A showcase website starting at €4,500, is that really custom-built or a modified template?

It is code written from scratch in Next.js, with no recycled theme and no no-code tool. €4,500 excl. VAT is Sonho's starting price for a simple showcase website: design, development, on-page SEO and launch included. A fully custom-built site, with specific pages and extra features, runs €6,500 to €12,000 excl. VAT. The difference with a template is not just price: every component is designed for your project, not adapted from a template used by hundreds of other sites. A dressed-up theme can ship faster and cheaper, but it carries the limits of its original structure: the same layouts, the same page constraints, and often code weighed down by functions you will never use. Custom-built work costs more upfront, but it stays entirely yours after handover, with no dependency on a third-party tool.

Is six weeks really realistic, or is it a sales pitch?

It is realistic on one condition: both sides respect the schedule. Sonho delivers mockups, code and SEO elements on the planned dates, week after week, without exception. On your side, that means final copy delivered by week 3 at the latest, mockup feedback within 48 working hours, and serious testing in week 5, not a quick glance between two meetings. Timelines do not slip because the team is slow: they slip almost every time because content or approvals arrive late on the client side. The six-week schedule is a shared discipline, not a one-sided promise, and it only holds if both sides treat it as a real commitment rather than a suggestion. That is why the week 1 brief already sets the dates for every step, with what each side needs to deliver and by when.

What happens if my contact at Sonho is not available after launch?

The site is delivered with every access: hosting, domain name, CMS, plus usage documentation and training so your team can manage content on its own, text, photos and colors included. You do not depend on Sonho to keep the site running day to day, change a sentence or add a photo. If a bug shows up after launch, the response comes within 48 hours; further work on the site, a new page, a new feature, is then handled as a fixed-price package or a ticket, depending on scope. One team, with no internal hierarchy to go through, generally responds faster than a ten-person agency where a request has to pass through an account manager before it reaches a developer. It is the structure of the team that protects your independence, not a promise of unlimited availability.

I already have SEO in place, why bring up AEO and GEO during the build?

Classic SEO targets visibility on Google Search. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) target AI assistants like ChatGPT or Perplexity, which read a site differently: they look for structured answers, named entities, clear topical authority. A site that ranks well on Google can still stay invisible in an AI-generated answer if it is not built for that from the start: direct answers near the top of the page, structured data, headings phrased as questions. That is why this work happens in week 4, in the code, rather than bolted on afterward to a site that is already finished. The two approaches complement each other, they do not replace one another: one targets clicked links, the other targets cited answers. Content structured as questions and answers, with the right tags, serves both goals at once: there is no separate project to fund on top of the site.

Does the six-week schedule also apply to a Shopify store?

No, not directly. A custom-built Shopify store requires structuring a product catalog, configuring payment and shipping, and often replacing paid apps with code written into the theme: different work from a showcase website. Plan on 6 to 10 weeks for a redesign when the catalog already exists, and 8 to 14 weeks for a full build with a catalog, content and tools built from scratch. The principle stays the same, a clear schedule, one team, precise deliverables on both sides, but the duration and the price follow a different scale, detailed on the dedicated e-commerce page. The difference mostly comes down to the volume of decisions to make before the design can make sense: how many variants per product, what shipping rules per zone, which payment methods to activate.

Building a professional showcase website in 6 weeks: the full timeline

Six weeks is a workable timeline for a professional showcase website, but only if the schedule is clear on both sides. Here is what that looks like in practice at Sonho, week by week.

The short answer

At Sonho, a professional showcase website comes together in six weeks: brief in week 1, design and architecture in week 2, Next.js build in week 3, technical SEO and AI-ready structure in week 4, testing in week 5, launch in week 6. One team handles design, development and SEO from start to finish, with no internal meetings to coordinate. Pricing starts at €4,500 excl. VAT, €6,500 to €12,000 excl. VAT for a fully custom-built site, with an absolute floor of €2,000 excl. VAT across every project.

