How much does a website cost for an SME?
For the same website you can receive quotes ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands of francs. In this guide you will find the real price ranges in CHF, the hidden costs you should always ask about, and what really makes the difference between one offer and another.
Ask for three quotes for the same website and you get back three figures that look nothing alike: a few hundred francs on one side, tens of thousands on the other. It is not (only) sales cunning. In most cases what changes is what is included in the price: who writes the copy, who takes care of SEO, how many languages, what happens after delivery. In this guide you will find the real price ranges and what to look at to compare offers on equal terms.
An honest premise, the same one I make when I talk about how much custom software costs: these prices are not a rate card. The figures that follow are orders of magnitude, based on my experience with SMEs in Ticino and across Switzerland. They are not quotes, and anyone who gives you a precise figure without understanding what your website needs to do is guessing.
The price ranges (orders of magnitude in CHF)
The cost of a website for an SME in Switzerland depends first of all on the type of website you need. The three ranges I come across most often are these.
- The simple brochure site (a few thousand francs). A few well-made pages: who you are, what you do, where you are, how to contact you. Built on a carefully chosen and customised template, with polished copy and basic optimisation. It is the right choice when the website needs to confirm that you exist and that you are serious, not bring in clients on its own.
- The complete corporate website (mid range, towards the tens of thousands). More pages and more substance: content written to answer your customers' questions, technical SEO done properly, often two or three languages, a blog or news section. Here the website stops being a business card and starts working: it has to be found on Google by the people searching for what you sell. It is also the typical range for those who need to rebuild a website because the old one brings in nothing.
- The e-commerce site (the highest range, and it depends on the catalogue). Product catalogue, online payments, shipping, VAT and ideally the connection to your management system, so orders and inventory do not have to be copied over by hand. A small shop with a few dozen products is one thing; a catalogue with thousands of variants, different price lists and synchronised inventory is a project on another scale, and the price of an e-commerce site follows suit.
And the DIY route? Let me say it without snobbery: builders like Wix or Squarespace cost almost nothing in money, and to get started they can be enough. The costs are hidden elsewhere: the hours you spend fighting the theme instead of working, and a result that often never shows up on Google, because nobody has worked on content and SEO. If your time is worth something, the maths of "free" needs redoing.
What really makes the difference in price
Two quotes with the same figure can contain very different work. These are the items that really move the price, and the ones worth comparing one by one.
- Content. Who writes the copy? If you have to write it yourself, the quote is lower but the project drags on for months, because copy is always the bottleneck. If the people building the site write it, you pay more but the site ships, and it usually ships better.
- Technical SEO and speed. A slow or badly built website is invisible on Google, and an invisible website is a cost, not an investment. The difference between "the site is online" and "the site gets found" lies almost entirely here.
- Multiple languages. In Switzerland it is almost the norm: two or three languages to speak to the whole market. It does not double the price, but each language adds real translation and adaptation work, not a button to press.
- Photography and brand. Stock photos are recognisable at first glance. A photo shoot and consistent design cost money, but they are what set your website apart from a thousand identical ones.
- The connection to your management system and bookings. Getting orders, enquiries or bookings straight into the management system instead of an email inbox is a job of process automation: it costs more upfront and saves hours every week afterwards.
- Maintenance and hosting. The website needs to stay updated, fast and secure after delivery too. Whoever leaves this item out of the quote has not given it to you for free: they will charge you for it later, or they will not do it.
The hidden costs you should always ask about
Before signing, these five questions are worth more than any comparison of the final price.
- How much do the domain and hosting cost each year? These are small figures, from a few dozen to a few hundred francs, but they must be clear from the start and registered in your name, not the supplier's.
- Are there theme or plugin licences to renew? Many websites rely on components with an annual fee. That is legitimate, but it should be written into the quote, not discovered at the first renewal.
- Are updates included? Platform, plugins and security need regular updating. Ask what is included, for how long, and what is billed separately.
