You ask for a price, you get a number, you’re happy. Then the first annual renewal bill arrives and you wonder where it came from. The problem is rarely a scam — more often it’s that no one explained the full picture in advance.
A website has a one-off price (the build) and ongoing costs (to keep it working). Here they all are, with real numbers, so there are no surprises.
An important note: these costs aren’t “hidden” by an honest contractor — they’re stated from the very start. They become hidden when someone gives you a low build price and stays silent about what you pay afterwards.
The full picture of costs
| Cost | How much | When |
|---|---|---|
| Build | one-off | At the start. |
| Domain | €10–20 / yr | Every year. |
| Hosting | €30–100 / yr | Every year. |
| SSL certificate | €0–50 / yr | Every year (often free). |
| Maintenance | €100–400 / yr | Yearly or monthly. |
| Text and photos | €0–500 | Once, if you don’t have them. |
Domain: the address that must be yours
The domain is the website’s address — for example web-fabrika.com. It costs little (€10–20 per year), but there’s one rule more important than the price: the domain must be registered in your name or your company’s.
If it’s in the contractor’s name, then in a parting of ways you risk losing your own address. Ask explicitly in whose name it is — it’s a 30-second check that saves you an enormous problem later.
Hosting: where the website lives
Hosting is the server the website sits on. Here the price-quality balance matters:
- Hosting that’s too cheap makes the website slow — and speed affects both clients and ranking in Google.
- Good hosting costs a little more, but keeps the website fast and stable.
- A store needs more powerful hosting than an informational website.
SSL: the little padlock
SSL is the certificate that makes the address start with “https” and puts a padlock next to it. Without it the browser shows “Not secure” and visitors leave, while Google pushes the website down.
The good news: it’s often free (via Let’s Encrypt) and included by most serious contractors. Just check that your website has it — it’s easy to see from the padlock in the address bar.
Maintenance: the cost that saves costs
Maintenance sounds like a cost you can skip. In fact it’s the opposite — it prevents much more expensive problems:
- Updates that close security holes.
- Regular backups, so you don’t lose everything if something goes wrong.
- Monitoring, so a problem is caught before clients see it.
The maths is simple: maintenance of around €145 per year against recovering a hacked website, which costs €150–400 one-off plus the days the website was down. Maintenance is almost always cheaper than the emergency.
Text and photos: the cost hidden inside “free”
Many quotes assume you provide the text and photos. If you have them — great. If not, you’ll have to write them yourself (time) or pay for copywriting and photography (money).
This isn’t necessarily a problem — you just need to know in advance who’s responsible for the content, so you don’t find yourself writing copy late into the night a week before launch.
The real annual bill
Let’s add it all up for a typical small business website after the first year, so you see the whole picture at once:
| Cost | Per year |
|---|---|
| Domain | ~€15 |
| Hosting | ~€60 |
| SSL | €0 (free) |
| Maintenance | ~€145 |
| Total per year | ~€220 |
Around €220 per year — under €20 a month — to keep the website alive, fast and protected. That’s the real cost of “owning” a website, separate from the build. Know it in advance and there are no surprises.
How to avoid the surprises
Before you pay, ask three questions that reveal the whole picture:
- What are the annual costs after the build? Domain, hosting, maintenance — ask for specific numbers.
- In whose name is the domain registered? The answer should be “yours.”
- Who provides the text and photos? So there’s no surprise a week before launch.
An honest contractor answers all of this without hesitation. Evasiveness here is a signal in itself.
Summary: Besides the build you pay for a domain (€10–20/yr), hosting (€30–100/yr), sometimes SSL, maintenance (€100–400/yr) and possibly text and photos. These costs are normal — they only become a problem when they’re kept quiet. The domain must be in your name. Ask for the full picture before you pay.