Types of websites: which one is right for your business.

The map of website types

The "website ideas" get confused because the types are defined by two different questions: what the site does and how many things it serves. Laid on the same table, these are the seven useful families:

• Brochure site: the house. Several pages (home, services, about, contact), builds presence and accumulates Google ranking. It is the starting type for almost any services business.
• Landing page: the campaign tent. One page, one goal (form, booking, sale), made for directed ad traffic; it lives as long as the campaign. Details in the landing pages and one pages guide.
• One page website: the compressed house. Everything on one page with sections; serves small businesses with one offer and one contact.
• Online shop: the counter. Catalogue, cart, payments (Multibanco and MB Way via gateway in Portugal), logistics. The platform comparison is in the shop platforms guide.
• Portfolio: the showcase. For whoever sells creative or technical work: projects, cases, contact. The content is the star; design serves it.
• Blog: the search machine. Articles answering customer questions and bringing organic traffic over months; the business blog guide shows the method.
• Web app: the tool. When the site executes processes: client portals, bookings with rules, integrations; see the custom website guide.

How to choose the type by the goal

The right choice comes from two questions, in order:

1. What must the site achieve in the first year? If the answer is "present the company and receive enquiries", it is a brochure site (or one page, if the business has a single service). If it is "sell", a shop. If it is "support a campaign", a landing. Choosing by what is pretty is choosing backwards.
2. What will the business be in a year? The type grows: a brochure site receives a blog, then a booking area, then a shop. Choosing a base that accepts growth avoids the second project; choosing the big base "just in case" with half of it empty is the classic waste.

And there is the sector layer: a restaurant, a real estate agency and a tourism operation have different flows (bookings, property sheets, availability by date), which is why sector solutions exist like the sites for businesses, with real examples of each case.

How much each type of website costs

With the published prices, the bases per type: landing and portfolio from €800; brochure site from €1,500; online shop from €3,000; web app from €5,000. In all of them, the value rises with scope (pages, languages, functionality, who writes the content) and not with the type itself. To spread the cost over time there is the subscription from €49/month, with build and maintenance on the same invoice.

The running costs (domain, hosting, SSL) are common to all types and are broken down in the build and maintain guide; the timelines per type, in the timeline guide.

The types combine (and that is what makes sense)

The most common setup among growing businesses is not "one type", it is a stack: brochure site as the house, blog feeding searches, landing pages for one-off campaigns, and a shop or web app when the business demands it. Each piece enters when the previous one already works; the sequence matters more than the initial choice.

If the doubt is between two types, an audit of the current site (when there is one) shows where the fairness starts: if the problem is structure, the type changes; if it is content, the type serves and the work is different. Free website analysis in 30 seconds.