Accessible Website: Costs, Effort and the Right Path to Implementation

Since the European Accessibility Act (and Germany's BFSG) took effect in June 2025, accessibility is no longer a nice-to-have for many businesses but a legal obligation. The question we hear most often is: what does this actually cost? The honest answer: it depends heavily on whether you are retrofitting an existing site or building a new one, and on how large the site is. Here is a concrete breakdown.

First: Do You Even Need It?

Before you spend money, check whether you are affected. The legislation applies primarily to products and services involving consumer transactions in electronic commerce - meaning online shops, booking systems, apps and similar offerings. Pure corporate brochure sites with no transaction often do not fall directly under the legal obligation. Micro-enterprises (fewer than 10 employees and under EUR 2 million in annual turnover) are generally exempt when it comes to services.

Does that mean you don't need accessibility at all? Not quite. Even when there is no legal duty, accessible pages measurably expand your reach: better usability for older visitors, a cleaner structure for Google, fewer drop-offs. But you shouldn't panic and pay for expensive retrofitting when it isn't legally required in the first place.

What Really Drives the Price

Accessibility is not a single feature you bolt on. It affects the entire front end. These factors determine the effort:

• Scope of the site: A one-page landing page can be made compliant in a fraction of the time it takes for a shop with 200 product pages and a checkout.
• New build or retrofit: Making an outdated site with poor HTML accessible is often more expensive than a clean rebuild, because you have to untangle the legacy issues.
• Interactive elements: Forms, sliders, modals, filters and menus are the typical problem areas. Plain text is almost never the issue.
• Depth of testing: An automated scan catches roughly 30-40% of the problems. The rest requires manual keyboard and screen reader testing.

Realistic Cost Ranges

We give you orientation rather than sugar-coating. Broadly, there are three scenarios:

• New build with accessibility from the start: This is the most cost-effective route, because accessibility is not a surcharge but part of clean craftsmanship. With us, an accessibly built one-page site runs EUR 2,000-3,000, and a larger multi-page site with a CMS runs EUR 4,500-8,000. Accessibility is not a separate line item here.
• Retrofitting an existing site: Here you pay for analysis plus corrections. The effort varies enormously depending on the condition - for a small, cleanly built site it can be manageable, while for a sprawling shop it is considerably more.
• Complex tools and SaaS interfaces: Dashboards, booking flows and web apps are more demanding, because every interactive component has to be tested individually. With us, such builds fall in the EUR 6,000-25,000 range, depending on the scope of functionality.

Be wary of providers who promise "accessibility at the click of a button" via an overlay widget. These tools usually fail to fix the underlying problems and are viewed critically by the accessibility community and in everyday practice. They are no substitute for a properly built site.

How to Approach the Project Sensibly

A structured approach saves money, because you avoid doing the work twice:

• 1. Take stock: First assess where you stand. A scan plus spot-check manual testing reveals the real trouble spots.
• 2. Prioritise: Tackle critical blockers first - keyboard operability, contrast, alternative text, form labels. These deliver the greatest impact per euro.
• 3. Implement to standard: The target is WCAG 2.1 at Level AA, the common benchmark behind the legal requirements.
• 4. Test with real assistive technology: Keyboard navigation and a screen reader run-through uncover what tools miss.
• 5. Document: An accessibility statement belongs on the site - it is part of the requirements and creates transparency.

Why We Know This Topic

We are not speaking from a textbook here. We run seven of our own brands live in production - including an accessibility scanner, a product portal with over 177,000 entries and several SaaS dashboards. From our own day-to-day work, we know where accessibility really gets stuck on the front end and which fixes make the difference, rather than just ticking boxes in an audit.

Our closing advice: invest once in a properly built front end rather than in sham solutions that merely mask the problem. An accessible site is not only on the right side of the law - it is simply easier to use for everyone, and that pays off in reach and trust.