Building a website in Ghent: costs, process & timing (2026)

If you’re shopping for a new website in Ghent or anywhere in Flanders, you’ll quickly find quotes that swing wildly. €750 from a freelancer, €4,500 from a small studio, €18,000 from a larger agency, for what looks, on the surface, like the same thing. That gap isn’t random, and it isn’t a scam. It comes from what’s actually under the hood, who’s doing the work, and what happens after launch.

This guide is for the Ghent SME or founder making their first serious website investment. We’ll cover what a website really costs in 2026, what the build process looks like, and how to pick a partner you won’t regret. No sales talk, just the reality as we see it every week.

What does a website in Ghent cost in 2026?

The prices below are 2025-2026 market rates in Flanders, excluding 21% Belgian VAT. Note that hosting, maintenance and future changes are usually billed separately.

DIY with a template builder: €0 – €500

Tools like Wix, Squarespace or Webnode hand you a template and a drag-and-drop editor. For a sole trader who just needs something online quickly, that can be enough. Monthly cost is around €15-€40 and you pay no designer. The downside: your site looks like a thousand others, SEO is limited, and you’re locked into the platform.

Freelance web designer: €1,500 – €5,000

A freelancer in Ghent typically charges €1,500 to €5,000 for a simple business website (5-10 pages, WordPress or Webflow). You get personal attention and a much better result than a template, but there are risks: what if they fall ill, go travelling, or switch jobs within two years? Always ask about backups and how you keep access to your site.

Small studio like NIRO: €2,500 – €15,000

A small specialised studio (3-10 people) sits in the middle. For a well-thought-out business site with custom design, CMS, basic SEO and decent managed hosting, expect €2,500 for the entry tier and €10,000-€15,000 for something with integrations (booking, payments, e-commerce, customer portal).

The upside: a team that sticks around, strategic input, and technically stronger builds than most freelance work. See our transparent pricing for how we structure this.

Larger agency: €15,000 – €50,000+

For a more complex site (multilingual, integrated with your ERP, complex e-commerce) or if your brand requires an extensive design process, you’ll end up at a larger agency. Budget €15,000 to €50,000 or more. You get a broader team (UX designer, copywriter, project manager, SEO specialist), which makes sense if the project genuinely is complex.

What determines the price?

A website quote can feel like a black box. These are the main variables:

Number of pages and templates, building 5 unique pages is roughly half the work of 10. A blog template or product page counts as one page, even if 200 articles end up published on it.
Custom design vs. template, a fully custom design adds at least 2-3 weeks compared to adapting an existing theme.
CMS integration, do you need to edit content yourself? Then a CMS needs to be set up (WordPress, Sanity, Contentful, or a custom build).
E-commerce, a webshop with catalogue, stock, payments (Mollie, Stripe) and VAT rules is always pricier than a plain business site.
Integrations, connections to your accounting tool (Teamleader, Yuki), CRM, mailing platform or ERP all add work.
Multilingual, an NL/FR/EN site isn’t three times an NL site, but expect 40-60% extra work.
Animations and interactivity, small micro-interactions are free; extensive scroll animations or WebGL effects are genuinely premium work.
Content, does the builder write copy? Supply photography? A photoshoot in Ghent runs €600-€1,200, a copywriter €40-€80 per hour.

The process step by step

A serious website project runs through roughly these phases:

1. Discovery & strategy (1-2 weeks)

A proper conversation about what you actually want to achieve: more enquiries, online sales, building authority, or just finally having a digital business card that fits. Out of this come a sitemap, objectives, and, only then, an accurate quote.

2. Design (2-4 weeks)

Wireframes first (the structure of each page, no styling), then a complete design in Figma. Two or three revision rounds is normal; after that, the visual decisions are locked.

3. Development (3-8 weeks)

The developer builds the site, hooks up the CMS, integrates forms and any external systems. You get a staging URL to review along the way before anything goes live.

4. Content & SEO (in parallel)

Copy, photos, video. If the builder isn’t delivering this, it’s on you. Don’t underestimate this, content is almost always the biggest project slowdown.

5. Test & review (1 week)

We test across browsers and devices, run checks on speed, accessibility, SEO and forms. You do a final pass.

6. Launch

Connect domains, redirect the old site (critical for SEO), enable monitoring. On a quiet Thursday or Friday, never a Friday evening.

How long does a website project take?

Realistic timings for 2026:

Simple business site (5-7 pages): 4 to 8 weeks
Business site with CMS and custom design (10-15 pages): 8 to 14 weeks
E-commerce or site with significant integrations: 12 to 20 weeks
Fully custom-built app or platform: 4 to 9 months

The biggest delay is almost always content, not development. Start gathering copy during the design phase.

What’s (not) in the price?

These are the cost lines people commonly miss:

Hosting, €15-€100 per month on average for solid managed hosting in Belgium
Domain name, €15-€25 per year for a .be
SSL certificate, usually free (Let’s Encrypt); EV certificates cost €150-€400 per year
Monthly maintenance, €30-€200 per month for updates, backups and security
Stock photography or a photoshoot, €0-€1,500
Copywriting, €40-€80 per hour, or fixed packages
Translation, €0.09-€0.15 per word with a professional translator
21% VAT, on top of everything

How to choose a web designer or studio in Ghent

A few concrete tips:

Ask for references in your sector. A studio that does 80% restaurants will know your business less well.
Ask where the site is hosted and who manages it. A Belgian host is a plus for GDPR and load speed for local visitors.
Confirm you own your domain, content and code. Some parties “lock” your site.
A “fixed price” rarely is. Make sure you know exactly what happens on scope changes.
Demand a staging environment and revision rounds in the contract.
Ask what happens after launch. Who handles updates? Who responds during downtime?
Be wary of too low prices. A full business site for €500 usually means: WordPress + template + you do the rest.

Frequently asked questions

How fast can a site go live? A simple one-pager can be live in 1-2 weeks; a real business site needs 6-12 weeks from brief to launch.

Do I get the source code? With us, yes. Ask this of every party. Some studios keep code and CMS closed to keep you tied.

Is WordPress still a good choice in 2026? For most SMEs, yes. See our WordPress vs Webflow vs custom code comparison.

What about GDPR and cookies? Every Belgian site must comply with GDPR and Belgian cookie law. We wrote a practical GDPR & cookie guide for 2026.

Does NIRO also work outside Ghent? Yes. We’re based in Ghent but work with clients across Flanders and beyond. Remote works fine, we travel in for strategy sessions and key review moments.

In closing

Buying a good website is like picking a good contractor for a renovation: the cheapest quote is rarely the best choice, and the most expensive one isn’t either. What you want is a partner who understands your business, is transparent about what they do, and is still around when something needs adjusting two years later.

Want a concrete number for what a website would cost your business? Book a free intro call, we’ll happily make time to think through your project honestly, even if we end up not being the right fit.