How much does a website cost in 2026? Real prices for the Romanian market

It is the first question almost everyone asks us — and it is a good one. The short, honest answer: in Romania, in 2026, a properly built website costs from a few hundred euros for a simple presentation site up to a few thousand for an online store or an application built around your needs. The long answer — the one that helps you understand why and compare offers fairly — follows below.

So we don't keep you in suspense, here are the indicative ranges the conversation starts from on the Romanian market:

One disclaimer, as befits serious people: the ranges above are indicative — they come from our experience and from public offers on the Romanian market; they are not a price list. Every project is quoted on what you actually need, not on a table. But with these in mind, you are no longer negotiating blindfolded.

Why "it depends" is not an evasive answer

Two websites can look identical in a screenshot and differ in price five times over. The difference is not (only) the supplier's greed — it is the work behind them. A website's price is essentially moved by five things:

• Design: ready-made theme or custom? A good theme, carefully personalised, is the sensible choice for many businesses. A design drawn from scratch around your brand costs more — but nobody else will have your website.
• Content. Who writes the copy, who takes the photos, who lays them out? "We'll send the texts" is the phrase that delays the most launches. If the supplier helps with structure and copywriting, it shows in the price — and in the result.
• Functionality. A contact form is one thing; online bookings with a calendar, payments, automatic invoicing or client areas are another thing entirely. Every integration is work to build and to test.
• Languages. A bilingual site (Romanian + English, say) is not "the same site twice", but not free either — on top of translation come structure, SEO and the upkeep of both versions. Roughly +15–30%.
• Who builds it. A student in their spare time, a good freelancer, an agency with a portfolio and processes — they all price differently because they offer different guarantees: deadlines, testing, post-launch support, someone who still answers the phone next year.

What a presentation website costs in 2026

The presentation website is the serious business card: who you are, what you do, why people should trust you, how they reach you. For most small and medium businesses, it is the best first online investment.

• On a ready-made theme, personalised: ~€400–900. A clear structure over 5–8 pages, adapted to your brand, optimised for mobile and for Google. The right choice when budget matters and you want to be online quickly.
• With custom design: ~€900–2,500. A design conceived for you, not adapted from a template: your identity respected to the pixel, custom illustrations or graphics, animations with a purpose. This tier also covers many-page sites and special sections — portfolios, large teams, project showcases.

What you should get in either variant, at no extra charge: a fast site that looks good on the phone, basic Google optimisation (titles, descriptions, sitemap), a working contact form and a security certificate (the padlock). If any of these appear as an "extra" in the offer, ask why.

What an online store costs

For stores, the range is wider because "online store" can mean 20 products with cash on delivery — or 2,000 products synchronised with inventory, courier and invoicing.

• A standard store (usually on WooCommerce): ~€900–2,500. Product catalogue with categories and variants, cart and checkout, online payment, delivery methods, order e-mails. Enough for most businesses starting to sell online.
• A store with integrations: ~€2,000–4,500. This is where the links that remove manual work come in: courier waybills generated automatically, automatic invoicing, stock synchronisation, feeds for Google Shopping or marketplaces, discounts and campaigns. Every integration saves hours of work a week — which is also why it costs.
• Beyond that: a custom store. When your flows no longer fit a standard platform — product configurators, per-client pricing, B2B — you move into custom software territory, priced to match the complexity.

A detail that is often forgotten: for a store, launch is the beginning, not the end. Products to upload, photos to take, orders to process — plan from the start who does them and with what tools.

What a web application or custom software costs

Here we are no longer talking about "a website" but about a tool built around your workflow: an online booking system with calendar and confirmations, a client portal, a course platform, an internal app that replaces the spreadsheets sent around by e-mail.

Prices realistically start around €3,000 and grow with complexity — many serious projects settle between €5,000 and €15,000. The reason is simple: there is no "ready-made theme" for your workflow; everything is designed, written and tested for you.

To see what that means in practice: for a pedicure studio in Bistrița we built a PHP site with its own booking system — clients pick the day, time and service from an always-up-to-date calendar, get an e-mail confirmation and a reminder 24 hours before. Exactly the kind of problem no template solves.

The costs that come after: domain, hosting, maintenance

The website is paid once; the online presence is a small but permanent subscription. Budget from the start:

• The domain (your address, e.g. your-company.ro): ~€10–15/year.
• Hosting (the server your site "lives" on): ~€40–120/year for a typical site. More for stores and high-traffic applications. Details on what good hosting means — in short: fast, with automatic backups and someone who answers when needed.
• Maintenance: ~€30–100/month. Tested updates, backups, security, small changes. On WordPress sites it is not a luxury — we wrote a whole guide on why: almost all security problems come from outdated extensions, and automated attacks strike within hours, not months.

A simple budgeting rule: besides the build cost, set aside 15–25% per year of the site's value for running and upkeep. It is the difference between a site that ages gracefully and one you rebuild from scratch in two years.

Why "almost free" websites end up the most expensive

There is also the €0–200 option: "build your own site tonight" platforms, or someone who will "do it quickly". Sometimes that is the right choice — a personal project, an idea to test. For a business, though, cheap has a few hidden costs:

• Perpetual rent. "Free" site builders cost €10–30/month to remove the ads and use your own domain — in 3 years you have paid for a presentation website, yet you own nothing.
• You cannot leave. A site built on platform X stays on platform X. You cannot move it, hand it over or grow it. It is called vendor lock-in, and you only feel it when it is too late.
• The small signals that show. Mediocre speed, a subdomain carrying the platform's name, the same templates everyone recognises. Clients cannot articulate why they do not trust it — but they do not.

The right question is not "what is the lowest price?" but "who owns the website in the end, and what does it cost me over 3 years?". For a properly built site, the answer to the first part must be: you. Code, content, accounts, access — everything handed over, in writing.

How to read an offer: 6 questions that clarify everything

When you compare two offers, do not compare only the totals. Ask both the same questions:

1. Who owns the code, content and accounts in the end? The correct answer is "you, in full".
2. What exactly does the price include? How many pages, who writes the copy, how many revision rounds, is Google optimisation included?
3. What does running it cost per year? Domain, hosting, maintenance — ask for the figures up front, not after launch.
4. What is the deadline, and what happens if it slips? A deadline without clear stages is not a deadline, it is a hope.
5. What happens after launch? Who answers when something breaks? How fast? What does a small change cost?
6. Can I see real, live projects? Not mock-ups — websites that work, with clients who can be asked.

In short

• Presentation website: €400–900 on a personalised theme, €900–2,500 with custom design.
• Online store: €900–2,500 standard, €2,000–4,500 with integrations (courier, invoicing, stock).
• Web applications and custom software: from ~€3,000, frequently €5,000–15,000 for serious projects.
• Running costs: domain + hosting + maintenance ≈ 15–25% per year of the site's value.
• Cheap without ownership (builders, monthly rents, lock-in) ends up, over 2–3 years, more expensive than doing it right.
• Compare offers with the 6 questions — above all, "who owns the website in the end?".