Website for an Optician: Appointments, Frames and What a Catalogue Really Costs
A website for an optician sits at step 03 of our price list, EUR 1.500 to 3.500, built over 3 to 6 weeks. A full frame catalogue with sizes, live stock and online checkout is not part of that number: it is step 04, EUR 3.500 to 7.500, over 6 to 12 weeks, and it is worth being sure you want it before you buy it.
This page is about why the eye test, not the catalogue, comes first, and what it costs to keep a catalogue true. A fixed quote always follows scoping.
The appointment is the front door
Two different people arrive on an optician's site. One wants an eye test and is looking for a time. The other is looking at frames and wants to know whether the ones they like are in your shop. Only one of those jobs can be finished on a website, and it is the appointment.
A frame decision ends at a mirror. Fit, temple length and how a lens sits in a rim get settled in front of you. So the site has two jobs. Get the eye test booked, and give the frame shopper a reason to walk in.
What a full catalogue actually commits you to
A catalogue is not a page. It is an obligation. Every frame on it needs a photograph, a colourway, a size, a price and a state: in stock, on order, discontinued. All of those change when a rep visits, when a brand refreshes a range, or when the last pair of something walks out of the door on a Saturday.
A catalogue that is out of date is worse than no catalogue. Someone who crosses town for a frame you no longer carry leaves twice, and the second departure is permanent. The question is not whether a catalogue looks good. It is who updates it on the Monday after a busy weekend, and what the site says on the weeks nobody does.
Three ways to show frames
| What the site shows | Who keeps it true | Step |
|---|---|---|
| The brands and ranges you carry, as text | Nobody, until you take a brand on or drop one | 03 |
| A selection you choose, photographed once, each one marked as something to try on in store | You, on the day you change the selection | 03 |
| Full catalogue with sizes, colourways, stock state and online purchase | You or your staff, continuously | 04 |
The middle row is the one worth arguing for. It behaves like a shop window rather than a warehouse: it shows taste, price level and range without promising that any given pair is on the shelf today. It is a step 03 build, and the CMS lets you swap the selection whenever the shop changes.
Contact lenses are a separate argument. Repeat supply is a subscription with a payment behind it and a prescription that has to be checked before anything ships. That is step 04 from the first sketch.
Booking an eye test
- A request form. Type of test, preferred times, whether they have been to you before. Your desk confirms. Step 03.
- An embedded panel from software you already pay for. The booking runs inside a vendor panel dropped into the page. Still step 03, and the pragmatic choice when you already pay for it.
- Real availability inside your own pages. Chosen by test type and by optometrist, with reminders and a returning customer account. Step 04.
Booking is harder here than it looks: an eye test, a contact lens fitting and a retinal imaging appointment are not the same length and do not need the same room or person. A form leaves that judgement with your desk. Live availability means those rules have to be written down first, which is part of why it costs more.
What moves the number inside step 03
- How many locations you have, and whether each needs its own page with its own hours.
- How many service pages: eye tests, contact lenses, children's eyes, retinal imaging, dry eye, glaucoma screening, hearing care if you offer it.
- Whether the site runs in more than one language.
- Photography. Your shop, your staff and your own frames are a different job from library images.
- Whether you write the copy or we do.
Process and timeline
- Scoping. Locations, services, the booking software you use, what you want to say about frames, and who edits the site afterwards. A fixed quote comes out of this.
- Structure. The page list, what the homepage leads with, and how someone gets from a frame to a booking.
- Design of the screens that carry the weight: home, a service page, the frame selection and the booking route.
- Build on a Next.js front end with a CMS behind it, so the selection and the hours are yours to change.
- Content load, review, launch.
Step 03 runs 3 to 6 weeks. Step 04 runs 6 to 12 weeks. A mini-site at step 02 runs 2 to 3 weeks. The part that waits on you is photography and the decision about which frames go on the site, so start pulling those together early.
When to spend less
One shop, a healthy appointment book, a customer base that walks past the window: that practice may only need a mini-site at step 02, EUR 900 to 1.500. A homepage, a page on what you do, a contact page with hours and a map, and a basic CMS. No catalogue, nothing that goes stale on its own.
If the site you have is accurate but invisible, do not rebuild it. SEO foundation is a one-off at EUR 450 to 750: search console and analytics set up properly, indexation checked, titles and internal links fixed, and a plan covering the next 3 to 6 months. It answers a different problem than a redesign, and it costs less.
After launch
Two things can run monthly. Care, EUR 100 to 300 a month, covers updates, monitoring, backups and small fixes; it does not cover a redesign or new features. SEO growth, EUR 500 to 800 a month, covers technical and on-page work, service and location pages, internal links and reporting. Take neither, one or both.
The code, the repository and the database belong to you. Hosting is agreed per project rather than promised up front.
Common questions
Can customers buy glasses or contact lenses on the site?
Yes, and that is step 04. Selling optical products online needs stock that is genuinely accurate, a way to take money, an account for the customer, and a prescription check before anything is dispatched. It is a build, not a setting to switch on, which is why it sits in the EUR 3.500 to 7.500 range.
Should we show frame prices?
You can, and it helps the reader, but choose the unit carefully. A price band per brand or per range survives the year. A price against every individual frame is a promise you have to keep on the website every time something changes.
Do we need a catalogue to rank in search?
No. The pages that earn search traffic for an optician are the service and location pages: eye tests in your area, contact lens fitting, children's eyes, the things people type before they type a brand name. A catalogue built for search just gives you thin pages to maintain.
Can we change the frame selection ourselves?
Yes. At step 03 the selection sits in the CMS, so adding, removing and reordering is your call. What you supply is the photograph, and it is worth agreeing in scoping how those get shot: mixed lighting and mixed backgrounds are the fastest way to make a good selection look careless.
We already pay for booking software. Do we still need step 03?
The booking software handles bookings. It does not say why to choose you, what your shop looks like, which brands you carry or where to park. Keep the booking where it is, embed it, and spend the budget on the pages that get someone as far as wanting an appointment. Our design and engineering page covers how we build that layer.
Tell us how many shops you have, which booking software you use and what you want to say about frames, and we will come back with a fixed price. Start at the contact form, or read the full list of steps and prices first.
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