How much does a website cost in Switzerland?

The short answer, in figures

These are ranges observed on the Swiss market, not a price list and not a law. A brochure or marketing site, meaning five to ten pages presenting a company and its offer, is generally quoted between CHF 1'500 and CHF 4'000. A custom build, meaning bespoke features, integrations with other systems, or anything that cannot be assembled from existing components, sits between CHF 4'000 and CHF 15'000. An e-commerce site is generally quoted between CHF 5'000 and CHF 20'000. A full brand identity, separate from the site itself, is observed between CHF 1'200 and CHF 3'500. Ongoing maintenance runs between CHF 350 and CHF 2'000 per year, and agency hourly rates for work outside a fixed scope are commonly between CHF 120 and CHF 180.

The width of those ranges is the first thing worth understanding. A brochure site at the bottom of the range and one at the top are not the same product sold at different prices; they are different amounts of work, different amounts of thinking, and often different amounts of what happens after launch. Two quotes that differ by a factor of three usually differ because one of them includes items the other does not, not because one of them is dishonest.

The second thing worth understanding is that the build price is not the cost. Over three years, the recurring lines can account for a meaningful share of what you actually spend, and they are the lines least likely to appear in the quote you are comparing. That is covered further down, and it is the part most budgets treat as an afterthought.

What the market charges, by type of site

The table below sets out the ranges observed on the market against what generally sits behind them. The last column shows where the studio's published prices fall, for reference; that comparison is made honestly further down rather than sold here.

If a quote you have received sits well below the bottom of a range, that is not automatically a warning sign, but it is a question. Ask what has been removed to get there. If it sits well above the top, the same question applies in reverse: ask what is included that a cheaper quote would not deliver. Both answers should be specific.

Why Swiss prices sit above neighbouring markets

Switzerland is an expensive country to operate in, and web work is priced in that reality like everything else. Salaries, social charges, workspace, insurance and general cost of living are all higher here than in the neighbouring markets that most comparison quotes come from. A studio in Geneva, Lausanne or Zurich has to cover those costs out of the same invoice as a studio in a lower-cost country, which is the largest part of the difference. There is no mystery in it and no premium being extracted; the same hour of work simply costs more to supply.

There are secondary reasons. Swiss projects frequently need more than one language, and multilingual sites are structurally more work: more content, more decisions about which language leads, more testing, more ongoing maintenance because every future change happens twice or three times. Expectations around finish also tend to be high, and clients here often ask for a level of polish that is slow to produce. Data handling and hosting preferences add administrative work on some projects.

The practical consequence is that comparing a Swiss quote to a foreign freelancer's quote is not a like-for-like comparison, even when the two documents describe the same pages. You are comparing different labour costs, different time zones, different working languages, and different levels of recourse if something goes wrong two years from now. That does not mean the foreign quote is worse. It means the difference between the two numbers is not a measure of quality, and treating it as one will lead you to a bad decision in either direction.

What actually moves a quote up or down

Page count is the factor people often expect to dominate. It is a driver, but it is rarely the biggest one. These are the factors that genuinely move the number:

• Who writes the content. Copy and photography are commonly excluded and commonly underestimated. If you are supplying them, the price falls and your own workload rises. If they are included, the price rises and the project usually ships faster.
• How many languages. A second or third language is not a translation line at the end; it affects structure, navigation, URLs and every future update. It should appear in the quote explicitly.
• Whether design is bespoke or based on an existing system. A well-adapted template is a legitimate choice and costs less. A design built from your brand is more expensive and looks like you.
• Functionality beyond pages. Booking, memberships, payments, calculators, connections to a CRM or an accounting tool: each of these is a project of its own attached to the site.
• How decisions get made. A project with one decision-maker who answers within a day costs less than the same project reviewed by a committee, because revision rounds are a hidden hourly cost in almost every build.
• Deadline. Compressed timelines cost more everywhere, and Switzerland is no exception.
• Whether you receive the source files. A build you can take elsewhere is worth more than one you cannot, and a build that cannot be taken elsewhere is a smaller scope, and scope shows up in the price.

Indicative timelines help calibrate the same way prices do. An identity typically takes around fourteen days, a brochure site two to four weeks, and an e-commerce build six to eight weeks. A quote promising materially less than that for the same scope is either compressing your involvement or compressing the work.

One-off build or monthly subscription

Two models dominate the Swiss market and they are easy to confuse. The one-off build is a fixed price paid once. You own the result, you own the files, and afterwards you either maintain it yourself, pay for maintenance, or leave it alone. The monthly subscription bundles the build into a recurring fee, often over a minimum term, and the site typically remains with the provider.

The subscription model is not a trap and it suits some businesses well: cash flow is smooth, support is continuous, and nothing needs to be budgeted as capital expenditure. The thing to check is what happens at the end. Over a long enough period a subscription can exceed the one-off price of an equivalent build several times over, and if the site is not portable you are also paying for the right to keep something you cannot move. Ask two questions before signing: what is the minimum term, and what leaves with you if you stop.

