How much does a showcase website cost for an SME in Paris?

At Sonho, a showcase website, from a simple site to a fully custom-built project with several page templates, reworked content and specific integrations, costs from €2,500 excl. VAT. The price is fixed as a flat fee after a discovery call, once the scope is defined. That figure is the one on the final invoice, with no amendment if the work takes longer than planned. What moves the price above that floor is mostly the number of different page templates, the amount of work on the content, and how many specific integrations the site needs: a simple site with a handful of pages stays close to the floor, while a site covering several lines of business or several audiences with distinct journeys costs more. Before comparing two quotes, ask for their breakdown line by line: page count, feedback rounds, and what's explicitly excluded from the scope.

How long does it take to build a professional showcase website?

At Sonho, a showcase website is built in 4 to 6 weeks, from the first call to launch. The timeline comes from the method: a thorough brief from week 1, clear deliverables week by week, then revisions included until you sign off each stage. A project that stretches over several months is usually less structured, with back-and-forth that piles up with no limit set in advance. Allow the same timeline for a redesign or for a Shopify store. This schedule assumes the client's content is ready from the brief onward.

How do you spot a quote that's going to slip before you sign?

Read the clause on changes and amendments. If it mentions “minor changes included, within reason” without ever putting a number on what that covers, the quote is open-ended: what's minor to you becomes billable to the agency, and that shift in risk lands entirely on your side once the project starts. A real fixed-price quote explicitly lists the number of pages, the number of feedback rounds per stage and a contractual launch date. Two other signals to check: hourly billing with no flat fee, and a “basic SEO” line with no detail on what it covers. On projects that stack up these signals, the final invoice often ends up well above the figure announced at the start. Ask for this breakdown before signing, and treat a vague answer as useful information in itself.

Does a website redesign take longer than building from scratch?

Often yes, because of an item new builds don't have: migration. Every page that changes address has to be redirected, every piece of content carried over and checked, and the SEO already earned has to be preserved. For a simple showcase website, a redesign generally follows the same schedule as a new build, 4 to 6 weeks, if the volume of content to carry over stays reasonable. For a Shopify store, the catalog, customer reviews and order history add a layer that design alone doesn't cover. At Sonho, that work fits in the same 4 to 6 week schedule. Before signing a redesign quote, check that redirects and SEO carryover are explicitly included in the scope.

Who handles my project at Sonho: one person or several points of contact?

One team, one point of contact, carries your project from the first meeting to launch: the same person follows the design, the development and the SEO, without handing off to a project manager who would then coordinate several separate teams. In practice, that changes two things. You explain your business once, and that understanding stays intact through delivery, with no brief getting reinterpreted at every handoff. And when a question comes up after launch, it reaches someone who already knows your project in detail. This setup makes it possible to keep a tight schedule, 4 to 6 weeks for a showcase website, without internal coordination meetings slowing the work down. It stays the same whatever the type of project, showcase website or online store.

A web agency in Paris for SMEs: how to avoid a quote that drifts and a project that drags on

A reasonable quote that doubles along the way usually comes from a vague scope. A fixed-price quote and a four-to-six-week schedule keep that from happening.

The short answer

A web agency in Paris for SMEs limits the risk of drift with a price fixed before the first line of code, one team, one point of contact, from brief to launch, and a tight schedule of 4 to 6 weeks, for a showcase website as for a Shopify redesign. At Sonho, a showcase website costs from €2,500 excl. VAT, and that figure stays the one on the final invoice.

Why does a web quote almost always drift in the same way?

A web project usually drifts because the contract leaves the scope vague and bills by time spent. Everything hinges on what the contract names from the start, and what it leaves out.

The scenario follows a recurring pattern. First, a rushed brief that skips the questions that get expensive later: who signs off, how many rounds of feedback are included, and in what form. Then an elastic clause, along the lines of “minor changes included, within reason”, never given a number.

Finally, the point of contact changes along the way: the salesperson hands off to a project manager, who hands off to an outsourced developer. The verbal commitments from the first meeting don't carry over. At each handoff, the brief gets reinterpreted, and you pay again in the time it takes to re-explain your business to someone new.

What are the three moments where the budget blows up?

Three friction points come up in the majority of SME web projects, the signals to watch for in a quote before signing.

The unlimited mockup. A quote that mentions design iterations without stating how many is an open-ended quote. Ask how many rounds of feedback are included, and in what form.
Milestones with no firm date. A project billed “at the end” never pushes the agency to deliver sooner. Ask for a contractual launch date.
“Basic” SEO as an option. Tags, heading structure, image weight, structured data: every line item left out becomes a separate invoice, or an invisible gap.

Why is a large Paris agency rarely a good fit for an SME?

Paris has hundreds of web agencies, from large firms to small collectives. Many display big-name clients and certified processes. For an SME that needs a showcase website or an online store, that size often works against it, for three reasons.

First problem: multiple points of contact. The project passes through a salesperson, a designer, a developer and an SEO specialist, and no one knows your business as a whole. Second problem: the economics, a high fixed cost that pushes agencies to recycle templates or outsource part of the work.

Third problem: availability after launch. Large firms keep rotating their teams onto new projects; once your site is live, you drop into a low-priority queue. Changing a page, adding a section, fixing an error: each action becomes a ticket in a shared queue.

A web agency with a fixed deadline and a fixed price: how it prevents drift

A fixed-price quote defines the scope precisely enough that the price stops moving, even if the build takes longer than planned. At Sonho, this rests on two non-negotiable commitments, whatever the size of the project.

