What does a website cost in Austria?

“What does a website cost?” can only be answered honestly in two parts: a one-off amount for building it and a running amount for operating it. Both depend on what the website has to do.

Many pages online quote price ranges for this, usually without a source, and such ranges say little about your business. This post explains instead what the price is made of, so you can compare quotes yourself.

What does a website cost in Austria?

At bown a website starts from €499 excl. VAT. Running it with hosting and maintenance starts from €39 per month excl. VAT, including domain, e-mail and storage. We have no other prices: anything beyond that is set out after the first call in a written quote with scope, timeline and costs.

On VAT: the standard rate in Austria is 20 percent.¹ So €499 net becomes €598.80 gross. If you are entitled to deduct input tax, you reclaim that part through your VAT return.

What sets the price of a website

Five points make the biggest difference:

1. Scope. A one-pager with offer, opening hours and contact is built faster than a website with ten service pages, a team page and references.
2. Design. An adapted template costs less than a presence designed specifically for your brand.
3. Content. Copy and photos are often the largest hidden item. If you supply them yourself you save; if you have them written or photographed, you pay for it.
4. Features. A form is simple. An online shop, table booking or ticket sales bring payment, confirmations and more legal texts. Whether a shop pays off is covered in When an online shop pays off.
5. Languages. Every further language means translating and checking all copy and maintaining it twice from then on.

One-off and running costs

One-off, you pay for concept, design, copy, images and the technical build. Three things are ongoing:

• Domain: your website's address, renewed every year.
• Hosting: the server the website lives on, with the SSL certificate and e-mail.
• Maintenance: updates, backups, monitoring and small changes. What that means in detail is explained in What ongoing maintenance covers.

Advertising budget is not part of it. What you spend on Google or Instagram ads is a separate item that you plan separately; more in Planning a marketing budget.

Example

Website builder, freelancer or agency?

With a website builder you pay a monthly subscription and build the website yourself. That is cheap as long as you have time and the templates are enough. Copy, photos, legal texts and upkeep stay with you.

A freelancer builds the website for you. A lot depends on one person: holidays, illness or a change of career affect your website too.

An agency takes on concept, design, copy and technology and usually the running operation too. Ask who does the work and who your contact is afterwards.

None of the three is right in principle. What matters is how much of your own time you want to put in and who will still look after the website a year from now.

What a quote must contain

A serious quote is written and can be compared with others. Check these points:

• which pages and features are included;
• who supplies copy and photos;
• how many rounds of corrections are planned;
• the timeline to launch;
• the price, clearly stating whether it is net or gross;
• the running costs after launch, separate from the one-off amount;
• who owns the domain, content and logins if you want to switch later.

If one of these is missing, ask before you sign.

Which mandatory details every website in Austria needs

Some content is required by law and belongs in the price from the start. This section is an overview, not legal advice.

• Imprint under the E-Commerce Act: name or company, address, e-mail address and, where applicable, company register number, chamber, supervisory authority and VAT number, permanently easy to reach.²
• Disclosure under the Media Act: media owner, business purpose and registered office, permanently findable on the website. For a pure company presentation these basic details are enough.³
• Prices: if the website shows prices, it must be clear whether they include VAT and shipping.²
• Privacy policy: anyone collecting personal data, for example through a contact form, must inform people about it.⁴
• Cookie consent: cookies or similar technology that are not strictly necessary, for statistics or advertising for example, need active consent.⁵ More in Cookie banners in Austria.
• Accessibility for shops and bookings: since 28 June 2025 the Accessibility Act applies, among others, to web shops and online bookings for consumers. Micro-enterprises with fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of at most €2 million are exempt.⁶ Details in Austria's Accessibility Act.

Is there funding for the website?

Many pages still advertise KMU.DIGITAL funding. According to the programme page its budget is fully used up, applications are no longer possible, and the programme will not continue from 2027.⁷ Some federal states have their own digitalisation programmes. Before planning, ask your Chamber of Commerce what is open right now, and do not count on a grant.

How to get a reliable figure

Before the first conversation, write down what the website should do: which pages, which features, which languages, and who supplies copy and photos. With this list you can compare quotes, and you quickly see where a low price is only low because something is missing.

What a website for a small business has to do in principle is covered in What a website has to do.

Notes

1. Unternehmensserviceportal (USP), Federal Ministry of Finance, „Steuersätze und Steuerbefreiungen der Umsatzsteuer“, as of 1 July 2026, accessed 20 October 2026.

2. RIS, E-Commerce-Gesetz § 5 (1) and (2), accessed 20 October 2026. ²

3. RIS, Mediengesetz § 25 (1), (2) and (5), accessed 20 October 2026.

4. EUR-Lex, General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Article 13, accessed 20 October 2026.

5. RIS, Telekommunikationsgesetz 2021 § 165 (3), accessed 20 October 2026.

6. Unternehmensserviceportal (USP), „Barrierefreiheitsgesetz“, as of 16 July 2025, accessed 20 October 2026.

7. KMU.DIGITAL, Austrian Economic Chambers and BMWET, home page, accessed 20 October 2026.