BeaconSites website designer
AI Search & AEO

How Much Does a Website Cost In Ireland? (2026 Pricing Guide)

Real 2026 pricing for Irish business websites — brochure builds from €699, custom WordPress with AEO from €6,999, premium AEO-engineered builds up to €29,999. Plus the data on why being findable by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot now matters as much as Google ranking.

The right question isn't "what's the cheapest website I can buy?" It's "what's the cheapest website that will actually do its job — including being found in 2026's search environment, not 2018's?"

For a properly-built business website in Ireland in 2026, expect to pay between €699 and €29,999 depending on scope, complexity, and whether you need full AI-search visibility built in.

Most Irish SMEs land in one of three brackets: €699 – €1,999 for a small brochure or sole-trader site (1–5 pages); €1,299 – €2,499 for a typical small business website (6–12 pages); €6,999 – €9,999 for a custom WordPress build with AEO (AI search visibility) engineered in. E-commerce stores typically run €2,999 to €9,999 depending on catalogue size. Premium projects sit between €9,999 and €29,999.

On top of the build, budget around €49 to €299 per month for hosting, security, updates, backups, and ongoing SEO or content support — plus optional €999/month for managed content creation and multi-platform syndication.

This guide breaks those numbers down — what each tier includes, what drives the price, the hidden costs nobody talks about, and the one factor that didn't exist in any 2024 website pricing guide: whether your website is findable by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot — not just traditional Google search.

Key takeaways
  • A properly-built Irish business website in 2026 costs between €699 and €29,999 — most SMEs land between €1,299 and €9,999 depending on scope and AI search readiness.
  • The single biggest factor pushing prices higher in 2026 is AI search visibility (AEO) — engineering websites to be findable by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot, not just traditional Google search.
  • Ongoing costs are not optional. Every working website needs at least €49/month for hosting, security, backups, and maintenance — sites without maintenance plans are sites that go down or quietly stop ranking.
  • The most expensive website you'll ever own is the wrong one. If your average customer is worth €500, a site that loses you one customer per month costs €6,000 in lost revenue per year — wiping out any build-cost savings within a quarter.
  • DIY platforms (Wix, Squarespace) charge €15–€40/month forever — over five years that's €1,200–€2,400 in subscription with no asset ownership, plus limited AI search visibility.
  • Most Dublin agencies don't yet build AEO-ready sites. The higher BeaconSites pricing tiers (€6,999+) reflect specialist engineering work that didn't exist as a discipline three years ago.
  • The right question isn't "what's the cheapest website I can buy?" — it's "what's the cheapest website that will actually do its job, including being found in 2026's search environment rather than 2018's?"

2026 website pricing in Ireland — full breakdown

These are real BeaconSites prices for 2026 projects.

One-off project pricing

TierWhat it includes2026 Price (EUR)
Brochure site1–5 pages, WordPress, contact form, mobile-responsive€699 – €1,999
Small business website6–12 pages, WordPress, SEO basics, Google Business Profile setup€1,299 – €2,499
E-commerce starterWordPress + SureCart, 20–50 products, payment integration, basic SEO€2,999 – €9,999
Custom WordPress buildBespoke design, CRM/email integrations, multi-page, AEO-ready€6,999 – €9,999
Premium / enterpriseComplex builds, custom development, multilingual, advanced AEO€9,999 – €29,999
AI Visibility AuditOne-off audit of your current site's AI search readiness with prioritised remediation roadmapfrom €299

Ongoing services (monthly)

ServiceWhat it includes2026 Price (EUR)
Managed WordPress (basic)Backups, core/theme/plugin updates, security monitoring, uptime checksfrom €49/month
Managed WordPress (full)Basic + monthly content production + SEO + schema updates + GBP managementfrom €299/month
Content Creation & SyndicationContent produced and syndicated across 300–800 high-traffic sites for compounding reach and authority signalsfrom €999/month

Freelancer vs agency vs AI-native specialist

OptionTypical 2026 costProsCons
DIY (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy)€15–€40/monthCheapest upfront, no agency needed, fast launchPlatform lock-in, monthly fees forever, poor SEO ceiling, limited AEO support, you do all the work
Freelancer (Upwork, local)€500–€2,500 buildOften cheaper than agency, direct communication, flexibilityVariable quality, no ongoing infrastructure, single point of failure, often no SEO or AEO expertise
Traditional Dublin agency€3,000–€20,000+ buildFull service, account managers, established processesTypically still selling 2018-era SEO, rarely building AEO-ready sites, slower turnaround
AI-native specialist (BeaconSites)€699–€29,999 buildAI search visibility (AEO) engineered in from day one. Same WordPress ownership. Specialist work in a discipline most agencies haven't caught up with yet.Premium positioning at the higher tiers — the price reflects the engineering, not agency overhead

What about ongoing costs?