The first: the price is fixed as a flat fee before the first line of code, after a discovery call. That amount is the one on the final invoice, with no amendments and no billing by time spent.

The second: the schedule. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for a showcase website, which sets the method: a thorough brief in week 1, clear deliverables week by week, revisions included until you sign off each stage. One team, one point of contact, carries the project from brief to launch.

	Open-ended quote	Fixed-price quote (Sonho)
Final price	Amendments possible	Fixed after the call
Schedule	No firm date	4 to 6 firm weeks
Point of contact	Changes along the way	One team
Feedback	“Minor”, no number	Defined rounds

What should an SME's scope of work include before signing?

Before signing with an agency, check that the quote explicitly answers these questions. A quote that leaves them out already tells you something.

Scope. Number of pages with their expected content, features listed one by one (contact form, FAQ, client area), and what's explicitly excluded (maintenance, content writing).
Process. Number of feedback rounds per stage, format of the feedback (shared tool, document, meeting) and expected response time on each side.
Timeline. A contractual launch date, interim milestones with their deliverables, and a clause covering what happens if the deadline slips.
Ownership and independence. Ownership of the source code on delivery, full admin access, and training to manage content afterward without depending on a developer.

What if the site already exists? The special case of a redesign

A redesign carries a constraint a new build doesn't have: the existing site. You have to preserve what the old site has built up (Google rankings, product pages, customer accounts, inbound links) while building a new one. Every page that changes address has to be redirected, every piece of content migrated and checked one by one.

It's the item most redesign quotes underestimate: on a store with several hundred product pages, migration can weigh as much as the design work. Check that redirects and SEO carryover are included in the scope. To choose the platform, read this comparison on website redesigns.

For a Shopify store, migration adds a layer: catalog, customer reviews, order history. A Shopify redesign also takes 4 to 6 weeks at Sonho, redirects included, detailed in this guide on Shopify migration.

What questions should you ask an agency before signing?

No agency fits every project, ours included. A few questions quickly reveal whether a provider is used to working with SMEs.

“Can you show two or three sites delivered to comparable SMEs, with access to the source code?” An agency confident in its work says yes without hesitating.
“Who will be my point of contact, and will they stay on the project from start to finish?” A project manager who “coordinates” several teams is a signal worth watching.
“What happens if I need to change a page two months after launch?” The answer tells you whether you'll be independent.
“Can the quote increase during the project, and under what conditions?” If the agency dodges the question, take note before you sign.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a showcase website cost for an SME in Paris?: At Sonho, a showcase website, from a simple site to a fully custom-built project with several page templates, reworked content and specific integrations, costs from €2,500 excl. VAT. The price is fixed as a flat fee after a discovery call, once the scope is defined. That figure is the one on the final invoice, with no amendment if the work takes longer than planned. What moves the price above that floor is mostly the number of different page templates, the amount of work on the content, and how many specific integrations the site needs: a simple site with a handful of pages stays close to the floor, while a site covering several lines of business or several audiences with distinct journeys costs more. Before comparing two quotes, ask for their breakdown line by line: page count, feedback rounds, and what's explicitly excluded from the scope.
How long does it take to build a professional showcase website?: At Sonho, a showcase website is built in 4 to 6 weeks, from the first call to launch. The timeline comes from the method: a thorough brief from week 1, clear deliverables week by week, then revisions included until you sign off each stage. A project that stretches over several months is usually less structured, with back-and-forth that piles up with no limit set in advance. Allow the same timeline for a redesign or for a Shopify store. This schedule assumes the client's content is ready from the brief onward.
How do you spot a quote that's going to slip before you sign?: Read the clause on changes and amendments. If it mentions “minor changes included, within reason” without ever putting a number on what that covers, the quote is open-ended: what's minor to you becomes billable to the agency, and that shift in risk lands entirely on your side once the project starts. A real fixed-price quote explicitly lists the number of pages, the number of feedback rounds per stage and a contractual launch date. Two other signals to check: hourly billing with no flat fee, and a “basic SEO” line with no detail on what it covers. On projects that stack up these signals, the final invoice often ends up well above the figure announced at the start. Ask for this breakdown before signing, and treat a vague answer as useful information in itself.
Does a website redesign take longer than building from scratch?: Often yes, because of an item new builds don't have: migration. Every page that changes address has to be redirected, every piece of content carried over and checked, and the SEO already earned has to be preserved. For a simple showcase website, a redesign generally follows the same schedule as a new build, 4 to 6 weeks, if the volume of content to carry over stays reasonable. For a Shopify store, the catalog, customer reviews and order history add a layer that design alone doesn't cover. At Sonho, that work fits in the same 4 to 6 week schedule. Before signing a redesign quote, check that redirects and SEO carryover are explicitly included in the scope.
Who handles my project at Sonho: one person or several points of contact?: One team, one point of contact, carries your project from the first meeting to launch: the same person follows the design, the development and the SEO, without handing off to a project manager who would then coordinate several separate teams. In practice, that changes two things. You explain your business once, and that understanding stays intact through delivery, with no brief getting reinterpreted at every handoff. And when a question comes up after launch, it reaches someone who already knows your project in detail. This setup makes it possible to keep a tight schedule, 4 to 6 weeks for a showcase website, without internal coordination meetings slowing the work down. It stays the same whatever the type of project, showcase website or online store.