Having a Website Built: What Does a Website Cost for SMEs in Switzerland?

If you want to have a website built, your first question is usually: what does it cost? The honest answer is "it depends". But that doesn't help you much. That's why this post gives you concrete numbers: what a website for SMEs in Switzerland typically costs, what drives the price, which running costs come on top, and how to compare quotes.

The short answer: what does a website cost for SMEs?

• Simple website (one-pager or small company website with 1 to 5 pages): at KOMUNIQUE from CHF 3,000, also as a relaunch of your existing website.
• Larger website (with CMS, multiple languages or a shop): quoted individually, with every item listed separately.
• Moving an existing website to Webflow or Webstudio, for example from WordPress, Drupal or TYPO3: fixed-price packages from CHF 900.
• Complex projects with a shop, booking system or members' area: individual quote.

Even for individual quotes, I work with flat rates instead of hourly billing whenever possible. That gives both sides planning certainty: you know from the start what your website will cost, and I can focus on building it instead of tracking hours.

For comparison: published prices from Swiss web agencies for one-pagers and small company websites usually range from around CHF 1,000 to CHF 6,500. Larger SME websites with many subpages, a CMS or multiple languages often cost between CHF 7,500 and CHF 25,000. Hourly rates range roughly from CHF 120 to CHF 250.

On top of that come running costs for hosting and your domain. Hosting is available from CHF 15 per month with Webflow, and from CHF 10 per month with Webstudio through KOMUNIQUE. All prices in this post exclude VAT.

What determines the price of a website

Two websites can look similar at first glance and still differ a lot in price. These are the deciding factors:

What drives the effort

Scope and number of pages: A one-pager or a small company website with a home page, services, about us and contact is quicker to build than a website with twenty subpages, several services and a team or case study section. The more different page types there are, the more concept, design and development work goes into it.

Custom design: A custom design that fits your brand takes more time than an adapted template. In return, your website stands out and doesn't look like a hundred others. If you don't have a logo or corporate design yet, branding work is added. I do that together with das kreativkollektiv, my partner network for graphic design, branding and copywriting.

Copy and images: Copy is one of the most underestimated cost items. If you supply finished texts, the effort goes down. If the copy should be written professionally so that it speaks to your customers and gets found in search engines, that is a separate item. The same goes for images: your own photos are more credible than stock images, but a photo shoot costs extra.

Multiple languages: For many SMEs in Switzerland, a second or third language is a topic. Webflow offers built-in localization (Webflow Localization) as a paid add-on. A good alternative is Weglot: translations are managed centrally, are easy to integrate and can be supplemented with professional translations. KOMUNIQUE is a Weglot partner, and my clients benefit from very good terms. In both cases, translating the content itself is a separate item.

CMS and blog: If you want to maintain news, blog posts, case studies, team members or services yourself on a regular basis, your website needs a CMS with a clean structure. Planning that structure is work that pays off later: you add new content yourself without needing an agency for every change.

Shop, booking and members' areas: An online shop, a booking tool or a protected members' area are no small matter. They involve payment processing, shipping, calendars, user permissions or interfaces to other systems. I always quote projects like these individually, so you know exactly what's included beforehand.

What's always included with me

These points are part of every website with me and are not an add-on package:

SEO, AEO and GEO: A website nobody finds doesn't achieve much. That's why clean structure, fast loading times, meta data and structured data are part of every build with me, not an add-on package. Alongside classic search engine optimization (SEO), AI search optimization is now part of it too: AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) make sure your website can be understood, cited and recommended by AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Ongoing content work or campaigns are a separate topic.

Accessibility: Sufficient contrast, readable fonts, alt text for images, a clean heading structure and navigation that also works with a keyboard and screen readers. All visitors benefit from this, and search engines and AI chatbots also understand an accessible website better.

Sustainability: Sustainable web design means lean code, optimized images in modern formats, as few external scripts as possible and hosting with a low carbon footprint. Every page that transfers less data loads faster and uses less energy, both on the server and on your visitors' devices.

Admin training: At the end of a project, you should be able to maintain your website yourself. That's why admin training is part of every project with me. With some offers, it isn't included or is billed separately. Ask about it when you compare quotes.

Typical price ranges at a glance

• Simple website (one-pager or small company website with 1 to 5 pages): market approx. CHF 1,000 to CHF 6,500, at KOMUNIQUE from CHF 3,000, also as a relaunch.
• Larger website (many subpages, CMS for blog, case studies or team, multiple languages): market approx. CHF 7,500 to CHF 25,000, at KOMUNIQUE quoted individually, with every item listed separately.
• Moving an existing website (1:1 move from WordPress, Drupal, TYPO3 or a website builder, design and content stay the same): market varies widely, often billed by effort, at KOMUNIQUE fixed-price packages from CHF 900.
• Complex projects (shop, booking system or members' area, interfaces): market depends heavily on the requirements, at KOMUNIQUE individual quote.

All prices exclude VAT. The market ranges are guide values based on published prices from Swiss web agencies and are no guarantee for any specific project.

For a move, there are three packages with clear limits: up to 6 pages without CMS, up to 12 pages with CMS, and larger or multilingual websites. You can find what each one includes on the page Having a website built.

Running costs: what comes after go-live

A website doesn't only cost money once. Plan these items into your budget:

• Hosting: From CHF 15 per month for Webflow websites, and from CHF 10 per month for Webstudio websites through KOMUNIQUE. The exact amount depends on the platform and the scope, and I clarify it with you before the project starts.
• Domain: A .ch domain usually costs between around CHF 10 and CHF 40 per year, depending on the provider. If you already own a domain, you can keep using it.
• Maintenance and support: After the admin training, you maintain your content yourself. For adjustments, extensions or questions, I support you on a time-and-effort basis. There is no mandatory maintenance contract.
• Optional services: Depending on the website, licenses for multilingual support, a cookie banner tool or a newsletter service may be added.

