What a website costs in Malta.

What a website costs in Malta is set by scope, not page count. A straightforward business website (five to eight pages, no custom software) is days of skilled design and build. A booking platform, dealer portal, or anything with a login, a database and an admin panel is a multi-month software project that costs several times more, rising with the number of integrations. Anyone who gives you one flat figure before hearing what the site actually needs to do is guessing, and the guess tends to be wrong in whichever direction gets them the job.

Why isn't there one number?

Because "a website" describes projects that share a URL bar and nothing else. A five-page site that tells people what a plumbing business does and how to call them is a few days of design and build. A site that takes bookings, checks availability against a calendar, takes a deposit, and emails a confirmation is a small piece of software with a database behind it: different skillset, different timeline, different price entirely. Our own web design Malta page gives the same answer to this exact question: it depends on scope, and a real number needs a real conversation first.

What actually moves the price?

Six things, in roughly the order they matter: the number of unique page templates (not total pages: ten blog posts share one template, ten different page layouts don't); whether there's a login and user accounts; whether there's a payment or booking flow with real business logic behind it (availability rules, deposits, cancellation windows); custom design versus a theme; the number of languages; and how much content (copy, photography) you're bringing versus asking us to produce. A restaurant site with a menu and a contact form and a hotel site with real-time room availability and a payment gateway can look similar in a screenshot and differ by a factor of ten in cost, because the second one is an application wearing a website's clothes.

What does a marketing site cost?

For a Malta business that needs to look credible, explain what it does, and convert enquiries (no logins, no custom software), you're paying for days of skilled work: a hand-built site with real copy and a working contact flow, scaling up with the number of distinct page types and how much content needs writing from scratch. That buys something meaningfully different from a bargain template: a site built without a page-builder framework underneath it, which is also why it tends to load faster and rank better: the same technical groundwork that makes a page easy for Google to crawl makes it easy for AI answer engines to read too, which is the subject of our GEO vs SEO comparison.

What does a booking or dealer platform cost?

This is where cost stops being a quick estimate and starts being a conversation about scope. A booking platform with real-time availability, an admin panel for staff, and automated confirmations is a multiple of a marketing site's budget; a full dealership or fleet management system with multiple user roles, inventory, and reporting runs well beyond that. We've built at this end of the market directly: Princess Garage runs a booking site with fleet admin behind it for a Malta car-hire house established in 1945; Nova Drive is a phone-first booking platform with its own admin for a newer rental brand; Dealer Pro is dealership management software built on React, TypeScript, Tailwind and Supabase. None of those shipped for the price of a marketing site, because none of them are one.

Does hand-built versus template change the price?

Yes, both ways. A theme or page-builder site is cheaper to launch and more expensive to live with: every plugin update is a risk, every "just one small change" needs someone who knows the specific builder, and page speed suffers under the extra JavaScript most builders ship by default. A hand-written, framework-free site (what we build by default) costs more upfront because someone is writing real code instead of configuring a template, and less over time because there's no platform to maintain, no plugin conflicts, and no forced migrations when the builder changes its pricing.

What does it cost after launch?

Hosting on GitHub Pages or an equivalent static host runs close to nothing for a marketing site. A platform with a database, authentication and business logic needs ongoing hosting (a modest monthly cost that scales with traffic and data) plus a support arrangement for changes and fixes, either ad hoc or a small retainer, depending on how often the business expects to touch it. Neither of those belongs in the upfront quote; both belong in the conversation before you sign anything.

How do you get an accurate number?

Write down what the site needs to do, not what it should look like; looks come after scope. List the page types, whether anyone logs in, whether money or bookings move through it, how many languages, and what content you already have versus what needs writing. Send that to three studios and compare the quotes against each other, not against a number you saw in a blog post. If a quote arrives with no questions asked, that's the one to be most careful with.