Choose a package, languages and add-ons, and the calculator shows the costs for launch, per month and for the entire first year. All amounts are shown net, which makes sense for firms that can deduct input tax, and sit alongside typical market rates for web agencies and website builders.
One-off and running costs of a firm website
A website quote usually names one big number: the price for design and build. At least as important are the amounts due every month after that, for hosting, domain, security updates, maintenance contract and smaller changes. Comparing only the launch price, it is easy to overlook that running costs can exceed the build cost after a few years.
That is why you should project every quote over three to five years and compare the services side by side. With firm websites, it is worth taking a close look at mandatory pages such as the legal notice and privacy policy, additional languages for international clients, search engine optimisation per area of law and whether changes are included in the price.
Net or gross: what counts for firms
Lawyers, tax advisers, auditors, notaries and accounting firms provide services subject to VAT. You can therefore usually deduct the VAT on the invoice for your website as input tax, in Germany under § 15 UStG, in Austria under § 12 UStG 1994. So it is the net amount that counts for you, and that is how this calculator works too.
The exception is small businesses without input tax deduction (Kleinunternehmer:innen), for example a sole practice in its start-up phase. For them, the gross amount is the actual cost. The calculator shows it with 20 % VAT under every price.
Four questions to ask about any website quote
Four questions clarify a lot before you sign: Are the domain and content registered in the firm’s name, so you can switch provider later? What does it cost to add a new trainee lawyer (Konzipientin), a new trainee tax adviser (Berufsanwärter) or changed office hours? Where is the data hosted, and is there a data processing agreement? And how do messages from the contact form reach you in encrypted form, without confidential content travelling across the internet in plain text?