One point that is often forgotten in comparisons: with systems like WordPress, plugin licenses and regular updates often come on top of hosting, and someone has to take reliable responsibility for them. With Webflow and Webstudio, the platform takes care of infrastructure and security updates. You can read more about this in the post Who actually takes care of your website's security? and in the WordPress or Webflow comparison for SMEs.

Why AI makes your website more affordable, but not interchangeable

AI is everywhere today. There are tools that generate a complete website in a few minutes. That may be enough for a first draft, but usually not for an SME that wants to stand out from the competition: these websites often look alike, the copy is interchangeable, and the structure rarely fits your business exactly.

Then there's the time after go-live. A generated website can often only be maintained or developed further through new prompts. A small change can quickly alter the whole page, and targeted adjustments are hardly possible. And you depend on a specific AI tool or a paid AI agent.

I take a different approach. Your website gets a custom web design, not an off-the-shelf AI website. I use AI specifically as a copilot to simplify processes and speed up development. In practice, that means:

• Building in Webflow and Webstudio with AI: Webflow is a professional development tool that combines classic coding with visual coding and a strong MCP (Model Context Protocol). Webstudio also offers a very good MCP. Through these interfaces, I can use AI directly in development, for example to set up structures, apply styles or enter CMS content. I describe how this works in detail in the post Webflow: professional web development with code, visual development and an AI copilot.
• Moving content: Text, images, blog posts and meta data from WordPress, Drupal or TYPO3 can be transferred in a structured way with AI support, including redirects for all old URLs.
• SEO, AEO and technical checks: AI finds missing meta data, broken links, images without alt text or gaps in structured data faster than any manual check.
• Multiple languages: Translation drafts and transferring content into other languages go much faster. They are still checked for accuracy and language.
• Routine work: The copilot takes over recurring tasks such as creating CMS entries, standardizing formatting or testing forms.

What always stays with a human: concept, design, copy, decisions and quality control. I check every step the AI takes. AI speeds things up, but I make the decisions, together with you.

For you, this has a very practical benefit: fewer hours spent on routine work means more time for what matters, meaning your content, your design and the question of what your website should achieve for your business. And it allows for fairer pricing. That's exactly why I can offer, for example, moving an existing website at fixed prices from CHF 900.

Webflow or Webstudio: which fits what?

I work with two professional development tools. We decide together which one fits your needs.

Webflow is my standard for most SME websites. Design, development, CMS and hosting are combined on one platform. The Editor for maintaining content is very simple and clear, and multiple languages are available built in or via Weglot. Hosting is available from CHF 15 per month.

Webstudio is an open alternative. It's particularly well suited for static websites or for projects that use a separate headless CMS such as Hygraph or Sanity, for example with extensive or multilingual content. The website can be exported at any time, and thanks to a very good MCP, AI can be used as a copilot in development here too. Hosting through KOMUNIQUE is available from CHF 10 per month.

In short: Webflow scores with the simplest content maintenance from a single source, Webstudio with openness and low running costs. You can find a detailed comparison in the post Webstudio: the open alternative to Webflow.

What SMEs should look for in quotes

Website quotes are often hard to compare. This checklist helps you see more quickly what you're actually getting:

1. Is every item listed separately? Concept, design, development, copy, images, translations and training should be clearly identifiable. Ideally, items are priced as flat rates rather than open-ended hourly estimates, so you can plan with fixed costs.
2. What isn't included? A good quote also says what's missing, for example copy, photos, translations or shop features.
3. How high are the running costs? Ask about hosting, licenses, domain and any maintenance contracts, ideally calculated over several years.
4. Can you maintain the website yourself? And is admin training part of the project?
5. Are SEO, AEO and GEO planned in? Meta data, structured data and fast loading times should be standard, not an extra.
6. Are accessibility and sustainability taken into account? Contrast, alt text, keyboard navigation, lean code and hosting with a low carbon footprint are part of it today.
7. What happens to your existing rankings? A relaunch or move should include 301 redirects for all old URLs.
8. Who owns the website? Make sure you have access to your domain, hosting and content, and can take the website to another agency if needed.
9. Is there a schedule with milestones? That way, you always know where the project stands.
10. How is support handled after go-live? By effort, by subscription or by contract, and on what terms?

A low price is only a good deal if the website still works, gets found and can be maintained without an agency three years from now.

In person in Appenzell, St. Gallen and Eastern Switzerland

KOMUNIQUE is a web agency based in Appenzell, an owner-managed sole proprietorship with a partner network. For kick-offs, workshops or photo shoots, we're happy to meet in person, at your place in St. Gallen, the Rhine Valley, Thurgau or Toggenburg, or at my office in Appenzell. Everything else runs smoothly via video call. You have one fixed contact person from the idea to go-live and beyond.

You can read more about how I work for SMEs in the region on the page Having a website built in St. Gallen and Eastern Switzerland. You can find all the details on the process, relaunches and the fixed-price packages under Having a website built. I'm just as happy to take on projects from the rest of Switzerland.

Conclusion: clear numbers instead of vague budgets

At KOMUNIQUE, a simple website for your SME starts from CHF 3,000, larger websites are quoted individually, and moving an existing website starts at CHF 900. On top of that come manageable running costs for hosting and your domain. How much your website ends up costing depends mainly on scope, design, copy, languages and features.

AI helps me get routine work done faster and offer you fair pricing as a result. But the concept, the design and the quality of your website remain handcrafted, tailored to your business.

Want to know what your website would cost? Contact me for a free initial consultation. Afterwards, you'll receive a quote with every item listed separately, as flat rates whenever possible.