PIPELINEGuide
Checklist: preparing to have a website built
What you should clarify before requesting offers for having a website built. The more of this is settled beforehand, the more reliable the offers become.
Before deciding on a website, a quick assessment is worthwhile: which process costs the most time, who will maintain the system later, and whether the necessary content even exists. The complete checklist is further below.
01 — Checklist
Clarify before the first quote
- What should improve? In one sentence, no jargon.
- How will you know? One number that should change.
- Who decides? One person, not a committee.
- What budget is available? A range is enough — it makes quotes comparable instead of arbitrary.
- By when? And what the deadline depends on.
- Which systems are involved? And who has access to them.
- What do you already have? Content, data, preliminary work — this reduces the cost.
02 — Participation
What we need from you
- A contact person who can make decisions — not just forward them.
- Access to the affected systems, in time and not on launch day.
- Real examples from daily business — the messier, the more useful for testing.
- Two to four hours for coordination, distributed over the project duration.
- An answer to the question of what success means. Without it, nothing can be assessed afterward.
03 — Questions
Questions you should ask
- What happens if the project becomes more expensive than estimated — who bears that?
- Who owns data, access, and, if developed, the source code?
- What does operation cost in the second and third year?
- What does the documentation we receive at the end look like?
- How would you measure whether the project was successful?
- Is there a case in which you would advise us against this?
04 — Questions
Frequently asked questions
Can we manage the site ourselves?
Yes. You maintain texts, images, and simple pages yourself. For structural changes you get in touch — or not, that's not a dependency we build.
Does our website have to be accessible?
Since 28 June 2025, the Accessibility Act (Barrierefreiheitsgesetz) applies in Austria. Mainly affected are online shops, bookings, e-ticketing, and banking services in consumer business; micro-enterprises are exempt for services. A pure information site generally doesn't fall under it — we still build to WCAG 2.1 AA because it makes the site better for everyone and the rules tend to get stricter.
Are there subsidies?
For digitalization projects in Austria, there are several funding programs, such as KMU.DIGITAL (kmudigital.at) or the aws digitalization subsidy (aws.at). Whether your project currently qualifies, we check individually — the application must be approved before awarding the contract in any case.
What does ongoing operation cost?
Hosting, domain, updates, and backups are ongoing costs — how much depends on the size and requirements of the site, and we state that transparently in the quote. Anyone who skimps on that skimps until the first security incident.
WordPress or something else?
Depends on the case. WordPress makes sense when many people manage content and standard features are enough. Where speed, security, or custom functions matter, we build leaner. We don't recommend what we like building most, but what you can still operate in three years.
What does a website cost in Austria?
There's no serious way to answer that as a flat rate — the market ranges are huge because a one-pager and a multilingual company site with twenty pages are completely different projects technically. What matters most is how much content has to be created from scratch — that's almost always the biggest line item, not the technology. Send us a quick note about what you have in mind, and you'll get a proposal that fits your scope.
How long does it take?
Four to eight weeks is realistic if content and images arrive on time. The bottleneck is practically never development, but approval of texts and photos.
05 — Next
Related pages
- Having a website created — Overview
- Having a website built — team and acceptance
- Having a Website Built — Provider Comparison
- Having a website created — Costs
- Having a website created — Funding
- Having a website built — introduction
- Having a website built — contract and ownership
- Having a Website Built — How It Works
- Landing page
- SEO
- Website relaunch
- All guides
Having a website created by region
Next step
Initial assessment, no obligation.
Briefly describe what you need. You'll get an honest answer about what's realistic and what it will roughly cost.