A small business website in Ireland costs anywhere from about €200 a year for a do-it-yourself builder to €10,000 or more from an agency. For a shop, salon, cafe or trade, the realistic middle is a few hundred to a few thousand euro to build, plus somewhere between €20 and €150 a month to host it, keep it secure and keep it up to date. The build price gets all the attention, but the monthly cost and who does the updating are what decide whether the site is still working in two years.
This guide sets out what each route costs, what is usually left out of the quote, and the questions to ask before you pay anyone, including us.
The four ways to get a website, and what they cost
| Route | Build cost | Monthly or yearly cost | Who does the work after launch |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace, Shopify) | €0 | Roughly €15 to €45 a month, plus the domain | You |
| Freelancer | Roughly €800 to €3,000 | Hosting and domain, €10 to €40 a month, often arranged by you | You, or the freelancer if you can get hold of them |
| Agency | Roughly €3,000 to €15,000 or more | Maintenance retainers, often a few hundred euro a month | The agency, billed by the hour or on retainer |
| Run-for-you plan (how we work) | €499 or €1,499 | €50 or €100 a month, everything included | Us, by WhatsApp, or you from your phone |
A few notes on those numbers.
DIY builders look free and are not. The template is free. The plan that removes the builder’s adverts, connects your own domain and lets you take payments is a monthly subscription, and the real cost is your evenings. A lot of builder sites for small shops stall before they are finished because the owner ran out of weekends. We have written up the trade-offs in Wix vs Squarespace vs hiring someone.
Freelancer prices vary with what is included. €800 might buy a five page site with your text and photos dropped in. €3,000 might include writing the copy, setting up Google, and training you to make changes. Always ask who writes the words, because that is the part most owners never get around to.
Agency prices are for a different kind of business. If you have a marketing team, a product catalogue and a brand guide, an agency build makes sense. A barber with one shop is paying for meetings.
A monthly plan is only good if it includes the running. Hosting, security updates, daily backups, changes when your prices move, and someone watching the Google listing. If the monthly fee is just hosting, you are back to doing the work yourself.
The costs that are usually left out of the quote
These are the lines that turn a €1,000 quote into €2,000 over the first year.
- The domain. A .ie domain costs roughly €20 to €40 a year depending on the registrar. It should be registered in your name, not the designer’s. See how to register a .ie domain for what you need.
- Hosting. From a few euro a month for shared hosting to €30 or more for something managed. Cheap hosting is slow, and slow sites lose people on phones.
- SSL certificate. Should be free now. If someone charges you for the padlock, ask why.
- Email on your domain. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are each roughly €6 to €7 per user per month. Worth it, but it is an extra line.
- Photography. A half day with a photographer is a few hundred euro. Phone photos taken properly are free and usually fine for a shop.
- Copywriting. Rarely quoted, usually the reason sites stall. Ask who writes the words.
- Booking and payment systems. Booking platforms charge a monthly fee or a cut of each booking. Card processing is a percentage of each payment to Stripe, SumUp or similar.
- Changes after launch. The most common surprise. Ask the hourly rate for a change, or whether small changes are included.
What the price should get you
Whatever you pay, a finished small business site in Ireland should have:
- Your own .ie or .com domain, in your name.
- A fast page that works on a phone, with your hours, prices, photos and a way to contact you in one tap.
- A verified Google Business Profile that matches the site.
- The technical groundwork for Google and for AI search: proper titles, structured data, a sitemap.
- A way to make changes that does not involve a developer for every price rise.
If a quote does not clearly cover all five, it is not comparable with one that does. We keep a fuller checklist in what a small business website should include.
Questions to ask before you pay anyone
- Who owns the domain, and whose name is it registered in?
- What happens to the site if we stop paying?
- Who writes the text and sources the photos?
- Is the Google Business Profile part of the job?
- What does a small change cost after launch, and how long does it take?
- Is there a contract, and what is the notice period?
Honest answers to those six tell you more than the price does.
What we do for clients
We run two plans, and the prices are the same for everyone. Essentials is €499 to set up and €50 a month: the site, the .ie domain in your name, hosting, security, daily backups, a private edit page so you can change prices from your phone, the Google Business Profile set up and verified, and the groundwork for AI search. Complete is €1,499 to set up and €100 a month and adds online bookings, deposits and payments, review growth, a chat assistant, business email and monthly Google work. Small changes are included in both. There is no contract. The full list is on the pricing page, and the comparison with the other routes is the table above.