The price of a website in Spain in 2026, broken down item by item: what the 21% VAT adds, the cost of maintaining it for 36 months, and what the law has required since June 2025.
A professional website in Spain is budgeted by line items, not by pages. On a €12,000 project, you must add €2,520 for 21% VAT and the cost of sustaining it for 36 months: domain, hosting, licenses, accessibility, and changes. The initial price is just the first payment, not the total cost.
There are three figures, and you are almost always shown only one
The first figure is the project price. This is what appears in bold in a quote and what is compared between providers.
The second is that same figure with the VAT applied. In Spain, web design and development services are taxed at the general rate.
The third is the total cost over 36 months: project, taxes, hosting, licenses, domain, email, maintenance, and the changes you will request in the second year. This is the only figure that tells you if it was a good decision.
Comparing the first figure between two quotes is like comparing the price of two cars based on the color of the hood.
Standard industry practice: Quotes that give a flat price without stating whether VAT is included, what the recurring monthly costs are, or providing an expiration date. The client signs off on a number and discovers the true cost fourteen months later.
Our criteria: Three figures from the very first email: project price, project price with VAT, and cumulative cost over 36 months. If the third doesn't fit your budget, it is better to know before you start than after paying the first invoice.
What Spanish websites currently ranking for this omit
We have read those that appear at the top. We will not name them one by one, but we will say what is missing, because the gap is identical in almost all of them.
A highly-ranked article gives neat ranges—landing page €300 to €800, corporate website €800 to €3,000, shop €1,500 to €5,000—and places "prices shown do not include VAT" in the footer in small print after the range (raiolanetworks.com/blog/precio-pagina-web, consulted 27-08-2026). Another divides the market into four levels from €200 to over €5,000, warns correctly that some agencies retain ownership of the code until final payment, and does not mention VAT anywhere in the text (lpbdigital.com/blog/cuanto-cuesta-pagina-web-espana, consulted 27-08-2026).
Neither of them projects the cost over 36 months. Neither mentions accessibility or Law 11/2023. Neither cites a verifiable source for their ranges: one claims to have analyzed "dozens of quotes" and publishes neither the sample size nor the date range.
It is not bad faith. It is just that a range without a method is easier to write than a method.
| What almost always appears | What almost never appears |
|---|---|
| Price range by website type | Whether the range includes 21% VAT, stated upfront |
| Annual domain and hosting cost | Cumulative 36-month cost, including licenses and changes |
| "Depends on complexity" | Which specific line item increases the price and by how much |
| Freelance vs. agency | Who retains ownership of the code upon completion |
| Estimated deadlines | Legal obligations that already affect the budget |
| Rounded figures with no origin | Sample size, date range, and methodology |
We wrote this guide to cover the second column. The first is already covered more than enough.
The nine line items of a website budget
A serious budget is read by line item. Each has work behind it, a deliverable, and a consequence if you remove it. These are the nine that appear in any corporate website project in Spain, in the order they occur.
1. Listen and define. Interviews with those who know the business, an audit of what already exists, and an agreement on what "winning" means. If you remove this, you save money at the start and pay for it in the third round of changes.
2. Content. Texts, photography, video, translation. This is the line item that sinks the most budgets, because almost no one budgets for it and almost everyone needs it. A twelve-page website means twelve texts that someone has to write.
3. Design and system. Grid, typographic rhythm, scale, palette, components. These are not just loose screens: it is a system that allows you to build the thirteenth page without having to design again.
4. Layout and development. Converting the system into code that works on a mid-range mobile with a poor connection, not just on the designer's laptop.
5. Integrations. Forms, transactional email, CRM, bookings, invoicing, analytics. Each integration is an external dependency with its own price and its own calendar of failures.
6. Accessibility. Contrast, visible focus, tab order, alt text, labeled forms. Since June 2025, this stopped being a preference for a segment of the Spanish market.
7. Performance. Image weight, fonts, JavaScript, cache, and reserved space to prevent layout shifts. If you remove this, the website works fine on the developer's laptop and poorly on your customer's mobile.
