What Does a Website Actually Cost in Ireland?
Ask five web design companies this question and four of them will tell you to get in touch for a quote. That's not because the answer is complicated. It's because they'd rather have you on the phone before you hear the number.
So here's the answer, with actual figures.
The short version
For a small Irish business, a website costs somewhere between €700 and €10,000 to build, and between nothing and €500 a month to keep running.
That's an enormous range, and where you land in it depends on far less than you'd think. Below is what each level actually gets you.
Under €500
This is DIY territory — Wix, Squarespace or Shopify, built by you at a weekend. The platform costs somewhere around €15 to €40 a month and you do the work.
What you get: a real website, on a real domain, that works.
What you don't: the thing most people underestimate is not the building, it's the deciding. What goes on the homepage. What order the pages go in. What to say about yourself. Most DIY sites stall at 80% finished and stay that way, because the owner runs out of evenings.
Worth it if: you enjoy this sort of thing, you have time, and your business is simple. Plenty of sole traders do a perfectly good job themselves. There's no shame in it and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
€700 to €2,000
The small-operator end of professional work. A freelancer or a one-person consultancy building on a solid platform.
What you get: four to six pages, designed for phones, written or edited properly, with your domain, your Google listing sorted, and someone who answers the phone.
What you don't: custom design from a blank page. At this price the work is done on a well-built foundation and shaped to your business, which for the vast majority of small businesses is exactly right.
Worth it if: you're a trade, a shop, a practice or a small service business, and you need to look credible and be found. This is where most small Irish businesses genuinely belong.
For reference, my own builds start at €700.
€2,000 to €6,000
A small agency, or a freelancer doing more involved work.
What you get: more pages, custom design work, an online shop or booking system, photography, and copy written from scratch rather than tidied up.
Worth it if: you're selling online, you have multiple locations or service lines, or your website is genuinely the front door of the business rather than a supporting act.
€6,000 and up
Agency work. Custom design, a team, discovery workshops, strategy documents.
Worth it if: you're a substantial business where the website drives real revenue, and the difference between good and excellent is worth thousands to you.
Not worth it if: you're a plumber in Mallow. And I say that as someone who'd happily take your money — you'd be paying for a process built for companies twenty times your size.
The cost nobody mentions until later
The build is the smaller half. Every website has ongoing costs:
Domain name — €15 to €30 a year. This one's unavoidable.
Hosting or platform — €15 to €40 a month depending on what your site is built on. A shop costs more than a brochure site.
Business email — €6 to €7 per mailbox per month, if you want you@yourbusiness.ie rather than Gmail.
Somebody to look after it — anywhere from nothing, if you do it yourself, to €50–€500 a month. This is the number that varies most and where you should ask the hardest questions.
Be careful with that last one. "Hosting and maintenance" at €200 a month should mean real work — content updates, your Google listing, reviews, a monthly report. If it means somebody paying a €30 hosting bill on your behalf, you're being charged €170 a month for nothing. Ask exactly what's included and ask for it in writing.
Why the same website has three different prices
Three things drive the number more than anything else:
Who's doing it. A one-person operation has almost no overhead. An agency has an office, a sales team, project managers and account handlers. The same site genuinely costs them more to produce, and you pay for that.
How much you supply. A client who arrives with photos, text and a clear idea of what they want can be built in days. A client who arrives with nothing needs discovery, copywriting and photography, and that's real work. The gap between those two is often €2,000.
How much is custom. A site built on a solid, well-tested foundation and shaped to your business is fast and reliable. A design drawn from scratch and coded from nothing is neither. For most small businesses the second gets you a slightly more distinctive site at three times the price.
How to tell what you actually need
Ask yourself one question: what do you want the website to do?
"Look credible when someone Googles me." You need a small, clean, fast site with your services, your area and your phone number. That's the €700 to €1,500 job, and paying more won't make the phone ring more.
"Bring me enquiries from people who don't know me." Now you need the site plus the work around it — Google Business Profile, reviews, and possibly ads. Budget less for the build and more for the ongoing.
"Sell my products online." You need a shop, and the products are the work. Expect €1,500 upwards, and be realistic that photographing and listing everything is a bigger job than the website itself.
"Everyone else has one." Get the cheap one. Genuinely. Spend the difference on something that earns.
The questions to ask anyone quoting you
- What's the total, including everything, in writing?
- What are the ongoing costs, and what exactly do they include?
- Who owns the domain, the content and the site if I leave?
- Who do I ring when something breaks, and how quickly do they answer?
- How many pages, and what happens if I need another?
- Is the price fixed, or does it change if the job takes longer?
Any of those getting a vague answer is worth pushing on. All of them getting a vague answer is worth walking away from.
The honest summary
Most small Irish businesses need a site costing between €700 and €2,000, and need to spend more attention on their Google listing than on their website design.
If someone tells you that you need to spend €5,000, ask them what the extra €3,500 does that the cheaper option doesn't. If the answer is about strategy, brand and discovery rather than something you can point at, you have your answer.
Want a straight number for your own business? The first conversation is free and there's no obligation. Tell me what you do and what you're hoping for, and I'll tell you what I think it needs — even if that's less than you came for.