In a nutshell
A small business website in Ireland costs about €800 to build, going by the median published price for a five-page site, and published prices run from €349 to €3,500. The median for an online shop is €1,999, with prices from €600. Keeping either online costs from about €170 a year to over €1,000 a year. Where you land depends on hosting, care and renewals, which most quotes leave out.
We read the websites of 103 Irish web designers and agencies on 1 November 2026 and collected every price they publish.
You may ask why we go to that much trouble. The answer is surprisingly simple: "How much will it cost?" is the first question nearly every business owner asks us. We wanted one page we could send them, with published prices instead of a range.
Why every price guide gives you a different number
Search for this question and every guide gives a different answer. For a small business website, the top results give ranges that start anywhere from €1,500 to €4,000 and end anywhere from €3,500 to €8,000. Two of them publish the same six price bands, figure for figure. The page in first place on Google.ie was last updated in October 2022.
Some of the advice is out of date. The Trading Online Voucher, up to €2,500 towards a website, closed on 13 December 2024. Nearly two years later, 10 of the 103 firms we checked still present it as something you can claim.
And remember: always compare published prices and written quotes instead of ranges.
A lot of what we read on those 103 sites worried us.
Those two guides with the same price bands match down to the last euro. Either one copied the other, or both pasted in the same AI answer. On one site we checked, the same package has one price on the home page and another on the price page. Several firms call themselves award-winning and never name the award.
None of this takes long to check. If a firm hasn't checked its own website, it may not check yours either.
What Irish web designers charge
61 of the 103 firms publish a price for building a website. These are the medians, from the firms' own pages on 1 November 2026. Most are "from" prices.
| Type of website | Firms that publish a price | Median | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| One page | 9 | €650 | €199 to €1,000 |
| About five pages | 21 | €799 | €349 to €3,500 |
| Online shop | 20 | €1,999 | €600 to €25,000 |
| Care or maintenance plan, cheapest tier | 29 | €65 a month | €15 to €250 a month |
Here are the 21 firms that publish a price for a site of about five pages, lowest first. "Builds with" is what the firm's own page names.
| Firm | Five pages, from | VAT | Builds with |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Sites Ireland | €349 | excluded | not stated |
| Mossline Digital | €399 | not stated | not stated |
| Warpfield Compass | €499 | not stated | not stated |
| Web Tech Specialists | €499.99 | excluded | not stated |
| Netboost | €500 | not stated | WordPress (shops: Shopify, WooCommerce or Wix) |
| MyWebPixel | €599 | not stated | WordPress |
| Web Brewery | €700 | not stated | WordPress, WooCommerce |
| Hilmon | €750 | not stated | WordPress |
| Direct Web Design | €799 | not stated | custom code |
| BluePeak Web Design | €799 | not stated | not stated |
| Affordable Web Design Ireland | €799 | included | not stated |
| WebEngineer.ie | €849 | not stated | static HTML |
| Craig Murray | €997 | included | not stated |
| Optimum Web Studios | €1,200 | excluded | WooCommerce or Shopify (shops) |
| Best Web Design | €1,279 | excluded | not stated |
| YAM Digital | €1,290 | not stated | WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify |
| Developer on Demand | €1,299 | not stated | Shopify |
| Wagyu Digital | €1,500 | excluded | not stated |
| Raven Design | €1,750 | excluded | custom code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) |
| Webovation | €2,500 | excluded | WordPress, Shopify or a static front end |
| Itchy Fingers Design | €3,500 | excluded | WordPress |
Check the VAT before you compare. Of the 61 firms with a build price, 22 say their prices exclude VAT, 3 include it, 1 says it adds no VAT, and 35 don't say. On a €799 site, 23% VAT is another €184.
A price list won't show you two things. A low build price often comes with a compulsory monthly fee, and a high one doesn't always include the words on the page or the photos. Ask for both in writing.
What the big agencies charge
Most don't say. In a separate check of 17 of Ireland's larger web agencies, only two publish a build price: one from €1,500 for a brochure site, one from €25,000 for a Shopify shop. The rest quote after a "discovery" call. Their listings on Clutch, a site that reviews agencies, give minimum project sizes from $5,000 to $50,000, most often $25,000.
So when a designer tells you an agency would charge you five or ten times their price, ask which agency, and where it
says so.
Pay-monthly websites: four different deals
Eight of the firms offer a website for a monthly fee instead of a build price, from about €45 to €150 a month, most often for a 12-month minimum. The terms behind the same name differ a lot. Going by Irish providers' own published terms, "pay monthly" can mean:
- the site is yours once the payments are done
- you get a copy of the files when you leave, but not the editor
- the contract renews itself every year, you must give six months' notice and pay a €350 fee to leave, and the domains are registered to the provider
- the site is taken offline if you stop paying, unless you buy it out
As a business, you usually aren't a "consumer" under the
Consumer Rights Act 2022, so the
contract is your protection. Before you sign, ask who the domain is registered to, how much notice you must give, what
it costs to leave, and what you get when you go.
