What does a website cost in Switzerland?
The honest answer is: it depends. Here is what it depends on, so you can read offers properly and ask the right questions.
Why prices vary so much
Two offers for “a website” can differ by a factor of ten, and both can be fair. One may be a template filled with your texts; the other a site designed for your business, written, photographed, translated and tested. Before you compare prices, compare what is actually included.
Time is the main cost. A simple site may take a few days of work; a multilingual site with its own design and a shop can take many weeks.
What drives the cost
- Size: how many pages and how many different page types (a page about you is simple; a page that filters projects or takes bookings is not).
- Design: an adapted template or a design made for you, with your own look on every screen size.
- Content: who writes the texts, who takes the photos, and who translates. In Switzerland, a second or third language adds real work.
- Functions: forms, bookings, a shop, member areas or connections to other software.
- Care after launch: hosting, updates, backups and small changes. They are a monthly cost, not a one-off.
Three kinds of offers
Website builders such as Wix or Squarespace cost a monthly fee and your own time. They suit you if you enjoy doing it yourself and need little more than a few pages.
A freelancer or a studio working from a template is a good middle way: a professional result in a set structure, usually quicker and cheaper than a custom design.
A custom website is designed and built for your business. It costs more up front and pays off when your website has to win customers, not just exist.
How to compare offers
- Is everything in your name: the domain, the hosting account, the logins?
- Are texts, photos and translations included, or do you deliver them?
- How many rounds of changes are included?
- What does it cost per month after launch, and what do you get for it?
- Can you change texts yourself, and can you take the website elsewhere later?
A cheaper offer is not a worse one if it fits what you need. But if two offers differ a lot, the difference is usually in these questions.
Costs people forget
Besides building the website, plan for the domain and hosting every year, for updates and backups, and for the time it takes to keep texts, prices and photos current. A website that nobody looks after loses value quickly, and fixing it later usually costs more than looking after it.
Content is the other one. Good photos and clear texts make more difference than any effect, and they take time, whether you write them yourself or have them written.
What you can prepare
- A short list of what the website should achieve, and for whom.
- Two or three websites you like, and what you like about them.
- The pages you need, and the languages.
- Your logo, photos and any texts you already have.
With that, offers become comparable, and the first conversation is far more useful.
Our advice
Start from what the website has to achieve: more enquiries, bookings, sales or trust. Then ask for offers that describe exactly what is included. If you like, tell us about your project and we will tell you plainly which kind of website fits.