Weblio is a studio in Basel building websites for businesses in Saint-Louis and the tri-border area. In French, and in two languages if you want it.
Fixed price from CHF 499, no hourly billing
Since December 2017, Basel tram 3 has crossed the border and stopped in front of Saint-Louis station. Get on in Basel and you are there in a good twenty minutes, without a car and without hunting for a parking space. Two things sit on this municipal territory that exist nowhere else nearby: EuroAirport, run jointly by France and Switzerland, and a customer base that works in Switzerland in the morning and shops here in the evening.
Part of your custom comes across the border and plans the trip in advance. So whatever is pinned to the door has to be on the phone as well: opening hours including the midday break and the closing day, whether Sunday is open, whether francs or cards are accepted, and exactly where to park.
Your working radius does not stop at the border here, and that is exactly what people want settled before they get in touch: do you also come to Basel, to Weil, into the Sundgau? That calls for finished work in photographs, a service area stated plainly, and a number someone answers on a Friday afternoon too.
Running a practice here means patients from two systems and two languages in the waiting room. So the site has to answer early what otherwise gets settled on the phone: which insurers are billed, which language the consultation happens in, and whether anyone new is being taken on at all.
Here it is someone from procurement reading, and they check differently from a private customer: what exactly you make, for which sectors, with which certifications, and who the technical contact is. That belongs on separate pages you can attach to an email one at a time, not in a company brochure as a PDF.
From Saint-Louis, Mulhouse is further away than Basel, and Strasbourg further still. So proximity is not the argument. What sets us apart sits in the offer rather than in a promise, and it comes down to three things.
You talk to the person building your site
Between your question and the answer there is no account management, no concept round, no handover to a production team. What you describe reaches someone who will then open the file. That is why a question gets an answer rather than a proposal for another meeting.
The price is in euros before you say yes
You get a figure in euros, not an amount in francs with an exchange rate beside it. After a short call it is there in writing, along with the list of what it covers and what it does not. Between quote and invoice there is no exchange rate to move the number afterwards.
Two languages without a debate about principle
Almost every business on this border has customers who do not read French. We tell you in advance what a second language version costs, and you decide afterwards. Two languages means two separate addresses each with its own text, not a widget laid over the French version that machine-translates the rest.
The journey barely matters day to day anyway: progress sits in the dashboard, questions go through the ticket system, WhatsApp or a short video call. What the border does change is the paperwork. French law applies to your website, a different VAT procedure applies to our invoice, and both get settled before you commit rather than after.
Onepager from CHF 499, Starter from CHF 699, Business from CHF 1'099. After a short call the number is in writing, together with the list of what is not included. Billing follows scope, not hours spent, and every add-on carries its own price.
You get an invoice in euros without French VAT, citing the autoliquidation under Article 283-2 of the Code général des impôts. As a business with an intra-community number you declare the tax yourself and deduct it in the same step, where you are entitled to. If you fall under the franchise en base of Article 293 B, the case is different, which is why we ask beforehand.
Your site, the mailboxes and the backups stay inside the EU. The data processing agreement under Article 28 GDPR reaches you before launch, so your record of processing activities is complete. The fact that your contracting party sits in Switzerland does not call for standard contractual clauses: the European Commission recognises Switzerland as offering an adequate level of protection.
What counts is who publishes the site, not who visits it. So mentions légales under the LCEN, which asks for more than a Swiss imprint: legal form, registered address and phone number, SIREN or SIRET, the directeur de la publication, and the host with name and address. Anything not strictly necessary needs consent under Article 82 of the Loi Informatique et Libertés, and the CNIL requires that refusing be as easy as accepting.
From Saint-Louis a tram runs to Basel, and Mulhouse is further away. So it is not about proximity here, but about what the quote actually says.
How we work
If your question is missing, write to us. The legal and tax notes on this page come from practice and do not replace professional advice.
What does a business in Saint-Louis pay, and what stays afterwards?
Three fixed-price packages: Onepager from CHF 499, Starter with up to three pages from CHF 699, Business with up to five pages from CHF 1'099. Booking, a shop, a second language, a members area or a newsletter are add-ons with their own price, and you get the list before you commit. What stays afterwards is the hosting, billed monthly and cancellable to the end of the month. Maintenance is optional; if you take it, it runs for at least six months.
Will you come to Saint-Louis for a meeting?
Yes, and it is no great matter here: for a meeting at your premises no travel appears on the invoice. Tram 3 runs from central Basel to the station forecourt in a good twenty minutes. We still suggest a short video call for the first conversation, so nobody has to leave the shop or the workshop. If you would rather talk in person first, just say so.
Part of our custom comes from Basel. What should we watch out for?
Three things, all of which belong on the site rather than on the phone. First the opening hours, honestly, with the midday break and the closing day, because French and Swiss public holidays do not line up. Second the payment: whether francs are accepted, at what rate, and whether a Swiss card works. Third, if you sell goods, the answer on détaxe, meaning whether you issue the export paperwork and from what purchase value. What you offer is your call; we make sure nobody has to go looking for it.
Do we need a German version of the site?
On this border that is not an export question but a calculation: how much of your revenue comes from people who do not read French? A shop with walk-in custom from Basel answers that differently from a supplier under contract in Alsace. German is usually the second language here, English comes after. It is an add-on with its own price, not a surcharge on the whole package, and each version gets its own address with its own text.
We are based in the surrounding area, not in Saint-Louis itself. Is that a problem?
No. The area covered runs across the whole agglomeration and into the Sundgau. Huningue, Village-Neuf, Hégenheim, Hésingue, Buschwiller, Attenschwiller, Blotzheim, Rosenau, Bartenheim, Kembs, Sierentz, Michelbach-le-Bas, Folgensbourg and Ranspach-le-Bas are part of it, as are Leymen, Hagenthal-le-Bas and Oltingue in the Sundgau. Where you sit changes nothing about the price: the packages cost the same everywhere, and there is no travel surcharge.
Why not an agency from Alsace?
If you need someone to guide you through a public tender, sit at your meeting table every fortnight or field a team of ten for a platform, take an agency from Mulhouse or Strasbourg. That is not our work. Ours is a fixed price, one contact person and a quote you can set line by line against any other.
A short video call, in French or German. Afterwards a fixed-price quote in euros lands with you. No obligation, and we settle the language question in the same call.
