Web design and development for French businesses

What a French website has to get right

French visitors judge a site quickly on language and trust. Copy that reads like a translation, a missing legal page or a checkout with no familiar payment option all cost orders. Good build work here is mostly about handling those details early, before design is locked.

French text is usually longer than English, so buttons, menus and cards need room. We design with real French copy in the layout, not placeholder English that breaks when the text arrives.

We also check small things that make a site feel local: date formats (day, then month), a comma as the decimal separator, euro symbols placed after the amount, and phone fields that accept French numbers.

Which build fits your project

We build on a short list of platforms we know well. The right one depends on what you sell and who will edit the site afterwards.

Legal and consent items in the build

French law does not stop at the homepage. These items change the build, so we plan them in the first week. Treat each as a question for your lawyer, since the right wording depends on your company.

• Mentions légales. The LCEN expects the publisher, the host and a publication director to be identifiable. We add the page and link it from the footer.
• Cookie banner. CNIL guidance expects refusing to be as easy as accepting. We configure a consent tool so scripts load only after consent where required.
• French language. The Toubon law expects consumer-facing information in French, including product details, offers and terms.
• Withdrawal and terms. Online sales to consumers carry a 14-day right of withdrawal in the EU, so the checkout and terms must reflect it.
• Accessibility. The RGAA is the French reference. The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 to many shops and consumer services. We build to WCAG 2.2 AA as the target.

Our website accessibility checklist shows what is tested before launch.

Payments and prices French shoppers expect

Consumer prices in France are shown TTC, meaning with 20% TVA included for the standard rate. B2B sites often show HT as well. Payment choice matters just as much. Many French buyers hold a Cartes Bancaires card, so your provider should support it, alongside Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Apple Pay.

Buy-now-pay-later options such as Alma, Oney or Klarna can lift larger baskets, but they add fees and eligibility rules, so we configure them only when the product price justifies it. The checkout button also needs wording that makes clear the order carries an obligation to pay.

How a project runs remotely

1. Short callWe agree scope, language versions and legal pages. The fixed quote follows within one working day.
2. Design in FrenchLayouts use your real French copy, with a weekly demo link you can open on your phone.
3. Build and testWe build, test on real devices and run accessibility and speed checks.
4. Launch and handoverRedirects, analytics with consent, and handover of code and accounts, which remain yours.

France is 3.5 to 4.5 hours behind India, so a 10:00 call in Paris falls at 13:30 or 14:30 in Pune. One lead owns the project and calls are booked in your working hours.

Pricing guidance

Projects start at $1,500 and our rate is $30 an hour. What moves the price is the number of templates, language versions, integrations and custom features. A French-only brochure site sits near the low end, while a store with several shipping rules and payment options costs more. The website cost guide explains the bands, and the website cost calculator gives a first estimate.