Two associations say "we need a website" and do not talk about the same object. One wants a page that says who it is and how to reach it; the other has three hundred pages in two languages, a calendar, a directory and an area reserved for members. Between the two, the work is not ten times longer: it changes in nature. This guide describes six website levels, what each requires in days, team and responsibilities, and says which ones fit in the Kern4Good ladder and which do not.
The price of a website is days of work, and those days do not depend first on the number of pages. They depend on four things that multiply: the amount of content to write, migrate or translate; the number of different templates to design and build; the functions that do something (a form, a calendar, a payment, an account); and the responsibilities the website creates, especially as soon as it touches people's data. A hundred pages on three templates is content work. Ten pages with a members' area is a security project. That is why the Kern4Good ladder is described by levels, not by page count.
One page that says who you are, what you do, where and how to reach you, with a contact form. It serves an association that is starting out, a one-off project, a local branch. It requires short, accurate texts, a few real photos, a framed design. It has no editor: changes go through us, on request. In the ladder: the launch website at 1 200 EUR, three days of work.
One page per topic: mission, actions, team, partners, contact, sometimes one page per activity. The visitor finds an answer in one click. This level requires a page plan that holds, a design that declines several templates, a form, and one decision: who publishes? If nobody will publish every week, a static website is enough and costs less to maintain (2 400 EUR, six days, updates on request). If your team will publish itself, the small editable website (4 000 EUR, Wagtail, ten days) gives an editor and a training.
The website that lives: news, a calendar, pages added as projects go, a blog or a newsletter. It requires a solid editor, templates designed for repetition (a news item, an event, a project), a training of the referents and, above all, a person who publishes. It is the small editable website at 4 000 EUR when the association comes alone; it is also the website of the Source Hub partner cohort when five associations gather: five pages and a blog, migration of the existing content, training, twelve months of hosting, at the cohort's reduced rate.
Several dozen pages, two or three languages, existing content to migrate, modules (calendar, simple directory, membership, donation button), several people who write and validate. It is the complete website of the ladder, at 8 000 EUR for twenty days, the agency's Business website; beyond twenty days, it is a quote. What changes at this level, and explains the days:
This level stays in the ladder as long as it is an association that needs a normal website: content counted in dozens of pages, a team of referents, languages counted on one hand.
A website becomes a platform when its value lies in what it does, not in what it says: a rich directory with search and profiles, a map, a donation or registration module with payment, an e-learning area, connections to other tools (CRM, accounting, shared calendar). Each function is designed, developed, tested and maintained. A platform does not fit in the ladder: it is an agency project, scoped and quoted separately, with a yearly maintenance budget. We say so at the first conversation, not at the quote.
Members, volunteers, partners, an extranet, an intranet: as soon as part of the website asks for a login and a password, the website changes category, whatever its size. It no longer only shows information, it keeps people's data. Three things are added, and none is optional:
Members' data is personal data. The association is the data controller, KERN-IT or any other provider is its processor, and that relationship is described in a contract (article 28 of the GDPR). The record of processing activities must be kept, people informed, their access and deletion requests answered, and, in case of a breach (an unauthorised access, a leak), the Data Protection Authority notified within 72 hours (article 33), with the forms the Authority publishes.
A private area is a door, and doors get attacked. It takes security updates applied quickly, two-factor authentication, strong passwords, access logs, tested backups, and regular tests against the known flaws OWASP lists in its Top Ten. This work never stops: it is recurring, quoted maintenance, not a line of the initial quote.
This is the point quotes forget. With a private area, you become responsible as much as we are: for what you collect, for who has access, for the accounts nobody closed, for the volunteer who shares a password. We build and we maintain; you decide, you inform, you answer people. It is said before starting, and it is written down. For that reason, the private area is always outside the ladder, on quote, with recurring maintenance quoted and responsibilities set out in black and white. A ten-page public website with a members' area costs more than a fifty-page public website without one.
A foundation, a federation, a European network: hundreds of pages, several teams or several countries that validate, a ranking built over ten years, partners pointing to precise addresses. That website does not fit in the Kern4Good ladder, and it is not a matter of budget. It is a matter of risk and responsibilities: a migration at that volume is prepared like a house move, page by page, with governance, validations in series, team trainings, and a transition period where every mistake costs visits. Kern4Good is made for associations that need a normal website. A project of that size is an agency project, at KERN-IT at the agency rate or elsewhere, and we say so at the first conversation.
Six questions are enough to find your level, and to make the first conversation useful:
The Pricing page takes these criteria up in "Who this ladder is for". The guide Redoing your association's website gives the order of the steps, and the guide Getting your association's website found explains what is done once and what is done every month. The glossary defines the private area and website migration.
Pages consulted on 19 September 2026. Rates, ceilings and percentages change: check the update date of each page before building a budget on it.
None of the ladder, and it is not the number as such: it is what it implies, a page-by-page migration, redirects, several people validating, an acquired ranking not to lose. It is an agency project, scoped separately. We will tell you at the first conversation, with an honest order of magnitude.
No. As soon as there are accounts and people's data, it is a separate quote, with recurring maintenance quoted and responsibilities written down. A small members' area costs more, to build and to maintain, than many public pages.
Because it gets attacked. Security updates, two-factor authentication, logs, tested backups and tests against known flaws never stop. A public website without accounts needs light maintenance; a private area needs maintenance counted in days per year.
The association, as data controller; the provider is its processor, and a contract describes who does what. In case of a breach, the association notifies the Data Protection Authority within 72 hours, with our help. That is why we talk about it before starting.
Yes, and it is often the right path: a single page or a 5 to 10 page website, then a content website when someone publishes every week. The domain name and the content follow. What cannot be caught up afterwards are redirects: we plan them at every step.
When to redo it, what to keep, what to write before talking design, which tool, how much it costs (from 0 to 8 000 EUR, at cost) and how to fund it. A guide for the team carrying the project, without jargon.
The spreadsheet no longer keeps up? Here is how to state the need, compare three tools without getting lost, respect the GDPR, link the CRM to the website and succeed at the set-up with a team of volunteers.
Prime Digitalisation in Brussels, Walloon vouchers, kmo-portefeuille in Flanders, foundation calls: what exists, under which conditions, why non-profits are often excluded, and how to check before counting on it. Official sources cited.
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