There is a third arrangement that is often mistaken for the second: a one-off build, owned by you, with a separate optional monthly retainer for marketing or ongoing work. That is the structure of the Fritz monthly offers, and the distinction matters because the site does not depend on the retainer continuing. If a provider presents a monthly figure, establish which of the two things it is before comparing it to anything.

What a website really costs over three years

This is where budgets often go wrong. The build is the visible number and the recurring lines are the ones rarely quoted at signature. Three years is the horizon this guide uses, for no reason other than consistency: it is long enough for the recurring lines to become visible, and short enough to plan against. The figures in the third column are arithmetic, obtained by multiplying the annual ranges above by three. They are not separately observed market data, and no reader should treat them as such.

Two lessons come out of that table. The first is that a cheap build with expensive maintenance can be more costly over three years than a more expensive build with light maintenance, which is why comparing build prices alone tells you very little. The second is that the ability to edit your own content is a financial feature, not a convenience. If every text change requires a paid hour, the hourly rate becomes your real recurring cost.

How to read a quote and compare two of them

An honest quote is itemised. It does not need to be long, but it needs to let you see what you are paying for. When you receive one, check that it answers these things in writing:

• The number of pages or templates, named rather than counted.
• Who writes the copy and who supplies the photography.
• How many languages, and what happens to the second language when the first one changes.
• How many revision rounds are included and what happens after them.
• Who owns the design and code at the end, and whether source files are handed over.
• Where the site will be hosted, who holds the domain, and in whose name.
• What maintenance costs per year and what it includes, stated as a figure and not as a promise.
• The hourly rate for anything outside the scope.
• Whether the amounts are inclusive or exclusive of VAT.

Comparing two quotes that look nothing alike

Put both on the same three-year basis before you look at either total. Add the build, three years of stated maintenance, and any hosting figure to each. Then normalise the scope: if one includes copywriting and the other does not, price the missing item rather than ignoring it. If one of the two quotes has simply left more out, this exercise is what will show it, and the cheaper document may not stay the cheaper one once the missing lines are priced in.

One more thing to test: ask each provider who will actually do the work and who you will speak to when something breaks. It is a fair question, the answer is usually informative, and it costs nothing to ask.

Where the published prices sit

Stated plainly, because the point of this guide is calibration and it would be strange to leave the studio's own figures out of it. Brand identity is CHF 1'500 against an observed range of CHF 1'200 to CHF 3'500, so near the bottom. A brochure or marketing site is CHF 1'700 against CHF 1'500 to CHF 4'000, so near the bottom. E-commerce is CHF 2'500 against CHF 5'000 to CHF 20'000, which is below the observed floor, not at the low end of it. Monthly marketing is CHF 490, CHF 890 or CHF 1'390, and Growth Ops is CHF 490, CHF 1'290 or CHF 2'900; both are set out in full on their own pages. All build prices are one-off payments.

The reason is structural rather than promotional. This is a one-person studio in Geneva, so there is no agency overhead in the number, no account layer, and no margin covering people who are not working on your project. That is the trade-off actually on offer: the same care, less structure around it, and less capacity than an agency has.

Prices are published rather than quoted on request; the code and the design source files are handed over at the end so the work is portable; you speak to the person doing the work, and you get a reply within twenty-four hours. A quote costs nothing. Nothing on this page changes if you take those figures and use them to negotiate with someone else, which is the intended use.

If you are pricing this from outside Switzerland

If you are calibrating rather than buying, this section is the one that matters. That describes a lot of the people who reach a page like this: newly arrived founders, staff at international organisations and multinationals, and foreign companies opening a Swiss entity with a budget approved somewhere else and no way to tell whether a given quote is reasonable. A few things are worth knowing before you start collecting quotes.

Switzerland has four national languages and English functions as a working language in a large part of the economy, particularly in Geneva with its international community. That means the question of what language your site leads in is a real strategic decision here rather than an afterthought. An English-first site with French added later is a legitimate structure, and so is the reverse; what matters is that the decision is made before the build, because retrofitting a second language costs more than planning for it.

It is also worth being realistic about what a Swiss provider gives you that a remote one may not: the same time zone, the same legal jurisdiction, familiarity with local expectations, and someone reachable when a payment flow breaks on a Friday. Whether those are worth the difference depends entirely on your situation. If they are not, hiring abroad is a rational choice and you should make it without guilt. If they are, this guide should at least let you tell a fair Swiss quote from an unfair one.

Frequently asked questions

Lire ce guide en français : combien coûte un site web en Suisse →Web design agency in Geneva →Branding agency in Switzerland →Monthly marketing: CHF 490, CHF 890 or CHF 1'390 →Growth Ops: CHF 490, CHF 1'290 or CHF 2'900 →Ask for a free quote →