In short: what does a website cost in 2026?
According to Trustoo’s price guide for web design (last updated 5 March 2026 and checked in September 2026), a new website in the Netherlands typically costs between €500 and €10,000. A simple website with basic functionality costs around €500-2,000, a more advanced website €2,000-5,000, a webshop €1,000-10,000 and a fully custom website €10,000 or more. Web designers charge on average €65-105 per hour, and running a website costs roughly €160 to €1,000 or more per year for hosting, a domain, a certificate and maintenance.
These are indications, not fixed prices. Trustoo bases its hourly rates on requests made through its platform and does not state whether its ranges include btw, so we recommend asking every supplier to quote both excluding and including 21% btw. Prices from other suppliers in this guide exclude btw unless we say otherwise.
The rest of this guide explains what sits behind those ranges: the choices that move a quote up or down, the costs that continue after launch, the difference between building it yourself, hiring a freelancer and working with an agency, and how to compare quotes fairly. Where a figure comes from a single provider, we name that provider, so you can check the current price yourself.
Website prices in the Netherlands by type
The table below combines Trustoo’s ranges for professionally built websites with published subscription prices for two website builders. A builder is billed as a subscription rather than a one-off project, so we list it separately. A multilingual website is not a separate category in the price guides we reviewed. It is usually one of the other types with extra work for each language, which we explain further on.
Use the table to find the right order of magnitude, not to judge a single quote. Two websites in the same row can differ considerably in content, design effort and functionality.
| Type of website | Indicative cost | What it usually involves |
|---|---|---|
| DIY website builder | JouwWeb Pro €10 or Business €20 per month excl. btw; Shopify Basic €21 per month, billed annually | You choose a template, write the content and manage the site yourself. Prices from the providers’ Dutch pricing pages. |
| Simple website | €500-2,000 one-off | A small number of pages with basic functionality, often based on an existing theme or template. |
| Advanced website | €2,000-5,000 one-off | More pages, more design work and more functionality, usually in a content management system your team can edit. |
| WordPress website | €500-5,000 one-off | The price depends on the specifications, plugins and theme you choose. |
| Webshop | €1,000-10,000 one-off | Trustoo splits this into basic (€1,000-3,000), advanced (€3,000-7,000) and custom webshops (€7,000-10,000 or more). A catalogue, cart and payments add work. |
| Custom website | €10,000 or more | Design and functionality built around your brand and processes rather than a template. |
| Multilingual website | The base price plus extra work per language | Translation or copywriting, a language switcher, separate page addresses and testing for each language. |
What drives the price of a website?
Most quotes are built from hours. Trustoo notes that labour makes up the largest part of a web designer’s costs, so anything that adds hours adds cost. The factors below show where those hours usually go. When two quotes for the same website differ widely, one of these factors is often the reason.
Pages and page templates
A website with five pages that share one layout takes less time than one with twenty pages and several layouts. The number of distinct templates matters as much as the page count: a homepage, a service page, a blog article and a contact page each need their own design and testing. Ask for the page list and the templates in writing, so you can see exactly what is included.
Design: template or custom
A template or theme gives you a tested starting point at a lower price. A custom design starts from your brand, your audience and your content, and takes more time for concepts, feedback rounds and layouts for every screen size. Trustoo describes custom designs as more expensive than standard templates and places fully custom websites at €10,000 or more.
Content, copywriting and photography
Text and images are often the most underestimated part of a website project. If you write the copy yourself, plan the time; if someone else writes it, it should appear as a separate line in the quote. For images, Trustoo’s photography price guide puts a business photoshoot at €150-250 on average and a photographer’s hourly rate at €80-120. Stock images are an alternative, with their own licence terms.
Languages
Every extra language adds translation or copywriting, a check by a native speaker, page titles and descriptions, and testing. A bilingual Dutch and English website also needs a clear structure for page addresses and language links, so that visitors and search engines reach the right version. A literal translation is rarely enough, because Dutch and English-speaking visitors search with different words.
