What Does GDPR Compliance Cost for a Belgian SME?

The real question: what does compliance cost?

Many Belgian SMEs put off GDPR compliance for a simple reason: they do not know what it will cost, and they fear the worst. That is fair, because the figures that circulate vary widely. This article breaks the costs open, shows where the money goes, and helps you make a choice that fits your budget.

There are broadly three paths to compliance, each with a very different price tag: hiring a consultant, doing it yourself, or using a tool. We look at all three.

Path 1: the consultant - where the EUR 2,000 to 5,000 comes from

The standard advice is: hire a privacy consultant. The price is not arbitrary, it is built from billable hours. Here is what a typical engagement looks like:

Phase	What the consultant does	Time
Intake meeting	Getting to know your business, processes, and IT systems	2-3 hours
Data mapping	Identifying every processing activity involving personal data	4-6 hours
Legal analysis	Determining legal basis, retention periods, and risk per activity	3-5 hours
Document drafting	Writing the processing register, privacy statement, and cookie policy	4-8 hours
Review cycle	Going through drafts with you and adjusting them	2-3 hours

That adds up to 15 to 25 hours. At a rate of EUR 100 to 200 per hour, the arithmetic is simple, and the total lands between EUR 2,000 and 5,000. For more complex businesses with many processing activities, it climbs to EUR 10,000 or more.

The quality is usually good, and for complex situations a consultant is the right choice. But for a standard SME with five to fifteen employees, you are mostly paying for time, not for something a good tool cannot also deliver.

Path 2: doing it yourself - free in euros, expensive in hours

The internet is full of free GDPR templates. On paper, this is the cheapest path. In practice, there are two hidden costs.

Your own time. Building a processing register alone requires you to map every activity where you handle personal data, from customer files and payroll to CCTV footage and newsletter sign-ups. For each of them you determine the legal basis and the retention period. Count on dozens of hours, and that is time that does not go into your business.

The risk of errors. Without guidance, most business owners give up halfway, or they deliver a dossier with gaps. An incomplete dossier is a risk that only becomes visible when a complaint or an inspection lands, exactly the wrong moment to find out.

Path 3: a tool - the billable hours automated

A GDPR tool like GDPRWise replaces the most expensive parts of the consultant engagement with technology. It is useful to see which phase is taken over by which technology:

• Intake and data mapping are handled by the AI website scan. In two minutes it detects your cookies, trackers, forms, and third-party scripts, and identifies your sector.
• The legal analysis is built into the sector dossiers, which hold the common legal bases and retention periods for each industry.
• The document drafting is automated: your complete dossier is generated based on the scan and your answers.
• The review cycle is replaced by confidence labels, so you only spend time on the items that need your confirmation.

The 15 to 25 billable hours disappear. What remains is a couple of hours of your own time to answer the targeted questions.

The hidden cost everyone forgets: maintenance

The biggest misconception about GDPR costs is that it is a one-off expense. It is not. A dossier is a snapshot. The moment your website changes, you switch to a new CRM, an employee joins, or your marketing agency drops in a new script, your documentation falls behind reality.

With a consultant, that means a new assignment or an ongoing retainer of EUR 200 to 500 per month. With a do-it-yourself approach, it means you have to remember to update everything yourself, which in practice rarely happens.

This is where a tool earns its money. The GDPRWise Peace of Mind plan (EUR 29 per month, billed annually) periodically rescans your website, compares the results with your existing dossier, and warns you when something changes. Maintenance that costs hundreds of euros a month with a consultant runs automatically here.

The payback period, laid out

Put the figures side by side and the choice becomes arithmetic:

Option	Upfront cost	Ongoing	Maintenance included
Consultant	EUR 2,000 - 5,000	EUR 200 - 500/month (retainer)	Only with retainer
Doing it yourself	EUR 0 (dozens of hours)	Your time	No
GDPRWise Free Scan	EUR 0	EUR 0	No
GDPRWise Peace of Mind	EUR 0	EUR 29/month	Yes

A single consultant engagement of EUR 2,000 equals more than five years of Peace of Mind. The moment you would need to call a consultant back for an update, the tool has already paid for itself.

Affordable does not mean incomplete

A lower price raises the question of whether you are giving something up. That is not the case here. The GDPRWise dossier meets the same GDPR requirements as a dossier a consultant builds. The processing register follows the same structure, the privacy statement covers the same mandatory elements. The difference is not in the result, but in how it is produced: technology instead of billable hours.

For most Belgian SMEs, from a bakery to an IT consultancy, the GDPR requirements are clearly defined and predictable. That is exactly the kind of business for which an affordable tool is the logical choice. Want to know which tool suits you best first? Then read our selection framework for the best Belgian GDPR tool.