8. Legal. Legal notice, privacy policy, cookie policy, properly configured consent banner, record of processing activities. This is the item that seems cheapest and the only one that is penalized: up to €30,000 under Article 22.2 of the LSSI.
9. Launch and handover. Redirects, pre-checks, code delivery, source files, documentation, and credentials in your company's name.
| Item | Figure | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Listen and define | — | Interviews, audit, success criteria |
| Content | — | Texts, photography, translation |
| Design and system | — | Grid, typography, components |
| Layout and development | — | Front, CMS, integrations |
| Accessibility and performance | — | Audit, fixes, verification |
| Launch and handover | — | Redirects, checks, documentation |
— = data being measured; we will publish it once we have our own sample.
We will publish these percentages when we have a sample that stands up to close inspection. We prefer a marked gap to an invented number.
If you want the details of what is sacrificed in each budget bracket, we have detailed it in what you can really do with €800, €1,500, and €3,000. The first two brackets are market, not Aura's offerings: we start at €3,000.
VAT is not a line on the last page
The general VAT rate in Spain is 21%, set in Article 90.One of Law 37/1992 and confirmed in the Tax Agency's document on current rates for 2026. The reduced and super-reduced rates—10% and 4%—do not apply to design or development services.
On a €12,000 project, the VAT is €2,520. This is not an accounting nuance: it is an item the size of an entire phase.
However, that 21% does not weigh the same for everyone.
If you are a freelancer or a company with taxable, non-exempt activity, the input VAT is deductible: you subtract it from the VAT you pass on in your tax return. The real cost of the project is the taxable base.
If your activity is among the exemptions listed in Article 20 of Law 37/1992—as is the case for a large part of the healthcare sector, regulated education, or insurance—you cannot deduct that VAT. The €2,520 is a pure cost. The same website costs 21% more.
And if the studio invoicing you is established in another Member State, the operation is documented without Spanish VAT and you self-assess via the reverse charge mechanism, provided you have your VAT-ID registered in the VIES system. It appears on your Form 303 and the recapitulative statement of Form 349. This is not a trick to pay less: it is a change in who declares the tax, not in how much is paid.
- The taxable base appears before the total, not just the total
- The document explicitly says "plus VAT" or "VAT included", not by deduction
- If it is an intra-community invoice, it cites the reverse charge and your VAT-ID
- Monthly maintenance fees also indicate whether they carry VAT
- The quote has an issue date and a validity date
We detail this fully, with invoice examples, in do website prices include VAT?.
The 36-month cost: the number that truly decides
You don't buy a website. You sustain it.
Three years is a reasonable horizon: below that, the project has not had time to return anything; above that, it is likely that it will need to be rethought. Within those 36 months, there are seven recurring items.
Domain. A .es or .com is renewed every year. It is the smallest item and the only one you can never stop paying without losing the address.
Hosting or platform. Here the range is huge and depends on technical decisions. Spanish shared hosting costs a fraction of what a deployment platform costs: Vercel publishes its Pro plan at $20 per month, with the first seat included and $20 per month for each additional seat (vercel.com/pricing, consulted 27-08-2026). None of this is expensive or cheap in the abstract: it is expensive or cheap relative to what your website needs.
Professional email. Paid by mailbox and by month. Five people means five mailboxes.
Licenses. Themes, paid plugins, form tools, search, translation. Almost all are renewed every year and almost none appear in the initial budget.
Maintenance. Updates, backups, monitoring, corrections. Without this, you don't have a website: you have a website until the day an unupdated plugin breaks it, and that day always arrives in August.
Changes. New texts, an extra section, a different form. You will ask for them. Not budgeting for them does not make them disappear.
Continuous content. If the website has a blog or catalog, someone updates it. If no one updates it, the item is zero and so is the result.
| Item | Figure | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | — | Paid always, without exception |
| Hosting or platform | — | Varies by technical decision, not by company size |
| Professional email | — | Multiplied by number of people |
| Third-party licenses | — | The item most often forgotten |
| Maintenance | — | Updates, backups, supervision |
| Changes and evolution | — | Almost always underestimated |
— = data being measured; we will publish it once we have our own sample.
