How much does it cost to create a website?

For a do-it-yourself site, the starting budget is around €10 to €20 a year for the domain name and from €3/month for shared hosting. No-code builders offer all-inclusive subscriptions. Having an agency do it costs significantly more, depending on the scale of the project.

Do you need to know how to code to create a website?

No. No-code builders and CMS platforms like WordPress let you create a site without writing any code, thanks to themes and visual editors. Coding only becomes useful for bespoke needs.

Which tool should you choose when starting out?

For a simple, quick brochure site, a no-code builder is enough. For a scalable project where you want to keep control over the look and features, WordPress remains a safe bet. The choice mainly depends on how much autonomy and room to grow you need.

How to create a website: the step-by-step guide 2026

How do you create a website when starting from scratch? The good news is that the process boils down to a few logical steps and no longer requires any coding. Here is the path, from the site’s address to going live, explained step by step.

The three essential building blocks

A website always rests on three complementary elements:

The domain name: this is the address you type into the browser (for example my-site.com). Expect to pay around €10 to €20 a year.
Hosting: this is the server space that stores your site’s files, images and data to make them accessible online around the clock.
The creation tool: the software you use to build the pages, without which the domain and hosting would stay empty.

These three building blocks are often offered together by the same provider, which makes getting started simpler.

No-code builder or CMS?

This is the defining choice. Two families of tools are available to you.

No-code builders (Wix, Squarespace, etc.) bundle the domain, hosting and editor into a single subscription. You assemble the pages by drag-and-drop: it is the fastest route to a brochure site.

CMS platforms (content management systems), foremost among them WordPress, which powers roughly 43% of all websites worldwide in 2026, offer more freedom and scalability, at the cost of a slightly longer learning curve. They are installed on your own hosting.

If you are hesitating over the tool, our comparison of the best website builder details the strengths of each solution depending on your project.

Registering the domain name

Choose a name that is short, memorable and close to your brand. The extension depends on your target audience: .fr for a French audience, .com for international reach. Check its availability before registering it, then register it for at least a year, renewable.

Choosing the hosting

For a brochure site or a blog, shared hosting (from around €3/month) is more than enough. A high-traffic site or an online store will move to a VPS or managed hosting, which are more powerful. The choice of host directly affects the site’s speed and availability: our selection of the best web hosting helps you compare.

Build, test, publish

Once the tool is in place, you assemble the essential pages: home, about, contact, and, depending on the project, a blog or a catalogue. Start from a template (theme), customise the colours and content, then write clear, useful text for your visitors.

Before going live, test the display on mobile, the loading speed and that the forms work properly. Publishing only happens afterwards: a clean launch is better than a live site riddled with details to fix.

In summary

Creating a website means chaining together simple steps: register a domain, choose hosting and a tool suited to your level, build the pages, then publish. The most important thing is to choose tools that match the scale of your project from the outset, to avoid having to redo everything six months later.