Key takeaways
- A five-page business website costs a median of CHF 1'500 from a freelancer and CHF 4'400 from an agency.
- The same seven-page brief, sent to 31 providers in Zürich, came back at CHF 2'100 on average from freelancers, CHF 6'800 from small agencies, CHF 15'200 from medium agencies and CHF 29'500 from large ones.
- A second language adds 30 to 100 percent. Advertised starting prices usually end up 1.5 to 2 times higher once the project is scoped.
- Only 43 percent of the quotes included any SEO work, and only 29 percent mentioned data protection. Cheap quotes are often cheap because these are missing.
The 2026 price ranges
Nobody in Switzerland publishes an official statistic for website prices. What exists are a handful of surveys and one quote study, and they agree with each other closely enough to be useful.
The most instructive is the quote study by Websharks in Zürich. One identical brief for a seven-page company website went to 31 providers between January and February 2026. Only six of them answered with a fixed price. The rest quoted hourly rates between CHF 110 and 220 and estimated the hours. The average reply took 4.6 working days.
| Provider type | Average quote for the same 7-page brief |
|---|---|
| Freelancer | CHF 2'100 (lowest 790, highest 4'200) |
| Small agency | CHF 6'800 |
| Medium agency | CHF 15'200 |
| Large agency | CHF 29'500 |
A second source is the price survey by website-erstellen-lassen-schweiz.ch from September 2026. It asked for a simpler five-page site and found a freelancer median of CHF 1'500 and an agency median of CHF 4'400.
The ratio is the same in both: an agency charges roughly three times what a freelancer charges for comparable scope, and a large agency charges three times what a small one does.
Where my packages sit. Start (5 pages, one language) is CHF 3'100 and Business (10 pages, German and English) is CHF 7'200. That is above the freelancer average and about 35 percent below the agency midpoint for the same brief. The pricing page lists exactly what each one includes.
What moves the price
Pages and languages
Price per page falls as a site grows, but a second language does not come cheap. The Digitalawards survey from May 2026 looked at 219 published price lines and put the surcharge for a second language at 30 to 100 percent, depending on whether the provider translates or you deliver the texts yourself.
The same survey found that advertised "from" prices typically end 1.5 to 2 times higher once the real scope is known. A "website from CHF 2'500" is a starting point, not a quote.
Design
A theme with your logo and colours is the floor. A custom design, with a mockup you approve before anything gets built, is the norm from small agencies upwards. That design work is a large part of what the difference between a freelancer price and an agency price buys. Whether it is worth it depends on how much your site has to do for you. For a business that wins work on reputation and referrals, a clean theme can be enough. For one that competes on Google against five others in the same town, it usually is not.
SEO and the legal part
Of the 31 Zürich quotes, 43 percent included any search engine work, and 29 percent mentioned the data protection act (nDSG) at all. Both cost money later if they are left out: an Impressum, a privacy statement and a cookie notice are not optional for a Swiss business site, and a site built without basic SEO in mind is expensive to fix afterwards.
So when a quote looks cheap, check whether these two are in it. More often than not, that is the difference.
Freelancer, studio or agency?
The honest short version: a freelancer is the right choice when one person can own the whole project and you are happy to deal with that person directly. An agency is the right choice when you need several disciplines at the same time, such as strategy, copywriting, photography and development, or when your procurement rules need a company on the other side of the contract.
Three questions sort most providers quickly:
- Who builds it? At many agencies the person in the pitch is not the person at the keyboard. Ask.
- What exactly is included? Page count, languages, revision rounds, SEO scope, legal pages. In writing.
- What happens after launch? Updates, backups and small changes are a separate line, and usually a separate price.
Costs after launch
The build is the big number, but not the last one. Count on:
- Hosting, roughly CHF 10 to 40 a month for a business site on a Swiss or European host.
- Domain, about CHF 10 to 15 a year for a .ch address.
- Licences for premium themes or plugins, if the site uses any. Ask whether they are included or transferred to you.
- Maintenance. Swiss care plans start around CHF 45 to 89 a month for updates and backups, sit at CHF 125 to 149 with an hour of changes included, and run from CHF 250 to 350 and more for online shops.
The cheapest plans rarely include any change time, so look at what the hour costs when you need one.
Rule of thumb: plan 15 to 20 percent of the build price per year for running the site. Below that, something is being skipped, usually updates.
FAQ
Is CHF 1'500 for a website realistic?
Yes, for a five-page site on a ready-made theme from a freelancer, with your texts delivered and no SEO work. It will not include a custom design or a second language.
Why do agencies cost three times more?
Project management, account management and office costs sit on top of the hours. You also get more disciplines in one place, which matters for larger projects and matters less for a five-page site.
Is MWST included in these prices?
No. Swiss quotes between businesses are given excl. 8.1 percent MWST, and the surveys follow that convention. If a quote does not say, ask.
Do these prices apply to online shops?
No. A shop is a different project. The surveys above cover company websites; shop prices start higher because of payment, shipping and tax setup. See the Shop package on the pricing page for a worked example.
Twenty minutes on the phone, a written quote within two working days.
Sources: Websharks Zürich quote study, January to February 2026 (31 offers for one identical seven-page brief) · website-erstellen-lassen-schweiz.ch price survey, September 2026 · Digitalawards price survey, May 2026 (219 published price lines). All prices excl. MWST.