Standard industry practice: Selling a website as a closed purchase and presenting maintenance as an optional extra explained in the last meeting, when the budget is already signed and leaves no room for discussion.
Our criteria: Putting the seven recurring items on the first page of the quote, with their frequency. If the 36-month total doesn't add up, it is better to find out now and build a smaller website.
There is one detail that is worth double-checking in Spain: a good portion of the tools that support a website are billed in dollars. Shopify shows its plans in dollars on its own Spanish pricing page—Basic at $39/month with monthly payment or $29/month with annual payment, consulted 27-08-2026. This means a part of your fixed cost depends on the exchange rate and your bank's commission, not just the provider. We cover this in SaaS tools billed in dollars.
To perform the calculation with your own numbers, we have the 36-month total cost calculator.
Accessibility is already in the budget, whether they tell you or not
Law 11/2023 of May 8 (BOE-A-2023-11022) transposes Directive (EU) 2019/882, known as the European Accessibility Act, into Spanish law. Its calendar is clear: new products and services had to comply from June 28, 2025, with a transitional provision that lasts until June 28, 2030, for services provided with existing products or under previous contracts.
It does not force everyone. It applies, among others, to e-commerce, consumer banking services, passenger transport, e-books, and communications services. And it exempts micro-enterprises providing services: fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet not exceeding €2 million.
Violations are not sanctioned by Law 11/2023 alone: in terms of equal opportunities and accessibility, Title III of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2013 of November 29 applies, with fines ranging from €301 to €30,000 (minor), €30,001 to €90,000 (serious), and €90,001 to €1,000,000 (very serious). The high end corresponds to repeated very serious offenses (Royal Legislative Decree 1/2013, BOE-A-2013-12632, Title III, consulted 27-08-2026).
What is relevant for your budget is this: if your website sells, charges, or allows reservations, accessibility is not a line item you can move to next year. And if the website already exists and does not comply, fixing it later costs more than doing it right, because contrast and focus order are decided in the grid, not in the final sprint.
Fixing accessibility at the end is like remodeling the kitchen when the house is already furnished.
Dates, scope, and micro-enterprise exemption verified on 27-08-2026 against the text of Law 11/2023 published in the BOE; the sanction scale, against Title III of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2013 (BOE-A-2013-12632). Regulatory development and oversight criteria may be specified after this date: check the status before making a decision based solely on this text.
If you want to know in twenty minutes if your website complies, we have a self-test. And if someone has offered you a widget that fixes everything, read before why overlays don't make you compliant.
Performance: when it is a line item and when it is an excuse
Google publishes three metrics with specific thresholds, measured in the 75th percentile of visits, separating mobile and desktop: LCP below 2.5 seconds, INP below 200 milliseconds, and CLS below 0.1 (web.dev/articles/vitals, consulted 27-08-2026). INP replaced FID as a stable metric in 2024.
These are public and verifiable thresholds. That makes them an acceptance criterion usable in a contract, not a promise.
A quote that says "optimized website" and names none of the three numbers is not selling performance: it is selling a word. A quote that commits to all three thresholds in the 75th percentile, on mobile, with field data, can be verified on launch day.
We develop this in the guide to web performance for businesses.
If you also sell: commissions are part of the price
In an online store, the cost does not end at the website. Every sale pays a toll.
Stripe publishes its rates for Spain: 1.5% + €0.25 for standard EEA cards, 2.8% + €0.25 for premium EEA cards, 2.5% + €0.25 for UK cards, and 3.15% + €0.25 for other international cards, plus an additional 2% if there is currency conversion (stripe.com/es/pricing, consulted 27-08-2026).
