What a Website and a Web Application Cost (2026)

"How much does it cost to build a website?" is a question you cannot honestly answer with a single number. Prices span two orders of magnitude — from a few thousand to millions of korunas. It is not because someone is inflating the figure. It is because the word "website" covers two completely different things: a presentation that shows content, and an application that processes data.

This article separates the two, shows what really drives the price up, and helps you decide when a template pays off and when custom development does. You will not find specific rates here — those only make sense against a specific brief. What you will find are ranges and the factors you can use to estimate the cost yourself.

Presentation site vs. web application

The first thing to get clear on is what you actually want.

A presentation site shows content. Home page, about us, services, contact, blog. Data flows one way — from you to the visitor. Even an e-shop largely belongs here, as long as it runs on a ready-made platform. The work is mostly in design, content, and setup.

A web application processes data. User accounts, login, roles and permissions, forms that change something, calculations, connections to other systems. An example is a dispatch system that tracks ~50 vehicles in real time, or an internal tool that replaces spreadsheets and manual processes. Here most of the work is invisible — the user sees a few screens, and underneath sits business logic, a database, and integrations.

The price gap between these two categories is not a matter of tens of percent. It is a multiple. A presentation site runs from thousands to low hundreds of thousands. A custom application starts where a website ends and goes into hundreds of thousands to millions — depending on scope.

What really drives the price up

The price is not set by the number of pages. It is set by these factors.

Custom design vs. template. A ready-made template for a few hundred korunas versus an original design drawn for your brand. The difference is tens of hours of a designer's work, and whether the site looks like a thousand others or like you.

Number and depth of integrations. Every connection to a third-party system — payment gateway, ERP, CRM, warehouse, billing, government API — is separate work. Third-party APIs tend to have their own rules, outages, and quirks. A single integration can be more work than the entire rest of the site. For one client we built a connection to a banking API where statement import dropped from 2 hours to 3 minutes — that number is not about the website, but about the integration underneath it.

Business logic. How many rules does the system enforce? An account that just shows content is cheap. An account with roles, permissions, approval flows, and calculations is expensive — because every rule has to be programmed, tested, and handled for the case when something fails.

Data and scale. A website for a hundred visitors a day and an application that holds tens of thousands of records and runs on multiple instances are different leagues. For one client we cut load by 80% by optimizing database queries — that is work that makes no sense on a small site and decides whether a large one runs at all.

Reliability and operations. The more critical the system, the more work goes into things the user never sees: tests, monitoring, backups, recovery. For billing into a government system we built a pipeline that processed 40,000+ documents with 100% delivery — and that reliability costs more than sending the invoice itself.

Content and copywriting. Texts, photos, structure. Either you supply them, or someone has to write and shoot them. It tends to be an underestimated cost — a website without content is an empty shell.

SaaS, template, or custom

There are three paths, and each makes sense in different situations.

A ready-made SaaS platform (Shopify, Webflow, a rented e-shop). You pay monthly and get a finished tool. The cheapest start, the fastest launch. The price for that is playing by the platform's rules — what it cannot do, you will not have, and you keep paying every month.

A customized template. WordPress or a similar platform with an adjusted design. The middle path. Cheaper than custom, more flexible than pure SaaS. It works great for presentation sites and blogs. It hits a wall the moment you want your own logic the platform never anticipated.

Custom development. Built exactly to your brief. The most expensive and slowest start, but the only path where you have your own processes, need integrations with your systems, or scale a ready-made solution cannot handle. For one client we built a system of 128,000 lines of code — that is not something you assemble from a template.

The rule is simple: as long as you do what the platform can do, use the platform. Custom development makes sense the moment you start working around the platform, or when its limits start costing you more than the development would.

When each pays off

You can simplify the decision with three questions.

Does the platform dictate the rules, or do you? If what the platform offers is enough, do not pay for custom development. The moment you start running into "sorry, that's not possible", it is time to consider custom.

Is the site a tool or a shop window? A shop window (presentation, a flyer on the web) — a template is enough. A tool people use daily for work — plan for a custom application, and for operations and maintenance being part of the price, not an add-on.

What is the cost of an error? For a corporate presentation an outage is annoying. For a system that billing or operations run on, an outage is expensive. The higher the cost of an error, the more it makes sense to invest in reliability — and the more it costs, because that reliability is extra work.

Cheap and fast makes sense where the site does not have to carry weight. Investment in custom development pays off where the website or application is the product itself or the backbone of operations.

We'll help you estimate it

We build websites and web applications — from presentation sites to systems that process tens of thousands of records, integrate with third-party APIs, and run in production for years. When you are not sure whether a template is enough or you need custom development, we will tell you straight — even when the answer is "a template is enough, don't overpay".

Send us what you need and you will get an estimate of scope and price against a specific brief. Get in touch — we will go through what makes sense to build and what does not.

FAQ

How much does a simple website cost?

A template on a ready-made platform runs from thousands to tens of thousands of korunas. A custom website with its own design and a CMS connection runs from tens to low hundreds of thousands. The main difference is custom design and the number of integrations, not the number of pages.

What is the price difference between a website and a web application?

A presentation site shows content; an application processes data and has user accounts, roles, and business logic. A custom application therefore costs several times more — typically hundreds of thousands to millions of korunas — because most of the work is invisible: authentication, permissions, integrations, tests, and operations.

When does a template pay off and when does custom?

A template pays off as long as you do what the platform can do — presentation, blog, simple e-shop. Custom pays off once you need your own logic, integrations with your systems, or scale the template cannot handle. The line is about who dictates the rules — you to the platform, or the platform to you.