React vs Vue for business sites, and why it matters less than you are told
React or Vue is close to the least important decision in a business website project, and it does not change the price. Four to seven pages with a CMS and a contact or booking flow is step 03, EUR 1.500 to 3.500, in either one. A single-page landing is EUR 600 to 900 in either one.
That is not a dodge, it is the answer. Both are component frameworks that turn a design into pages a browser shows. A visitor cannot tell which one built the page they are reading, and neither can a search engine. What decides whether the site earns its money is what the pages say, how fast they arrive, whether the right pages exist at all, and whether you can edit them without booking a developer.
Why the question gets so much airtime
A framework name is the easiest thing to put in a proposal. It sounds like a decision, it can be defended with technical detail, and it moves the conversation away from the two things a buyer actually wants settled: what this costs and what is included. A proposal that leads with a framework and ends without a price has answered the wrong question.
There is also a plain reason a developer prefers one: they are faster in the tool they use every day. That is a legitimate argument, and it is about the team rather than about your business. It is worth asking straight out.
What actually changes the result
| Decision | Effect on your result | Why |
|---|---|---|
| React or Vue | Close to none | Both produce the same page for the visitor |
| Rendered on the server, or only in the browser | Large | Decides what a visitor and a crawler see before any JavaScript runs |
| Who can edit the content | Large | A site nobody in the building can update stops being accurate |
| What the pages actually say | Largest | Copy is what turns a visit into an enquiry |
| How many pages exist, and which ones | Large | A service you sell with no page of its own cannot be found |
| Which step the scope lands in | This is the price | Login, dashboard, API, CRM, payments and chatbot are step 04 |
Every row except the first is something you can judge without knowing any JavaScript. That is the useful part: the decisions that matter are the ones you are already qualified to make.
When the choice does matter
- You employ a developer, or intend to. Build in what they know. A site your own team can maintain beats a technically superior one they cannot touch.
- You already run an application in one of them. One stack for both means one set of components, one design system and one thing to upgrade.
- You depend on a component library that only exists in one ecosystem. Decisive when it happens.
- You are hiring developers. Both are widely used in Amsterdam, so this settles little, but if the people applying to you all write React, that is a real input.
Outside those, the honest position is that it is our call to make and it should cost you nothing either way.
Five questions worth more than the framework question
- What does this cost, as a range, before we go further? A studio should be able to answer this before scoping. Ours is published on the packages page, and a fixed quote follows scoping.
- Who owns the code, the repository and the database at the end? You should. With us you do, and you can take the project to another developer without asking permission.
- What can I change myself after launch? Text, images, a blog post and a new service page should be yours to edit. If every word change is a support ticket, you have bought a recurring bill rather than a website.
- What is inside the fixed price and what counts as a change? Both sides should be able to point at the written scope the quote covers, and agree in advance how a new request gets priced.
- What does it cost per month once it is live? Care is EUR 100 to 300 a month for updates, monitoring, backups and small fixes. It excludes redesigns and new features on purpose, because those deserve their own quote.
How the build runs, and how long
Scope, then a fixed quote, then structure and copy, design, build, your review, launch. The step sets the timeline. A single-page landing is 1 to 2 weeks. A mini-site of 2 to 3 pages is 2 to 3 weeks. A step 03 business website is 3 to 6 weeks. Step 04, which is where a login, dashboard, API, CRM, payments or a chatbot lives, is 6 to 12 weeks at EUR 3.500 to 7.500. A custom platform starts from EUR 7.500 with its shape set in discovery.
The framework decision is made inside the build phase and it is not what sets the timeline. Content is the part that waits on you: copy, photos and the specifics of what you sell have to come from inside your business.
When to spend less
If what you need is a page that explains what you do and collects enquiries, that is a single-page landing at EUR 600 to 900, or a mini-site at EUR 900 to 1.500 for 2 to 3 pages with a contact flow and basic CMS. Neither justifies a framework debate, and you should not pay for one.
If you already have a site that brings work in, keep it. Rebuilding a working site in a newer framework changes nothing a customer experiences. If people are not finding you, an SEO foundation is a one-off at EUR 450 to 750 covering Search Console, analytics, indexation, technical hygiene, titles and internal links, with a 3 to 6 month plan attached, and it will do more for you than a rebuild.
And if the site is fine but the calendar is empty, the problem sits upstream of the website. A new build will not fix it, and we would rather say that now than take the brief.
Questions buyers ask
So which one do you use?
Our default is React-based tooling, because that is where our components, our testing and our deployment habits already are, which makes us fast and predictable rather than experimental on your budget. If you already run a Vue codebase, raise it at scoping, because keeping one stack can matter more than our preference. How we work either way is set out on design and engineering, and the React side of it on our Next.js page.
Will Vue make my site slower or worse for search?
No. Both render on the server when they are set up to, and that is what matters for search: the content is in the HTML before any JavaScript runs. A site can certainly be slow or invisible to search in either one, and when that happens the cause is in the setup, the images or the page structure, not in the framework name.
Is one harder to hire for later?
Both are widely used and both have large communities, so this is a weak tiebreaker. The bigger risk to maintaining your site later is an undocumented custom build with no CMS and no repository access. Ask about those instead.
Can you rebuild my existing React or Vue site without starting from zero?
Yes. Content, design decisions and structure carry across, and if the existing code is in reasonable shape, parts of it do too. It is worth a look before assuming a fresh start, though the quote reflects the work actually needed rather than the label on the old project.
What if I genuinely do not care which one it is?
Then you are in a good position. Tell us what the site has to do, who edits it and what you want it to produce, and we will choose the tool and put the difference into design and copy, which is where it shows.
If you would rather talk about what the site needs to achieve than what it is written in, that is the conversation we prefer too. Tell us what you have in mind.
Building something?
JP Studio designs and builds websites, storefronts and product interfaces.