Redsys does not publish rates to merchants, because they are not the ones charging you: your bank does, and each entity negotiates its own. What is fixed by regulation is the system floor: Regulation (EU) 2015/751 limits interchange fees to 0.2% of the value of the operation for consumer debit cards (Article 3) and 0.3% for consumer credit cards (Article 4). That rate is only one part of what you end up paying, but it gives you a reference to know how much margin there is between the system minimum and what your local bank offers.
| Concept | Who sets it | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| Interchange rate | Regulation (EU) 2015/751 | 0.2% debit and 0.3% credit, consumer cards |
| Virtual POS commission | Your acquiring bank | Merchant contract, not the Redsys website |
| International gateway fee | The provider | Public rate page, updated |
| POS setup and maintenance | Your bank | Fixed monthly fee, if any |
| Bizum commercial fee | Your bank | — |
— = data being measured; we will publish it once we have our own sample.
Always request rates in writing before choosing a platform. A 0.4% difference on €200,000 in annual turnover is €800 per year, more than many maintenance line items.
The integration details are in Redsys and Bizum in your online store.
Kit Digital in 2026: check the date before counting on that money
Half the sector keeps selling websites "with Kit Digital" as if the deadline were open. It is advisable to check the electronic office before signing anything.
As of August 27, 2026, the call for Segment III (0 to less than 3 employees) is listed as closed: it ended on October 31, 2025, at 11:00. The call for Segments IV and V (50 to less than 100 and 100 to less than 250 employees) closed on June 30, 2025, at 11:00, with grant amounts of €25,000 and €29,000 respectively (sede.red.gob.es, consulted 27-08-2026).
In January 2026, Order TDF/39/2026 of January 26 was published (BOE-A-2026-2070, published January 28, 2026), which modifies the program's regulatory bases. It modifies bases: it does not open a new call by itself. It establishes that grants will be called until the total depletion of funds and that Red.es will reinvest the unexecuted budget surplus.
Status of calls checked on 27-08-2026 at the Red.es electronic office and in the BOE. Kit Digital changes status frequently and by segment. Before counting on the voucher in your budget, check the electronic office that same day: we do not quote against a grant that has not been granted in writing.
If someone presents you a price "already with the aid discounted" without showing you the grant resolution, what they are showing you is a conditional discount, not a price. We tell the whole story in Kit Digital in 2026.
The invisible line item: whose code is it when it's finished
This does not appear in any budget and it decides the value of everything above.
In Spain, Article 97.4 of the Consolidated Text of the Intellectual Property Law says that when a salaried employee creates a computer program in the exercise of their functions, the ownership of the exploitation rights belongs exclusively to the employer, unless otherwise agreed.
Here is the point that almost no one explains to you: you are not the employer of an external studio. Hiring a studio is not hiring an employee. Without a written assignment, that article does not protect you.
And the written assignment has its own rules. Article 43 of the same text establishes that the transfer of exploitation rights is limited to the modalities expressly provided, for the time and territorial scope determined. If the time is not stated, the assignment is understood to be limited to five years. If the modalities of exploitation are not mentioned, the assignment only covers what is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the contract.
Five years. A website that cost you €20,000 with a poorly drafted assignment clause can cease to be yours in the same way it was on day one.
- The contract names the code, design source files, texts, and images in the assignment
- The assignment states expressly that it is for the maximum legal time and for the entire territory
- The modalities of exploitation are listed, not assumed
- The price says "plus VAT" explicitly, with taxable base and quota separated
- The repository is in your name from the first commit, not at handover
- Domain, hosting, and analytics are in your company's name
- There is a concrete handover date and a list of what is delivered that day
We have a contract and assignment of rights template and a specific guide on whose website code it is.
What each budget bracket buys
The brackets we use in our form are four. These are not commercial categories: they are boundaries of what fits.
Less than €10,000. A small, well-made website fits: few pages, a reduced design system, content that you provide, without complex integrations. What is sacrificed is research and a catalog of components. It is enough to present a business with criteria. It is not enough to support a catalog of two hundred products.