The second-year bill
Most quotes cover year one. Several of the firms include hosting or the domain free for the first year, and most of them don't publish what year two costs.
The domain shows how much can change. A .ie domain costs €5.99 for the first year at Blacknight, then €36.99 a year. At LetsHost it's €3.49, then €46.99. That's six to more than thirteen times the first-year price, before VAT. Plugins do it too: Elementor's One plan is €180 for the first year and then "renews at regular rate €228/yr". Squarespace's free domain is for one year, and after that it "will renew at our standard rate".
If a renewal notice goes to an old email and your .ie domain lapses, getting it back costs a restore fee: the registry charges €48, and each provider sets its own price on top (.ie registry: Restore Fee FAQs).
Three ways to pay for a small business site, over three years, from the published prices:
| Year 1 | Years 2 and 3 | Three years | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself on Squarespace Basic, paid yearly (incl. VAT) | €177 | €354 + the domain | €531 + the domain |
| €349 five-page site + €156 a year hosting (+ VAT) | €505 | €312 | €817 |
| Business site from €1,500 + care from €80 a month (+ VAT) | €2,460 | €1,920 | €4,380 |
In the cheapest row you do all the work yourself. The most expensive row uses that firm's lowest published prices.
When you compare quotes, add up three years, not just the build price.
We don't mind a cheap first year. The domain deals above are ordinary sale prices, and they're fine as long as you know the renewal price before you sign. Be wary of a quote with no year-two price at all. Ask for one in writing, and if a firm won't give it, ask why. If a firm won't write it down, that's an answer too.
WordPress, a website builder or custom code
Ask every designer what they build with, because it changes what you pay after launch. Of the 83 firms we checked that aren't agencies, 47 mention WordPress on their pages, 14 Shopify, 11 custom code and 3 Wix, and 22 don't say. Some name more than one.
WordPress itself is free. What you pay for is everything around it:
- Hosting. Irish hosts advertise WordPress hosting at €0.99, for the first month. After that it's €14.99 a month at Blacknight before VAT, and €19.99 at LetsHost.
- Paid plugins and themes, if your site uses them, renewed every year: Elementor from €60, Divi $89, Gravity Forms from $59 and Wordfence Premium $149. The free Wordfence gets its firewall rules and malware signatures 30 days late.
- Someone to keep it updated. Irish care plans cost about €25 to €100 a month, and some include the hosting.
The updates matter. In 2025, security researchers found 11,334 new flaws in WordPress software, 91% of them in plugins (Patchstack). A WordPress site that nobody updates gets more exposed every month.
We also tested 58 sites that Irish designers have built for their clients. The home page of a WordPress site made with a page builder (Elementor or Divi) calls for about 75 files; a custom-coded one calls for about 20. Fewer files didn't mean a lighter page, though. Those files came to a median of 1.55 MB on the custom-coded sites and 1.17 MB on the page-builder sites, and two custom-coded sites passed 10 MB because of full-size photos. Whoever builds your site, ask how the photos are prepared.
We also ran Google's Lighthouse speed test on each of the 58, with its mobile settings. The median score was 65 out of 100, and only 2 of the 58 scored 90 or more. The hand-coded sites did a little better, with a median of 72 against 61 for the page-builder sites, but in every group most sites were slow on a phone. Before you hire a designer, test one of their finished sites at PageSpeed Insights.
A custom-coded site has no plugins to renew or patch, but only a developer can change its code. A website builder like Wix or Squarespace keeps the updates for you, and you rent it for as long as you use it.
Grants for a website in 2026
Not much, for a website. The Trading Online Voucher closed in December 2024. Its replacement, the Grow Digital Voucher, pays half the cost of new software subscriptions, and the Local Enterprise Office says explicitly that it "does not support bespoke website development". If a designer's page tells you a grant will pay for your new website, ask them which scheme, and check it on the LEO page.
We went through every grant still open, and what each one covers, in Trading Online Voucher closed: the 2026 website grants.
Who owns your website
Your domain is the one part of your website you can't rebuild. Only 15 of the 103 firms say on their website that the client owns the domain.
To move a .ie domain to another provider you need a transfer code, and the .ie registry emails it only to the address of the domain holder and the admin contact. It won't give it out by phone. If your web designer registered the domain with their own email, you can't take it anywhere without them.
Check yours in two minutes: look your domain up on the .ie registry's WHOIS. If a company holds the domain, its name shows there. The registry never publishes the contact emails, so ask your designer, in writing, whose email is the admin contact.
If you sell online: the accessibility rules
Since 28 June 2025, online shops selling to consumers in Ireland have to make the whole site or app accessible, including login, security and payment, under the European Accessibility Act regulations. A shop that's covered must also explain how it meets these requirements, in its terms and conditions or an equivalent document, and make that explanation available in an accessible format. Microenterprises are exempt: fewer than 10 staff, and turnover or balance sheet of €2 million or less. In the words of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the requirements "do not apply to microenterprises providing services".
