly one content change per month, a CMS pays for itself. Below that, rarely.
Shop, booking, login or interfaces: a category of their own
As soon as money, appointments or customer data are involved, the project leaves package logic behind. Those features need their own backend logic and are quoted by effort. What matters is knowing this early rather than forcing it into a package budget it does not fit.
Multiple languages: the cost sits in the content
Technically, a second language is manageable. The effort sits in the texts and in maintenance, because every later change happens twice. Budget for multilingual content under the content item, not the technical one.
Timeline: only at the edges
A compact website is usually finished in three to six weeks. Speed only gets genuinely expensive when a fixed date forces content to be produced twice, in parallel.
All of these points are built into the calculator. It sorts your project by the same rules we would use in a first conversation.
How much budget fits your company?
More useful than percentage rules is a simple calculation. A website realistically runs four years before a relaunch makes sense. CHF 3,500 to 4,500 spread over 48 months is roughly CHF 75 to 95 per month, plus CHF 25 for hosting. Compare that figure with what a single additional order per quarter brings in. For most SMEs the answer is clear after that.
Three typical starting points and what they should plan for:
- Sole proprietor or young company with a compact site. Build without a CMS, content largely in-house, hosting. The biggest lever is good photography and clear texts, not extra technology.
- Established SME that wants enquiries from Google. Build, a line item for copy on the key service pages, and a CMS if content will arrive regularly. Plus a separate monthly budget for visibility.
- Retail, advisory work with appointments, or a business with existing software. Here a conversation about features comes first, because the build is quoted by effort and the requirements drive the price.
Comparing quotes: seven questions that create clarity
When several offers are on the table, the amounts are not what decides. The answers to these questions are.
- What exactly is included in the price, and what gets billed on top?
- How many revision rounds are included, and what does the eighth adjustment cost?
- Who owns the domain, the content and the access credentials after launch?
- Is there a minimum contract term or a subscription you cannot leave?
- Are the technical SEO fundamentals included or sold as an add-on?
- How fast does the site load on a phone, and is that measured before launch?
- Who maintains the content after launch, and what does that cost per year?
For a detailed look at the price ranges in the Swiss market, from website builders through freelancers to agencies, read What does a website really cost in Switzerland?. How a relaunch works without losing your existing rankings is covered in the relaunch checklist. Our approach and services in detail are on the web design and SEO page, and completed projects are under case studies.
After launch: the second budget
A finished website is not a sales channel, it is the precondition for one. Enquiries need visibility, and visibility has its own monthly budget. This is where many SMEs plan too late: the project budget is spent on launch day and nothing is left for the first months.
Plan the monthly part alongside the project budget. How to determine it, which channels need which starting point and when more budget genuinely produces more enquiries is covered in Marketing budget planning: how much you need per month. The marketing budget calculator gives you a benchmark for your channels in six questions as well.
Frequently asked questions about website budgets
How much budget does an SME need for a new website?
For a professional site without a shop and without special features, the one-off amount with us is CHF 3,500 without a CMS and CHF 4,500 with a CMS, both excluding VAT. Add CHF 25 per month for hosting and the effort for texts and images if those are still missing. Projects with a shop, booking or login are quoted by effort.
What does a website cost per month?
With us, CHF 25 for hosting, cancellable monthly, plus the domain at usually CHF 10 to 20 per year. We deliberately work with low running costs instead of a subscription. Spread the one-off build over four years and you land at roughly CHF 100 to 120 per month including hosting.
Is the CHF 1,000 surcharge for a CMS worth it?
If you want to publish content yourself on a regular basis, yes. A blog, news, job ads or frequently changing offers all argue for the CMS. If the site stays unchanged for months, the package without a CMS is the leaner option, because we handle the occasional changes anyway.
How long does it take from quote to launch?
A compact website is usually live in three to six weeks, provided texts and images are available. Larger projects and builds with custom backend logic are planned individually. The most common reason for delay is not a technical question, it is missing content.
What if my budget is not enough?
Then the right response is to stage the scope, not to lower the quality. We start with the pages that generate enquiries and add the rest later. Since both packages include unlimited pages, adding them later costs no package surcharge.
Your next step
Calculate first, then talk. The website budget calculator gives you a benchmark and the matching package in six questions and under a minute, with no registration and no sales pressure. After that you know what we are actually talking about.
If you would like the result put into context, take 30 minutes for a free initial conversation. You tell us about your plan or your current site, and we say openly what we would recommend and what we would leave out.