ItemTypical 2026 cost
Domain name (e.g., .ie or .com)€15–€30/year
Hosting€5–€30/month
SSL certificate (security)Usually free via host or Let's Encrypt
Plugin licences (WordPress)€50–€300/year combined

 

Item2026 cost
Managed WordPress (basic) — backups, updates, securityfrom €49/month
Managed WordPress (full) — basic + content + SEOfrom €299/month
Content Creation & Syndication (300–800 site distribution)from €999/month

Data and evidence cited in this article

METRIC
Value
Source
Google searches producing AI summary (US)
1 in 5 (~20%)
Pew Research, July 2025 — https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/
Click-through rate when AI summary appears
8% (vs ~15% without)
Pew Research, July 2025 — https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/
Google AI Overviews trigger rate
48% of searches (up 58% YoY through early 2026)
BrightEdge, May 2026 — https://www.brightedge.com/news/press-releases/one-year-google-ai-overviews-brightedge-data-reveals-google-search-usage
Organic CTR drop on queries with AI Overviews
-61% organic, -68% paid
Seer Interactive / Inc., September 2025 — https://www.seerinteractive.com/news/seer-interactive-research-featured-in-inc.-analysis-of-ctr-and-ai-overviews
Click uplift for brands cited within AI Overviews
35% more organic clicks, 91% more paid clicks
Seer Interactive / Inc., September 2025 — https://www.seerinteractive.com/news/seer-interactive-research-featured-in-inc.-analysis-of-ctr-and-ai-overviews
ChatGPT-recommended brands NOT in Google's top 10 (SaaS analysis)
81% (150 SaaS companies)
EMGI SaaS AI Citation Gap Report, 2026 — https://emgigroup.com/blog/saas-ai-citation-gap-report/

Key concepts defined

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)

The engineering discipline of making websites findable, citable, and quotable by AI search engines including ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot. Differs from traditional SEO (which targets Google search rankings) by emphasising schema markup, citation-friendly content structure, FAQPage markup, llms.txt declarations, content chunked for AI extraction, and E-E-A-T signals. AEO is a 2024–2026 discipline that most traditional web agencies have not yet developed capability in.

AI Visibility Audit

A one-off €299 audit produced by BeaconSites reporting exactly how findable a business website currently is across the five major AI search engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot), what specific signals are missing, and a prioritised remediation roadmap. Designed as the lowest-risk entry point for Irish SMEs to evaluate their existing site's AI search readiness before committing to a rebuild.

Managed WordPress

Recurring monthly service covering the operational baseline of running a WordPress website — backups, core/theme/plugin updates, security monitoring, uptime checks. BeaconSites offers two tiers: a basic plan (from €49/month) covering the operational baseline, and a full plan (from €299/month) adding monthly content production, SEO maintenance, schema markup updates, AEO maintenance, and Google Business Profile management.

Common questions

A 1–5 page brochure WordPress site for a sole trader or small Irish business typically costs €699 to €1,999. This includes mobile-responsive design, a contact form, and basic on-page setup.

The monthly fee is lower upfront (€15–€40/month), but you pay it forever — €240–€480 per year, every year. Over five years a Squarespace site costs €1,200–€2,400 in subscription alone, with no equity in the asset and limited AI search visibility. A WordPress build is a one-time cost you own outright.

The €49/month tier covers backups, core WordPress updates, theme and plugin updates, security monitoring, and uptime checks. The €299/month tier adds monthly content production, SEO optimisation, schema markup updates, AEO maintenance, and Google Business Profile management.

A brochure site can be live in 5–10 working days. A small business site typically takes 2–3 weeks. E-commerce and custom builds run 3–6 weeks. Premium and multilingual projects can be 8–12 weeks.

Yes — fully. WordPress, your domain, your hosting account, your content. You can take everything to any provider at any time.

A one-off €299 audit that reports how findable your current website is by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot, with a prioritised remediation roadmap. It's often the highest-ROI €299 an Irish SME will spend in 2026 — and the best entry point if you're not sure whether your existing site needs rebuilding or just upgrading.

Because the work behind the price reflects specialist engineering that most Dublin agencies aren't yet doing — building websites engineered for AI search engines, not just Google. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) is a 2024–2026 discipline. The pricing reflects the genuine depth of the work, not agency overhead.

A monthly service (from €999/month) for businesses serious about authority and reach. Original content is produced and syndicated across 300–800 high-traffic publishing sites through MediaCastHub, which uses an 8-format content transformation and distribution system. Generates compounding inbound links, brand mentions, and AI search citations.

Yes. We typically use WordPress + SureCart, which can be added to any existing BeaconSites build. Migration cost depends on scope, usually €500–€2,000.
The bottom line

Every website project is shaped by the business behind it. The pricing tiers above are real, but the exact number for your specific situation depends on pages, integrations, content scope, and how deeply you want AI search visibility built in.

For most Irish SMEs in 2026, the practical sweet spot sits between €1,299 and €9,999 — small business build through to custom AEO-ready WordPress. The higher tiers exist for businesses where the website is the primary commercial asset, not the marketing brochure.

If you're not sure whether your current website needs rebuilding or just upgrading, the AI Visibility Audit (€299) tells you exactly where you stand across all five major AI search engines — and what to fix in priority order.

Or book a free 30-minute discovery call: calendly.com/leegraham/30min

Lee Graham

Lee Graham

Lee Graham is the founder of BeaconSites, a Dublin-based digital agency building AI-search-ready websites for Irish SMEs. He built Carvium, BeaconSites' 16-agent autonomous content pipeline, and MediaCastHub, an 8-format content distribution system.

Based at 77 Camden Street Lower, St. Kevins, Dublin D02 XE80, Ireland.

Want to know where your business stands across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity?

Get an AI Visibility Audit — a one-off snapshot of exactly which AI engines cite your business today, where the gaps are, and what to fix first. From €299.


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