Between €10,000 and €25,000. The website plus the system fits: documented grid, reusable components, copywriting worked with your team, verified accessibility, measured performance. This is the bracket where the website stops being a brochure and starts being a tool.
Between €25,000 and €50,000. Brand and website together fit, or website with real integrations: CRM, bookings, private area, multiple languages. Here you are no longer buying pages: you are buying a system that your team can keep using without us.
More than €50,000. Digital product. Eight-week phases, architecture decisions, own lifecycle.
The important thing is not which bracket you are in. It is that you know what is left out of yours before signing, and not after.
The bracket does not decide how many pages you have: the bracket decides what is left undone.
How we budget
We do not give hourly prices. We give a fixed price per phase, agreed upon before starting. No surprise hours.
A brand and web project is delivered in 6 to 12 weeks. A digital product advances in 8-week phases. After launch, 30 days of support included. At handover, we deliver code, source files, and documentation.
We respond in less than 24 business hours. The first call lasts 30 minutes and costs nothing. We accept a limited number of projects per year, and that means sometimes we say no.
| # | Phase | What we do | Deliverables |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Listen | We start by asking, not proposing. | Interviews · Audit · Agreed brief |
| 02 | Define | We agree on what winning means before moving a pixel. | Objectives · Scope · Success criteria |
| 03 | Trace | We decide the structure before the aesthetic. | Architecture · Flows · Prototype |
| 04 | Design | We work on the system, not loose screens. | Grid · Typographic rhythm · Components |
| 05 | Build | Code is written so others can read it. | Development · Integrations · CI/CD |
| 06 | Launch & Support | Launch is a checklist, not a leap of faith. | Checks · Handover · 30 days support |
Standard industry practice: Budgeting by estimated hours and billing by actuals. The provider transfers the risk of their own imprecision to the client, and every unforeseen event becomes an invoice no one had foreseen.
Our criteria: Fixed price per phase, closed before starting. If we miscalculate, the error is ours. If the scope changes because you change it, we talk and agree beforehand, not on the invoice.
If you prefer to know why almost no one in Spain publishes prices, we wrote it here: why almost no Spanish agency publishes prices.
Frequently asked questions
Do website prices include VAT?
In Spain, unless the quote explicitly says so, the price you see is the taxable base and you must add 21%. If the document does not clarify it at the top, ask for it in writing before signing: it is not an uncomfortable question, it is the first check of a serious budget.
Why does one agency ask for €1,200 and another €12,000 for the same website?
Because it is not the same website: the included line items, content, accessibility, ownership of the code, and subsequent support change. The difference is rarely in the number of pages and almost always in what is not written down.
How much does it cost to maintain a website per year?
It depends on seven specific items: domain, hosting, email, licenses, maintenance, changes, and content. It is honest to calculate them with your numbers, not an industry average: that is why we publish a calculator instead of a round number.
Does my website have to be accessible by law?
If you sell, charge, or allow reservations online and you are not a micro-enterprise according to the definition of Law 11/2023, yes, since June 28, 2025. If you are a micro-enterprise providing services, you are exempt, although that does not save you from users who cannot use your website.
Can I pay for the website with Kit Digital in 2026?
As of August 27, 2026, the calls for the segments consulted are listed as having finished. Check the Red.es electronic office the same day you decide: we do not quote against aid that has not been granted in writing.
The price is not the problem
The problem is that almost no one shows you all three figures at the same time. A cheap website that expires in eighteen months is more expensive than an expensive one that lasts five years, and that calculation can only be made beforehand.
We prefer to show you the 36-month total on the first call, even if the number makes you end the conversation. Does this way of working fit you?
Keep reading
- Do website prices include VAT? How to read a quote as a freelancer or SME
- Total 36-month cost of a website: the number almost no one gives you
- Why one agency asks you for €1,200 and another for €12,000 for the same website
- How to audit a website quote: 14 signs that you are being sold smoke
- Observatory of Web Prices Spain 2026 (n, date, method)
- How to hire a web design and development studio in Spain
- Web accessibility in Spain after the European Accessibility Act
Transparency note. Some of our own data in this guide is still being measured on real projects, with a single method. We will publish it with its sample size and date range once the sample is large enough; until then, every figure you see carries its source and date of consultation.