Why does one team move faster than a large agency?

At a large agency, a showcase website project passes through a salesperson, a project manager, a designer, a developer and sometimes an SEO manager. Every handoff is a chance to lose information. That is usually where timelines slip, not in the code.

At Sonho, one team handles design, development and SEO on the same project, from the first call to launch: one point of contact, zero internal meetings to coordinate. That is what makes a six-week schedule realistic, provided the ground rules are set before the work starts.

Week 1: the real brief

Sonho runs a structured discovery call to understand your business, your audience and your direct competitors, and what the site needs to trigger: a contact request, a quote request, a phone call. The SEO groundwork gets laid at the same time: which search queries to target, what page structure to use, which content to prioritize.

On your side, you need to bring your existing brand assets (logo, style guide if you have one), two or three sites you consider well done, and a factual description of your offer: what you do, for whom, at what price. The risk at this stage is a vague brief that delays everything downstream: better to clarify it in week 1 than in week 4.

Week 2: design and architecture

Sonho delivers a working mockup of the full site structure: home, services, contact, and the secondary pages included in the quote. Everything is designed mobile-first: responsive behavior is not an option tacked on at the end, it is the starting point. Your feedback needs to come back within 48 working hours, not a three-word reply by email.

Specific comments on what works and what does not match your image prevent a rebuild in week 4. Visual hierarchy on a showcase website is not decorative: it guides the visitor's eye toward the action you want them to take, as explained in why a showcase website brings in no leads.

Week 3: build, and the most common bottleneck

The site is hand-coded in Next.js: no recycled theme, no page builder, no plugin stacked on another plugin. Every component is written for your project, with clean code that does not degrade every time a third-party tool updates. What you need to provide: your final copy, the most common bottleneck.

Waiting until week 5 to send it pushes launch back by the same amount. What we do not do: build in placeholder content with a promise to swap it later. A site delivered with fake copy is not a finished site, it is a problem postponed, not solved.

Week 4: technical SEO and AI-ready structure

During development, Sonho builds in title tags and meta descriptions, an H1, H2, H3 heading structure aligned with target search queries, Schema.org structured data, an XML sitemap and a robots.txt file. On top of that comes what serves AI assistants: ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews look for clear answers, named entities, and topical authority.

A page structured to answer one precise question stands a better chance of being cited than a page that lists its services in bullet points, as detailed in this guide on getting cited by ChatGPT. At this stage, you sign off on the target search queries, the meta descriptions and the structure of each page before launch.

Weeks 5 and 6: testing, launch, and your independence

Sonho delivers a full staging environment: the site as it will appear live, accessible through a private link. You test it on desktop, tablet and mobile, checking every form, every link, every image. Fixes cover what was defined in the brief: a change of scope falls outside the original quote, and needs to be flagged clearly before work begins.

At launch, Sonho deploys the site to your hosting, sets up and submits Google Search Console, installs Analytics, and hands over a usage guide pitched to your level so you can update your own content without depending on Sonho. What is never promised: instant Google rankings. Organic results build up over several months, not six weeks.

What the package covers, and what it does not

A showcase website at Sonho starts at €4,500 excl. VAT, and runs €6,500 to €12,000 excl. VAT for a fully custom-built site. The absolute floor, across every project, is set at €2,000 excl. VAT. The quote is fixed before the project starts, and does not drift because one section took longer than expected.

That price covers design, Next.js development, on-page SEO, launch and training. It does not cover copywriting if you do not provide your own content, photo shoots, ad campaigns, or features not scoped in the brief: a client portal, a quote calculator, a booking module.

What you are asking for	Price range excl. VAT
Simple showcase website, 5 to 8 pages	from €4,500
Fully custom-built showcase website	€6,500 to €12,000
Absolute floor, across every project at Sonho	€2,000

What about a Shopify store?

