Website design for French businesses

Who this is for

French clinics, law and accounting firms, manufacturers, consultancies and local shops often have a website that works but does not sell. It is slow on a phone, the text is cramped, the contact page is buried, or the legal footer is a copy of someone else's. A fresh design fixes those things at the root instead of patching them.

If you already have a site you want to keep ranking, read our page on website redesign in France first, because the migration plan matters as much as the new look. For a store, see ecommerce development in France.

The result should help the visitor decide, quickly. That means a clear first screen, proof such as qualifications or photos of the work, a visible phone number or form, and no pop-up that covers the page before it has loaded.

Designing with French text from day one

French copy runs longer than English, often by a fifth or more. Menus wrap, buttons overflow and headlines that fit in English break into three lines. We ask for draft French copy before the design starts, or we write placeholders in French rather than English.

Details we handle in the layout: accented capitals in headings, proper non-breaking spaces before colons, question marks and « » quotes, the date written day first, and euro amounts written with the symbol after the number. They are small, but French readers notice when they are wrong.

What the project includes

Every row is tested on a mid-range phone, because most French visitors arrive from one. We also check how the site behaves with the browser text size raised, which is a quick way to find layouts that depend on short English words.

Legal and accessibility points to check

We are a web agency, not a law firm, so these are points to confirm with your adviser.

• The Toubon law expects consumer information in French. If you keep an English version, the French one should be complete.
• The RGAA is the French accessibility framework, and the European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 to many consumer-facing services. Whether it applies to a brochure site depends on what you offer.
• A contact form collects personal data, so it needs a short notice and a lawful basis under GDPR.
• If you sell online, the 14-day withdrawal right and a clear price including TVA apply.

Our WCAG 2.2 checklist lists what we test.

How the project runs

You get one project lead and a weekly demo link. Paris is 3.5 to 4.5 hours behind India, so a 10:00 call in France is early afternoon for us. Feedback goes on the design in writing, and we answer within one working day.

1. BriefA short call and a website brief covering goals, pages and French copy.
2. DesignKey pages first, then the rest once you approve direction.
3. BuildResponsive build with legal pages and consent in place.
4. LaunchSpeed and accessibility checks, redirects, analytics, and handover.

Pricing guidance

Projects start at $1,500 and our rate is $30 an hour. A compact French-only site is near the start of that range. Cost grows with page templates, language versions, integrations such as booking or payment, and how much custom animation or functionality you want. Our website cost guide shows the bands, and the broader design service page explains the process.

If your budget is tight, we can launch a smaller first version with the core pages and legal setup, then add sections later at the same hourly rate. That is often wiser than stretching a first launch across too many pages.