Functionality and integrations
Booking systems, customer portals, product filters and connections to your CRM, accounting or email software all add development and testing. Once a website starts to behave like an application, its cost follows the logic of custom software rather than web design. Our separate guide to custom software costs explains that side.
Content management system and platform
The content management system (CMS) determines how easily your team can edit pages later. A widely used system such as WordPress offers many ready-made themes and plugins, which can lower the build cost, but every plugin needs updates. A custom or headless set-up can be leaner and faster, but asks for more development work up front.
Accessibility
Accessibility is easiest to include from the start: a logical heading structure, sufficient colour contrast, keyboard navigation, form labels and alternative text for images. For webshops and other e-commerce services, it can also be a legal requirement, as we explain below.
SEO and GEO foundations
A sound basis for search engines and AI answers includes page titles, descriptions, a clear heading structure, redirects from old page addresses and accurate structured data. That foundation belongs in the build. Ongoing SEO or GEO work, such as new content and monitoring, is usually quoted separately.
Security and privacy
HTTPS, secure forms, spam protection, backups and regular updates are part of a professional delivery. The Dutch government’s business portal also lists a privacy statement, rules for cookies and your company details among the requirements for a business website. Check that the quote covers these points rather than assuming they are included.
What does a website cost per year?
A website keeps costing money after launch. Trustoo estimates the annual costs at €160 to €1,000 or more, depending on the hosting package and the maintenance you need. It adds €10 to €100 or more per month for extras such as premium plugins, security measures, marketing tools and maintenance packages.
The table shows the main recurring items with Trustoo’s ranges and current examples from Dutch pricing pages. Watch the difference between introductory and regular prices: several providers offer a discount in the first months or the first year.
| Cost item | Indicative cost | Source or example |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | €10-50 per year | Trustoo. TransIP charges €16.50 per year excl. btw for a .nl domain after an introductory first year at €0.49. |
| Hosting | €50-300 per year | Trustoo. TransIP’s shared hosting costs €9.99 to €29.99 per month excl. btw, after an introductory rate for the first three months. |
| SSL certificate | €0-100 per year | Trustoo. The lower end of the range reflects free certificates. |
| Maintenance and updates | €100-300 (basic), €300-1,000 (regular) or €1,000 or more (intensive) per year | Trustoo. |
| Business email | About €6.80 per user per month, excluding taxes | Google Workspace Business Starter on its Dutch pricing page. Some hosting packages include mailboxes: TransIP’s Core package includes five. |
| Website builder subscription | €5.50-20 per month excl. btw | JouwWeb’s Lite to Business plans at the standard rate, billed annually. |
Freelancer, agency or DIY: which suits your business?
There is no universally right choice. The best option depends on how much time you have, how specific your needs are and who will look after the website afterwards. Trustoo reports an average hourly rate of €65-105 for web designers, with a minimum of €45 and a maximum of €140 in requests through its platform. By experience, it lists €50-70 for a junior, €70-90 for a mid-level and €90-120 for a senior web designer, and notes that rates in the Randstad are often higher.
Whichever route you choose, compare the total cost over several years, including your own hours, rather than the build price alone. A cheaper build that costs you many evenings, or needs replacing sooner, is not necessarily the cheaper option.
Building it yourself
A website builder requires the smallest cash outlay. JouwWeb’s Pro plan costs €10 per month excl. btw at the standard rate, or €120 per year, and Shopify’s Basic plan costs €21 per month when billed annually. The real cost is your time: choosing a template, writing and photographing, configuring settings and keeping everything current.
A builder suits a first online presence, a small product range or a test of an idea. It becomes limiting when you need a custom design, integrations or several languages with their own content.
Working with a freelancer
A freelancer often combines design and development, which keeps communication short and overheads low. The trade-off is capacity: holidays, illness or a full calendar affect planning and support. Ask who handles maintenance and urgent issues, and whether other specialists, such as a copywriter or developer, will be involved.