If your business is bigger than that, accessibility should be in the build and in the quote. Ask who tests it and who writes the statement.
Wix, Squarespace or a web designer?
Squarespace's plans in Ireland cost €14.76 to €84.87 a month paid yearly, or €20.91 to €97.17 paid monthly, VAT included. Wix's plans page shows its prices in US dollars, "for reference only".
A website builder is the cheapest way to get online. You write the pages and take the photos yourself, and keeping it working is your job too. The monthly plan never stops, and you can't take the site with you if you leave the platform.
If you're a sole trader testing an idea and you're happy to write the words and arrange the pages yourself, start on Wix or Squarespace. At €177 a year for Squarespace Basic, it's the cheapest way to find out whether a website brings you work. Come to a web designer when the site needs to do something a builder makes hard to implement, such as bookings that follow your own rules, or when you'd rather not spend your evenings on it.
How long it takes
Published timelines for a small business site run from about one week to eight weeks. Ours: about two weeks for a Starter site, four for a Small business site and five for a Small shop. The clock starts when we have your words, photos and logins. If those arrive late, the launch date moves by the same amount, and in most projects that wait is the longest part.
A website is never quite finished, though. Once it's live, it needs updates, and you'll want changes, like new prices, new photos, a new service. Budget for that from the start.
What we charge
We're one of the firms you'd be comparing, so here's our own bill.
- Starter site (home page and contact page): €599.
- Small business site (up to five pages, with your Google Business Profile set up): €1,499, or €699 with our €800 Liftoff Voucher. The voucher needs 12 months of hosting at €30 a month, so year one costs €1,059.
- Small shop: €1,799, or €999 with the voucher. Shop hosting is €50 a month, so year one costs €1,599.
- Hosting and maintenance: €30 a month, €50 for shops, month to month (with the voucher, after the first year), with updates, backups and up to two hours of small changes every month. Your hosting price stays the same for three years from launch. After that it changes at most once a year, with 60 days' notice, and never by more than inflation.
The one thing these totals leave out is your domain. It's registered in your name, so you pay its renewal yourself: a .ie costs €36.99 to €46.99 a year at the two registrars above, before VAT.
Over three years, a Small business site with us comes to €699 + 36 × €30 = €1,779, plus your domain. There are no plugins or page builders to renew, because we write the code ourselves.
What happens after launch:
- Year two: the same €30 a month (€50 for shops) as year one.
- Replies: within 2 working days, and around the clock if your site is down.
- Your domain is registered in your business's name, you pay for it directly, and the site is yours. After your first 12 months you can take a copy of its code whenever you ask.
- Leaving: 30 days' notice. With the voucher, the first 12 months of hosting are required.
Before you sign: the questions to ask
- Is the price with or without VAT?
- What will I pay in year two, for hosting, the domain, plugins and care?
- Is the domain registered in my business's name, with my email as the admin contact?
- Who writes the words and supplies the photos?
- If I leave, what do I get (the files, the code, the editor), how much notice do I give, and is there a fee?
- What do you build with, and who keeps it updated?
- If I sell online, is accessibility built in, and who writes the statement?
Your questions, answered
Is there a monthly fee to have a website?
Yes, always: hosting and the domain. Whether you also pay for maintenance depends on who looks after the site.
How much does a small website cost in Ireland?
The median published price for a five-page site is €799, from €349 to €3,500 across 21 Irish firms. Add from about €170 a year to over €1,000 a year to keep it online.
How much does it cost to host a website in Ireland?
Basic WordPress hosting starts at about €132 a year at Register365, before VAT, and you look after the site yourself. Hosting with someone keeping it updated and backed up costs about €25 to €100 a month from Irish firms that publish their prices.
Can I build my own website for free?
You can start for free on most website builders, but a free plan shows the builder's name in your web address and adverts on your site. For a business, expect to pay for a plan and a domain.
Sources
- Innostack's check of 103 Irish web firms' own websites, 31 October 2026, prices re-checked 1 November 2026 (prices, VAT, platform, domain terms)
- Innostack's test of 58 client websites built by Irish designers, 1 November 2026
- LEO Cork North and West: Trading Online Voucher closing notice
- LEO Waterford: Grow Digital Voucher
- .ie registry: how to update your details
- .ie registry: WHOIS policy
- .ie registry: Restore Fee Service FAQs
- S.I. No. 636 of 2023, accessibility requirements
- Consumer Rights Act 2022, section 2
- CCPC: European Accessibility Act guidelines for microenterprises
- Blacknight: price list
- LetsHost: domain registration
- Squarespace: pricing
- Patchstack: State of WordPress Security in 2026
- Elementor, Divi, Gravity Forms and Wordfence pricing pages
- Blacknight and LetsHost WordPress hosting
- Clutch agency profiles, minimum project sizes (third-party listings, in US dollars)