- Is the website mine? Domain, content and access credentials must be your property. It is the same rule that applies to software: what you pay for must be yours.
- What happens if I change supplier? The right answer is "you take everything with you and start again elsewhere". If the answer is vague, the low price is hiding a dependency.
Cheap website or investment: how to decide
The right question is not "how much can I spend" but "what job does the website need to do". If it is a business card, because your clients come through word of mouth, a well-crafted brochure site in the low range is a perfectly sensible choice: spending more would be a waste. If instead the website has to bring in clients, that is, get found by people searching on Google for what you offer, then it is a sales channel and should be treated as one: SEO and content matter more than the design, and the right budget is the mid or high range.
That is the criterion I use to build websites and e-commerce for SMEs, optimised for Google and connected to the management system: first you decide the website's role, then the figure. And if budget is the brake, it is worth knowing that in Ticino there are incentives for SME digitalisation that can cover part of these projects.
How I work: by subscription, with the price written right here
My method is simple and I state it upfront, price included. Instead of a one-off quote worth thousands of francs, I work by subscription: website at €39/month and e-commerce at €79/month. The e-commerce formula includes the AFianco management app, managed by me: orders land directly in the management system, together with inventory and invoicing, with nothing copied over by hand.
The benefit for an SME is concrete: no big upfront investment, a clear monthly cost that sits in the accounts like any normal recurring expense, and a website that does not get abandoned after delivery, because I have every interest in keeping it updated and working. I still always start from the website's role: what it needs to do for your business, not how many pages it needs to have. And if a one-off project makes more sense for your case, I will tell you.
In short
How much does a website cost for an SME in Switzerland? As orders of magnitude: a few thousand francs for a well-made brochure site, a mid range for a complete corporate website with SEO and several languages, the highest range for an e-commerce site, where catalogue and integrations make the difference. DIY costs almost nothing in money and quite a lot in time and visibility.
The right price is not the lowest: it is the one that matches the job the website has to do. Compare quotes item by item, always ask about recurring costs and ownership, and be wary of inflated figures as much as of figures too good to be true. And consider the alternative to the one-off investment: a subscription formula with a clear monthly fee, like the one I work with.
Want to know which range you are in, before you even ask for quotes? I build websites and e-commerce for SMEs from Lugano, for Ticino and Switzerland: website by subscription at €39/month, e-commerce with the management app included at €79/month. Together we look at what your website needs to do and I will tell you honestly how much it makes sense to spend, even if the answer is "less than you thought".
Frequently asked questions
How does the website subscription work?
Instead of paying for the website once, you pay a clear monthly fee: €39/month for the website, €79/month for the e-commerce site with the AFianco management app included and managed. No big upfront investment and a single point of contact who keeps the website alive. If you prefer the classic one-off project, that can be done too: it depends on your case.
How much does it cost to maintain a website each year?
As an order of magnitude: domain and hosting cost from a few dozen to a few hundred francs a year. On top of that come any theme and plugin licences and the technical updates. For a brochure site we are generally talking about a few hundred francs a year; for an e-commerce site more, because payments, security and updates require constant attention.
Does a multilingual website cost twice as much?
No. The technical structure is built once; what grows is the content work, because every text has to be translated and adapted, not just run through a machine translator. As an order of magnitude, each additional language accounts for a fraction of the initial cost; it does not double it. In Switzerland it is often worth it: two or three languages greatly widen the market you can reach.
Is a template or a custom website better?
It depends on the website's role. A well-chosen, well-customised template is more than enough for most brochure and corporate websites, and it costs far less. Custom makes sense when you need specific features: configurators, restricted areas, connections to the management system. Be wary of anyone who proposes custom by default: you often pay for work that a good template would have already solved.
How long does it take to build a website?
A well-made brochure site generally takes a few weeks, a complete corporate website one to two months, an e-commerce site one to three months depending on the catalogue and the integrations. In my experience, the variable that stretches timelines the most is not the technology: it is the content the company has to provide or approve.