The same structured-schedule principle applies to a custom-built Shopify store, but what fills each week changes completely: a catalog to structure, payment and shipping rules to configure, paid apps replaced with code written directly into the theme, section by section.

The schedule stretches accordingly: 6 to 10 weeks for a redesign when the catalog already exists, 8 to 14 weeks for a full build with a catalog, content and tools built from scratch. Pricing follows a different scale too, detailed in what a custom-built Shopify store costs.

The catalog: product pages, variants, categories, organized before the design can make sense.
Payment and shipping: zones, taxes, payment methods configured section by section.
The apps: every feature you would otherwise pay for as a monthly app gets coded once, with no recurring subscription.

Frequently asked questions

A showcase website starting at €4,500, is that really custom-built or a modified template?: It is code written from scratch in Next.js, with no recycled theme and no no-code tool. €4,500 excl. VAT is Sonho's starting price for a simple showcase website: design, development, on-page SEO and launch included. A fully custom-built site, with specific pages and extra features, runs €6,500 to €12,000 excl. VAT. The difference with a template is not just price: every component is designed for your project, not adapted from a template used by hundreds of other sites. A dressed-up theme can ship faster and cheaper, but it carries the limits of its original structure: the same layouts, the same page constraints, and often code weighed down by functions you will never use. Custom-built work costs more upfront, but it stays entirely yours after handover, with no dependency on a third-party tool.
Is six weeks really realistic, or is it a sales pitch?: It is realistic on one condition: both sides respect the schedule. Sonho delivers mockups, code and SEO elements on the planned dates, week after week, without exception. On your side, that means final copy delivered by week 3 at the latest, mockup feedback within 48 working hours, and serious testing in week 5, not a quick glance between two meetings. Timelines do not slip because the team is slow: they slip almost every time because content or approvals arrive late on the client side. The six-week schedule is a shared discipline, not a one-sided promise, and it only holds if both sides treat it as a real commitment rather than a suggestion. That is why the week 1 brief already sets the dates for every step, with what each side needs to deliver and by when.
What happens if my contact at Sonho is not available after launch?: The site is delivered with every access: hosting, domain name, CMS, plus usage documentation and training so your team can manage content on its own, text, photos and colors included. You do not depend on Sonho to keep the site running day to day, change a sentence or add a photo. If a bug shows up after launch, the response comes within 48 hours; further work on the site, a new page, a new feature, is then handled as a fixed-price package or a ticket, depending on scope. One team, with no internal hierarchy to go through, generally responds faster than a ten-person agency where a request has to pass through an account manager before it reaches a developer. It is the structure of the team that protects your independence, not a promise of unlimited availability.
I already have SEO in place, why bring up AEO and GEO during the build?: Classic SEO targets visibility on Google Search. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) target AI assistants like ChatGPT or Perplexity, which read a site differently: they look for structured answers, named entities, clear topical authority. A site that ranks well on Google can still stay invisible in an AI-generated answer if it is not built for that from the start: direct answers near the top of the page, structured data, headings phrased as questions. That is why this work happens in week 4, in the code, rather than bolted on afterward to a site that is already finished. The two approaches complement each other, they do not replace one another: one targets clicked links, the other targets cited answers. Content structured as questions and answers, with the right tags, serves both goals at once: there is no separate project to fund on top of the site.
Does the six-week schedule also apply to a Shopify store?: No, not directly. A custom-built Shopify store requires structuring a product catalog, configuring payment and shipping, and often replacing paid apps with code written into the theme: different work from a showcase website. Plan on 6 to 10 weeks for a redesign when the catalog already exists, and 8 to 14 weeks for a full build with a catalog, content and tools built from scratch. The principle stays the same, a clear schedule, one team, precise deliverables on both sides, but the duration and the price follow a different scale, detailed on the dedicated e-commerce page. The difference mostly comes down to the volume of decisions to make before the design can make sense: how many variants per product, what shipping rules per zone, which payment methods to activate.