Sources
- https://sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es/static_files/Sede/Tema/IVA/IVA_reperc/Tipos_IVA_2026_26_02_2026.pdf — Tax Agency, VAT rates in effect in 2026: general 21% (art. 90.One Law 37/1992), reduced 10%, super-reduced 4%. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2023-11022 — Law 11/2023, of May 8 (transposition of Directive EU 2019/882, European Accessibility Act): BOE identifier, scope, entry into force 10-05-2023 and transitional regime.
- https://finreg360.com/alerta/la-ley-de-accesibilidad-busca-eliminar-barreras-de-las-personas-con-limitaciones-funcionales-para-acceder-a-productos-y-servicios/ — Legal analysis of Law 11/2023: application date 28-06-2025, transitional until 29-06-2030, definition of micro-enterprise (less than 10 people and ≤ €2 M) and sanction scale from €301 to €1,000,000. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://web.dev/articles/vitals — Official thresholds for Core Web Vitals: LCP ≤ 2.5 s, INP ≤ 200 ms, CLS ≤ 0.1, measured in the 75th percentile; INP replaced FID as a stable metric in 2024. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://stripe.com/es/pricing — Stripe rates for Spain: 1.5% + €0.25 EEA standard cards, 2.8% + €0.25 EEA premium, 2.5% + €0.25 UK, 3.15% + €0.25 other international, +2% for currency conversion. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ES/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32015R0751 — Regulation (EU) 2015/751: interchange fee limit of 0.2% on debit (art. 3) and 0.3% on credit (art. 4) for consumer cards. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://sede.red.gob.es/es/procedimientos/convocatoria-de-ayudas-destinadas-la-digitalizacion-de-empresas-del-segmento-iii — Kit Digital Segment III: deadline finished 31-10-2025 at 11:00; max voucher €3,000; website category €2,000. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://sede.red.gob.es/es/procedimientos/convocatoria-de-ayudas-destinadas-la-digitalizacion-de-empresas-del-segmento-iv — Kit Digital Segments IV and V: deadline finished 30-06-2025 at 11:00; vouchers of €25,000 and €29,000. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2026-2070 — Order TDF/39/2026, of January 26 (BOE 28-01-2026): modifies the regulatory bases of the Kit Digital, does not open a call; aid until depletion of funds and reinvestment of surplus by Red.es. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://www.iberley.es/legislacion/articulo-43-ley-propiedad-intelectual — TRLPI art. 43: the assignment of exploitation rights is limited to the expressed modalities; without mention of time, five years; without mention of modalities, only what is necessary for the end of the contract. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://www.iberley.es/legislacion/articulo-97-ley-propiedad-intelectual — TRLPI art. 97.4: exploitation rights of a program created by a salaried employee belong exclusively to the employer, unless otherwise agreed. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://vercel.com/pricing — Vercel: free Hobby plan and Pro plan at $20/month per user. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://www.shopify.com/es/precios — Shopify shows its plans in dollars on its Spanish page: Basic $39/month monthly or $29/month annual; 2% commission per transaction in Basic if Shopify Payments is not used. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://raiolanetworks.com/blog/precio-pagina-web/ — Spanish page positioned for the query: price ranges (landing 300-800, corporate 800-3000, shop 1500-5000), VAT notice only in footer, no 36-month cost, no accessibility or code ownership. Used as a reference for the competitive gap. Consulted 27-08-2026.
- https://lpbdigital.com/blog/cuanto-cuesta-pagina-web-espana/ — Spanish page positioned: four levels from €200 to over €5,000, no mention of VAT, no 36-month projection, no accessibility or Kit Digital, no verifiable sources for ranges. Used as a reference for the competitive gap. Consulted 27-08-2026.
Want to see this thinking applied to a real project?