How much does a professional website cost in 2026: setting the record straight
"How much does a website cost?" is the most frequent sales question and the one that gets the vaguest answers. The range is real: a brochure site can cost 300,000 FCFA (450 EUR) to 6 million FCFA (9,000 USD) depending on parameters. Rather than wave hands, here is the detailed 2026 grid, by site type, by market and by line item.
Method: median prices observed across 47 Kolonell projects + 60 external benchmarked projects in 2025-2026. FCFA, EUR, USD at current parity (1 EUR = 656 FCFA, 1 USD = 600 FCFA).
Complete pricing grid by site type and market
| Site type | Senegal (FCFA) | France (EUR) | USA (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-page landing | 250,000 - 600,000 | 400 - 950 | 450 - 1,050 |
| 5-8 page brochure | 600,000 - 1,500,000 | 950 - 2,300 | 1,050 - 2,500 |
| 10-20 page brochure + blog | 1,200,000 - 3,000,000 | 1,850 - 4,600 | 2,000 - 5,000 |
| 20-100 product e-commerce | 1,500,000 - 4,500,000 | 2,300 - 6,900 | 2,500 - 7,500 |
| 100-1000 product e-commerce | 3,500,000 - 9,000,000 | 5,350 - 13,700 | 5,800 - 15,000 |
| Multi-vendor marketplace | 6,000,000 - 25,000,000 | 9,100 - 38,000 | 10,000 - 42,000 |
| Web SaaS 1 module | 4,000,000 - 12,000,000 | 6,100 - 18,300 | 6,700 - 20,000 |
| Full multi-role SaaS | 12,000,000 - 60,000,000 | 18,300 - 91,500 | 20,000 - 100,000 |
| Premium institutional | 5,000,000 - 30,000,000 | 7,600 - 45,700 | 8,300 - 50,000 |
| Simple redesign (existing) | 800,000 - 2,500,000 | 1,200 - 3,800 | 1,350 - 4,200 |
| Heavy redesign (migration) | 3,000,000 - 15,000,000 | 4,600 - 22,900 | 5,000 - 25,000 |
Cost breakdown for a 12-page SME brochure site (reference)
| Item | Volume | FCFA | EUR | USD | % of total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brief + spec | 8-15 h | 80,000 - 150,000 | 122 - 229 | 133 - 250 | 8-10% |
| Figma design + design system | 20-35 h | 200,000 - 400,000 | 305 - 610 | 333 - 667 | 18-22% |
| Front-end dev (responsive) | 35-55 h | 280,000 - 500,000 | 427 - 762 | 467 - 833 | 28-32% |
| Back-end dev (CMS, forms, integrations) | 25-45 h | 200,000 - 400,000 | 305 - 610 | 333 - 667 | 18-22% |
| 12-page content writing | 8-15 h | 80,000 - 200,000 | 122 - 305 | 133 - 333 | 6-10% |
| On-page technical SEO | 5-10 h | 50,000 - 100,000 | 76 - 153 | 83 - 167 | 4-6% |
| Tests, acceptance, go-live | 8-15 h | 80,000 - 150,000 | 122 - 229 | 133 - 250 | 6-8% |
| Training + documentation | 2-4 h | 16,000 - 40,000 | 24 - 61 | 27 - 67 | 1-3% |
| 12 months hosting | included | 30,000 - 60,000 | 46 - 92 | 50 - 100 | 2-4% |
| Total excl. tax | 1,016,000 - 2,000,000 | 1,549 - 3,051 | 1,692 - 3,334 | 100% |
Recurring annual costs frequently forgotten
| Item | FCFA/year | EUR/year | USD/year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain name | 8,000 - 15,000 | 12 - 23 | 13 - 25 |
| VPS hosting | 60,000 - 240,000 | 92 - 366 | 100 - 400 |
| SSL certificate (Let's Encrypt) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Transactional email (Brevo, Resend) | 0 - 120,000 | 0 - 183 | 0 - 200 |
| Cloudflare CDN (free / pro) | 0 - 144,000 | 0 - 220 | 0 - 240 |
| External backups | 24,000 - 60,000 | 37 - 92 | 40 - 100 |
| Uptime monitoring (UptimeRobot) | 0 - 36,000 | 0 - 55 | 0 - 60 |
| Technical maintenance (4-8 h/month) | 480,000 - 1,200,000 | 732 - 1,830 | 800 - 2,000 |
| Content updates (blog writing) | 240,000 - 720,000 | 366 - 1,098 | 400 - 1,200 |
| Typical annual total | 812,000 - 2,535,000 | 1,239 - 3,867 | 1,353 - 4,225 |
Rule of thumb: budget 25-50% of initial investment each year for maintenance and evolutions.
