It is the most common question we receive, and also the hardest to answer honestly. "How much does a website cost?" is a bit like asking how much a car costs. The answer depends entirely on what you need it to do, who builds it, and how long you expect it to last. What we can do is give you real numbers, explain what drives them, and help you understand what you are actually buying at each price point.
The Bulgarian market: what sites cost here
In Bulgaria, website development prices vary significantly depending on the type of project and who is building it. Here is a realistic breakdown of current market rates:
| Site type | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Portfolio / business card site | 500 – 1 100 € |
| Blog or news site | 700 – 1 500 € |
| Corporate website | 1 400 – 3 200 € |
| E-commerce store | 2 000 – 6 500 € |
| Custom platform or web app | 4 500 – 20 000+ € |
These ranges represent professionally built sites — not DIY website builders and not the very bottom of the freelance market. Within these ranges, the final number depends on design complexity, number of pages, required integrations, and whether the project uses a template or starts from scratch.
The international picture
For context, the global market tells a different story. According to Clutch, web design agencies typically charge between $2,000 and $100,000 depending on scope, with an average reviewed project cost of around $38,000. Hourly rates range from $100–$149 in the US, Canada, and Australia, down to $25–$49 in Eastern Europe (Bulgaria included) and even lower in India and the Philippines.
This is actually good news if you are a Bulgarian business hiring locally: you get Eastern European quality — which is globally competitive — at Eastern European prices. A site that would cost $15,000 from a US agency can often be built to the same standard here for a fraction of that.
What actually drives the price
The biggest variables are not where you might expect. Here are the factors that move the number the most:
Custom design vs. template. A site built on a purchased template costs less in design time but more in compromises. A fully custom design — built from a blank canvas to match your brand precisely — takes significantly more work but produces a result that looks like you, not like a theme.
Complexity of functionality. A static five-page site with a contact form is a fundamentally different project from an e-commerce store with inventory management, courier integrations, and a checkout flow. Each added feature is added development time.
Third-party integrations. Payment gateways, CRM connections, booking systems, courier APIs — each integration requires development work and testing. These are often underestimated in initial quotes.
Rush timelines. Projects with tight deadlines typically carry a 20–50% premium. The work itself does not change; the disruption to a studio's workflow does.
Who builds it. A solo freelancer, a small studio, and a large agency all charge differently — and deliver differently. Price is a signal, not just a cost.
The costs most people forget to budget for
The development invoice is only part of what a website costs. These recurring and hidden costs catch many businesses by surprise:
Annual infrastructure
Shared hosting runs €50–120 per year for small sites. If you need a VPS or managed hosting for performance and reliability, expect €300–900+ annually. A .com domain costs roughly €20–30 per year; a .bg domain around €35–50.
Content creation
Copywriting and photography are often not included in a web development quote. Professional copywriting typically costs €65–110 per page. If your site has ten pages, that is a real budget line that needs to appear somewhere.
Ongoing maintenance
Security updates, plugin updates, backups, and small fixes add up. At LOTURUS, we offer monthly retainer packages from €50 to €200 that cover hosting and maintenance — everything in one place, with no surprises at the end of the month.
SEO and marketing
A website that no one finds is a brochure in a drawer. Ongoing SEO work — content, technical audits, link building — ranges from a few hundred to several thousand euros per month depending on your goals and competition. This is a separate investment from the site itself.
Our retainer packages
Every package includes hosting, regular updates, and backups. The higher-tier plans add priority support, performance monitoring, and development hours for small changes and new features.
50 €
per month
- Hosting
- Security updates
- Backups
100 €
per month
- Hosting
- Security updates
- Backups
- Small content changes
- Monthly report
150 €
per month
- Hosting
- Security updates
- Backups
- Small content changes
- Monthly report
- Priority support
- Performance monitoring
200 €
per month
- Hosting
- Security updates
- Backups
- Small content changes
- Monthly report
- Priority support
- Performance monitoring
- SEO monitoring
- Development hours
What you are actually paying for
At the lower end of the market, you are paying for execution — someone to assemble a site from existing components according to a brief. At the higher end, you are paying for thinking: strategy, positioning, experience design, technical architecture, and the kind of attention to detail that produces a site that genuinely works harder than its cost.
The question is not "how do I spend less?" It is "what return do I need this to generate?" A €2,500 site that brings in one new client per month pays for itself in weeks. A €450 site that underperforms for three years is the expensive option.
Website pricing is not a single number. It is a combination of a one-time build cost, recurring infrastructure, ongoing maintenance, and the invisible cost of the leads and credibility you either gain or lose based on the quality of what you build. Price it accordingly.