Commissioning a Website as an SME: What You Need to Know Before Spending Money

What does a website cost when done properly? The answer you do not want to hear: it depends. But not on what you think.

Most SMEs in Switzerland spend between CHF 5,000 and CHF 20,000 on a website. Some pay CHF 3,000 and are perfectly happy. Others pay CHF 25,000 and after a year have nothing that works. The difference rarely comes down to budget. It comes down to sequence: what was clarified before the first pixel was placed?

This article gives you the knowledge that web agencies do not put on their sales pages. So you can ask the right questions before you spend money.

Template vs. Custom Design: When Each Makes Sense

The first decision. And the one where the most money gets wasted.

Templates (Squarespace, WordPress themes, Webflow templates) are pre-built layouts that you adapt to your business. You pick a design, change the colours, text, and images, and in relatively short order you have a functioning website. Cost with professional implementation: CHF 5,000 to 10,000.

The advantage: fast, predictable, proven. The structures are tested, the responsive layouts work, the underlying technology is solid.

The disadvantage: you look like everyone else who chose the same template. In Switzerland, where an SME owner sometimes has three competitors on the same street, that is a real problem. When your website looks like a template, it signals: we could not be bothered to differentiate ourselves.

Custom design means: the website is built from the ground up. Layout, structure, visual language — everything grows out of your brand. Cost: CHF 10,000 to 20,000.

The advantage: the website looks like you, not like the output of a configurator. It communicates your positioning, speaks to your target audience, and guides visitors deliberately towards the desired action.

The disadvantage: takes longer, costs more, requires a clearer foundation.

When a template is enough: You have just launched, you need a web presence quickly, and your business model is not yet fully validated.

When you need custom: Your business is established, the website should actively bring in clients, and you want to stand apart from the competition.

Which CMS Fits Your SME?

CMS stands for Content Management System. It is the software you use to manage your website. Choosing a CMS is a technical decision with long-term consequences. Here are the four relevant options.

WordPress is the most widely used CMS in the world. Flexible, with a vast ecosystem of plugins and plenty of available developers. The downside: regular updates are essential, neglected maintenance creates security risks, and quality depends heavily on the developer. WordPress can be outstanding. Or a nightmare.

Webflow is popular with designers and studios. Visual editor, clean code, good hosting included. The downside: fewer plugins than WordPress, ongoing hosting costs (from around CHF 15/month), and you are tied to the platform.

Static frameworks (Astro, Next.js, Hugo) deliver the fastest load times and best performance. Ideal for websites that primarily display content without complex functionality. The downside: changes require technical knowledge or a developer. Not everyone can update text on their own.

Website builders (Squarespace, Wix, Jimdo) are the simplest option. All-in-one, no developer needed. For getting started, they can work. As soon as you want more than standard layouts and want to communicate your brand intentionally, you hit limits. And migrating to another system gets harder with every passing month.

The truth: for most Swiss SMEs with five to ten pages, the CMS matters less than the content. A strategically crafted text on Squarespace generates more enquiries than an empty WordPress with a premium theme.

What matters: choose a system that you or someone on your team can maintain. Nothing is more expensive than a website that nobody touches after launch.

What a Website for an SME in Switzerland Really Costs

Here are the realistic numbers. No wishful thinking, no large-agency rates.

CHF 3,000-5,000: Website builder, professionally set up. Someone configures Squarespace or Wix for you, adapts a template, structures the pages, sets up basic SEO. You get a clean website that works. No strategic concept, no custom design. For solopreneurs and micro-businesses that need to be online quickly.

CHF 5,000-10,000: Template-based, professionally implemented. Customised design on an existing system, solid structure, SEO fundamentals, responsive. This is where most competent web designers and small agencies operate. For service providers and small SMEs, a reasonable investment.

CHF 10,000-18,000: Custom design with a concept. Here, time goes into the question of what the website should achieve. Strategic content planning, individual layout, often including support with copywriting and image selection. The website is not just built. It is conceived.

CHF 18,000-25,000: Comprehensive projects. Multilingual, more complex functionality, integration with existing systems, extensive content strategy. For SMEs with specific requirements.

Ongoing costs: CHF 50-200 per month for hosting, maintenance, and updates. Many forget this when budgeting.

What these numbers do not show: the biggest cost factor is not the design and not the technology. It is the missing strategy. Whoever goes into a website project without a clear brand almost always ends up paying twice.

Why Brand-First Makes the Difference

This is the point that 90% of web agencies skip. And the point that makes the difference between a website that works and one that merely exists.

A website without a brand is a house without a foundation. You pick colours because you like them. You write copy because something needs to be on the page. You choose images because they look professional. And the result? It looks like every other SME website. Interchangeable, unclear, forgotten.

A website with a brand knows what it wants. The colours come from the brand system. The copy is built on the positioning. The images follow a defined visual language. Every page has a purpose. Every purpose has an action.

Cafe Lang had a website before that was “perfectly fine.” Technically sound, visually acceptable. But it did not feel like the cafe. After the rebrand, the owner said: the website now feels like the space itself. Not like a brochure, but like a visit. And enquiries for catering and events rose by more than half in the first three months. Not because the website got technically better, but because it finally told the right story.

The sequence that works:

1. Clarify positioning: Who are you? For whom? What makes you different?
2. Develop the visual system: Colours, typography, image language, logo system.
3. Conceive the website: Structure, content, conversion paths.
4. Build the website: Design and technology.

If you start at step 4, you will eventually need to go back to step 1. That costs more and takes longer than doing it right from the start.

The Five Most Expensive Mistakes with SME Websites

In seven years of working with Swiss SMEs, I have seen the same mistakes again and again. Here are the five that cost the most money.

Mistake 1: Website before brand. The most common sequence is also the most expensive one. You build a website, realise after six months that it does not convert, invest in branding, and build the website again. Double the cost, double the time.

Mistake 2: Underestimating the copy. In our experience, most SME websites have copy that sounds like a template. “Welcome to our website.” “We are an innovative company.” “Contact us.” Nobody reads that. Nobody feels anything. Good copy needs a brand voice as its foundation. Without one, you write generically because you do not know how you should sound.

Mistake 3: No conversion goal. What should a visitor do? Call? Fill in a form? Download something? If you do not know, your visitor does not know either. And they do: nothing.

Mistake 4: Wanting everything at once. Blog, shop, client portal, newsletter integration, multilingual, animated. The result: a project that costs CHF 30,000, takes two years, and never gets finished. Start with the core. Expand when it works.

Mistake 5: Choosing the wrong partner. Not every web agency understands branding. Not every branding studio builds websites. The best results come when strategy, design, and implementation come from a single source. If you have agency A build the website and freelancer B do the branding, you get two puzzle halves that do not fit together.

If your current website is not generating the enquiries you expected, you will find a systematic analysis in our article website not generating leads.

What I Recommend

If you want to commission a website as an SME in Switzerland, do yourself a favour: clarify what you stand for first. Then build the website.

This does not have to be a months-long project. But it requires a clear positioning, a visual system, and an idea of who you want to reach and what the website should do for you.

Our Essential package at CHF 15,000 covers exactly that: brand strategy and website in a single project. From positioning through the visual system to the finished, responsive website. Fixed price, clear scope, no hourly-rate adventure.

If you are not quite there yet, start with a Brand Check. We talk about your business, and you get an honest assessment of what you need. Maybe it is a website. Maybe it is something else first. That is what you will find out.

Whatever you decide: do not spend money on a website that has no foundation. The website is not the beginning. It is the result.