Working with an agency or studio
An agency or studio brings several disciplines together, such as strategy, design, development, content and campaigns, with project management to coordinate them. That coordination is part of the price. It is most useful when your website must connect with branding, SEO, advertising or custom software, and when you want continuity if one person is unavailable.
Does the European Accessibility Act apply to your website?
Since 28 June 2025, e-commerce services in the Netherlands must be accessible under the European Accessibility Act (EAA). According to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), which supervises these rules, an e-commerce service is a website or app where consumers can buy, rent, order, take out or reserve something. That applies even if the offer takes up only a small part of the site. There is no transitional period for services.
The rules do not apply to everyone. ACM explains that a company with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover of no more than €2 million is a microenterprise and is not required to meet the accessibility requirements. The obligation concerns services for consumers, so a website that only informs business customers is not an e-commerce service in this sense. If you are unsure, check ACM’s explanation for your situation.
If the rules apply, ACM refers to level AA of WCAG 2.1 and advises preparing for WCAG 2.2 level AA, which it expects to become the new standard in the course of 2026. An audit or certificate is not mandatory, but the government’s business portal states that you must publish an accessibility statement. ACM also makes clear that you remain responsible even if another company builds your website, so include accessibility in your brief and in the quote.
Where the law does not require it, accessibility is still good practice. A clear structure, readable contrast and working keyboard navigation help every visitor, and they are easier to include during the build than to add later.
Which hidden costs should you plan for?
A quote covers what the supplier will do. Several costs sit outside it, or only appear after the first year. These are the ones worth checking before you sign.
Introductory prices that renew higher
Domains, hosting and website builders often start with a discount. TransIP charges €0.49 excl. btw for the first year of a .nl domain and €16.50 per year after that, and its hosting has an introductory rate for the first three months. Website builders regularly run first-year promotions as well. Budget for the regular price.
Content you still need to produce
Texts, photos, product data, translations and legal pages take time or money. If a quote says that content is supplied by the client, that work is yours. Plan who writes what, and by when, before the design phase starts.
Licences, plugins and transaction fees
Trustoo puts premium themes and plugins at about €20-200 one-off, and some require a renewal to keep receiving updates. Webshop platforms can add payment fees: on Shopify’s Basic plan, the standard online card rate is 1.9% + €0.25 per transaction.
Changes after launch
Extra feedback rounds, new pages or a new feature after delivery are usually billed separately. Agree how many revision rounds are included and what an extra hour of work costs.
Migration and redirects
Replacing an existing website means moving content and redirecting old page addresses, so that visitors and search engines do not land on error pages. Check that this work is part of the scope, especially if your current site brings in enquiries through search.
Ownership and access
The Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (KVK) points out that the maker of a website automatically holds the copyright. It advises agreeing that the copyright transfers to you, so that you can change the site later without permission or extra costs. Also make sure the domain name is registered to your business and that you have administrator access to the hosting and the CMS.
How do you compare website quotes?
Quotes are only comparable when they describe the same work. Put them side by side and check the same points for each one: the page list and templates, who supplies the content, the number of languages, functionality and integrations, the platform, accessibility, SEO basics, testing, training, and hosting and maintenance after launch.
Next, look at how the price is expressed. A fixed price gives you certainty about the scope as described; an estimate in hours gives flexibility but can grow. Either way, ask for the hourly rate for extra work.
Check the btw as well. The general rate in the Netherlands is 21%. A supplier who uses the small business scheme (KOR), which is available to businesses with a turnover of no more than €20,000 per calendar year, does not charge btw at all. Compare the amounts you will actually pay, and consider whether your business can deduct the btw.
A low quote is not automatically a bad one, and a high quote is not automatically better. Ask what has been left out. A website without content, maintenance or a plan for updates can become expensive later. A clear brief makes this comparison much easier, because every supplier responds to the same questions.
Questions to ask before you sign
Use these questions in a first conversation with any web designer, freelancer or agency. If a question does not get a clear answer, ask for it in writing before you accept the quote.