Method to set a realistic budget
- Estimate expected ROI — if the site must generate 30 leads/month x 80,000 FCFA margin/lead = 2.4M FCFA/month, a 2M FCFA upfront investment pays back in 1 month.
- Target 5-10% of annual revenue — for an SME at 100M FCFA/year, 5-10M FCFA initial digital investment + 25-50% recurring.
- 2026 floor — below 600,000 FCFA / 900 EUR / 1,000 USD for a professional brochure site, it is not feasible (4 dev days + design + content + acceptance).
- Common-sense ceiling — above 4M FCFA / 6,000 EUR / 7,000 USD for a 12-page SME brochure site, you are paying for agency marketing, not the product delivered.
5-industry examples
Restaurant Almadies (Senegal)
- 8 pages + online menu + Calendly booking + photo gallery + FR/EN bilingual + GDPR
- Budget: 1,100,000 FCFA excl. tax (1,678 EUR / 1,833 USD)
- Maintenance: 60,000 FCFA/month
Medical practice Plateau (Senegal)
- 10 pages + DoctoLib-like custom booking + simple patient portal + health-grade GDPR
- Budget: 2,200,000 FCFA excl. tax (3,354 EUR / 3,667 USD)
- Maintenance: 120,000 FCFA/month
80-product fashion e-commerce (Senegal)
- 25 pages + 80-product catalogue + Wave/Orange Money payment + shipping + product admin
- Budget: 3,800,000 FCFA excl. tax (5,793 EUR / 6,333 USD)
- Maintenance: 200,000 FCFA/month
Paris consulting firm (France)
- 12 pages + 10-article blog + Calendly + lead magnet + FR/EN bilingual
- Budget: 4,200 EUR excl. tax (2,750,000 FCFA / 4,600 USD)
- Maintenance: 350 EUR/month
1-module B2B SaaS USA
Need a professional website?
Kolonell builds websites that attract clients, optimized for the Sénégalese market. Free quote in 2 minutes.
- Full web app + marketing landing + Stripe admin + Postmark emails + Mixpanel analytics
- Budget: 15,000 USD (9,000,000 FCFA / 13,700 EUR)
- Maintenance: 1,200 USD/month
Red flag signals: too cheap or too expensive
Too cheap (run away)
- 12-page brochure site at 200,000 FCFA / 300 EUR: impossible — someone works for free or cuts corners
- No mention of code ownership, GDPR, hosting: included in "expensive later"
- "Site in 48 h" promise on an SME project: massive template, zero customisation
- No deposit requested: the agency does not cover its costs, it will vanish mid-project
Too expensive (challenge)
- 12-page brochure site at 8M FCFA / 12,000 EUR without complex integrations: 50-70% agency margin
- 800,000 FCFA/year hosting for traffic < 10k visits/month: billed 10x real cost
- 500,000 FCFA/month maintenance for 4 h of actual work: 2-3x normal hourly rate
- Content writing at 100,000 FCFA / page for 400 words: 3x freelance pro rate
Tools to benchmark prices
- Notion + comparative database (3-5 quotes)
- Google Docs, Numbers or Excel — 3-year TCO comparison table
- DocuSign, Yousign, HelloSign — signature when chosen
- Slack — internal post-meeting discussion
- Jira, Linear, Trello, ClickUp — selection process tracking
- Free quote /devis-gratuit on kolonell.com — instant benchmark
FAQ
Why does the same-looking site cost 3x more in France than in Senegal?
Different labour costs (avg Senegal dev rate 8-12k FCFA/h vs France 50-90 EUR/h, 4-7x ratio), social charges, taxation, agency real-estate costs. For the same deliverable, technical quality is comparable if the Senegalese agency is experienced and well-tooled.
Local agency or offshoring?
Local = easy communication, market context understood, aligned time zones, possible on-site visit. Offshore = potentially lower prices, but variable quality, asynchronous communication, sometimes misunderstood context. Compromise: local agency for SMEs, mix agency + offshore dev for larger projects.
Does the price depend on the number of pages or the complexity?
Complexity first. 5 pages with Stripe payment + CRM integration cost more than 30 static pages. Functional complexity weighs 60-70%, editorial volume 20-30%, design 10-15%.
Is WordPress cheaper than custom?
More expensive long-term in 70% of cases. WordPress = 100-300k FCFA in plugin purchases + 30-50% extra maintenance (weekly security updates, plugin conflicts, degraded performance). Custom Next.js: 20-40% more expensive upfront, but 50-70% cheaper maintenance over 3 years.
How to avoid budget overruns?
1) Written and validated spec doc. 2) Itemised quote (11 sections). 3) Formal change orders for any change. 4) Payment milestones tied to validated deliverables. 5) Single client lead. Across 47 Kolonell projects, those following these 5 rules had 4% median overrun vs 35% without.
Let's talk about your website budget
If you want a benchmarked quote within 48 h for your website project, /devis-gratuit or WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