These checkmarks are temporary; your answers are not saved or sent. The checklist helps you prepare and does not replace legal or tax advice.
How to budget for a new website
Start with a first-year budget rather than a build price. That total includes the build, the content and twelve months of running costs. From the second year onwards, the running costs remain.
The table below is an illustrative calculation, not a quote and not a Pixel Shield price. It describes a bilingual Dutch and English website for a service business with around eight pages. We assume a designer estimates 50 hours at €85 per hour, which falls within Trustoo’s average range, plus 10 hours for the second language. We add one business photoshoot at the top of Trustoo’s average range, TransIP’s Core hosting and .nl domain at their regular prices, and €600 per year for maintenance, within Trustoo’s €300-1,000 range for regular maintenance.
From the second year, hosting, the domain and maintenance in this example come to €736.38 excl. btw per year. Replace the assumptions with the figures from your own quotes; the structure matters more than the exact amounts. If the total is higher than you would like, consider launching with the pages that matter most and adding the rest in a later phase.
| Item | Assumption | Amount excl. btw |
|---|---|---|
| Design and build | 50 hours at €85 per hour | €4,250.00 |
| Second language | 10 hours at €85 per hour | €850.00 |
| Photography | One business photoshoot | €250.00 |
| Hosting | TransIP Core, 12 months at €9.99 | €119.88 |
| Domain name | .nl at the regular annual price | €16.50 |
| Maintenance | Assumed annual amount | €600.00 |
| First-year total | Excluding btw | €6,086.38 |
| First-year total incl. btw | Including 21% btw, for reference | €7,364.52 |
A practical next step
Before you request quotes, write down what the website must help visitors do, which pages and languages you need, who supplies the content and which first-year budget range you are comfortable with. With a clear brief, quotes become easier to compare, and a supplier can tell you where your budget goes furthest.
Pixel Studio designs and builds websites, brands and campaigns, with SEO and GEO as part of the work. If you already have a website, our free AI visibility and security scan reviews one site from the outside and gives you priorities before you invest in a redesign. Or send us your brief and budget range. We will tell you which approach we think suits it, including when a website builder is enough for now.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a simple website cost in the Netherlands?
According to Trustoo’s 2026 price guide, a simple website with basic functionality costs about €500-2,000. On top of that come running costs for hosting, a domain and maintenance, which Trustoo puts at €160 to €1,000 or more per year. Ask whether a quote includes 21% btw.
What is the hourly rate of a web designer in the Netherlands?
Trustoo reports an average of €65-105 per hour, based on requests through its platform, with a range from €45 to €140. It lists about €50-70 for junior, €70-90 for mid-level and €90-120 for senior web designers. Rates in the Randstad are often higher.
How much does a website cost per month?
Trustoo puts monthly costs for extras such as premium plugins, security and maintenance packages at €10-100 or more. A website builder such as JouwWeb costs €5.50-20 per month excl. btw at standard rates, and shared hosting at TransIP starts at €9.99 per month excl. btw after the introductory period.
Is a website builder cheaper than hiring a web designer?
At the start, usually yes: you pay a monthly subscription instead of a one-off project fee. You do pay with your own time, and a builder limits custom design, integrations and multilingual content. Compare the total over several years, including your hours.
Does my small business website have to comply with the European Accessibility Act?
Only if you offer an e-commerce service to consumers and your business is not a microenterprise. According to ACM, a company with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover of no more than €2 million is exempt. Accessibility is still worth including, because it helps every visitor.
Are website prices quoted including or excluding btw?
It varies, so always check. TransIP and JouwWeb, for example, state their prices excluding btw. The general btw rate is 21%, and a supplier using the small business scheme (KOR) does not charge btw at all, so compare the amounts you will actually pay.
How much extra does a bilingual website cost?
The price guides we reviewed do not give a separate figure. The extra cost depends on translation or copywriting, checks by a native speaker, a language switcher and testing for each language. In our illustrative calculation, a second language adds 10 hours to a 50-hour project.
