Websites
How much does a website cost in the UK?
Ask five web designers what a website costs and you will get five different dodges. So here is the straight answer, with real ranges, what actually drives the price, and the hidden costs people only find out about later.
Quick answer
For a UK small business in 2026: a DIY website builder costs roughly £10 to £30 a month but takes your time and skill. A freelancer typically charges around £300 to £1,500 for a simple professional site. Agencies usually start around £2,000 and run to £10,000 or more. Most local businesses need the freelancer tier: a clean, mobile-friendly site that brings in enquiries, not a £10k build.
The three routes, honestly compared
1. DIY builders (Wix, Squarespace and friends): £10 to £30 a month
Cheapest on paper, and fine if you enjoy this sort of thing and have the hours. The honest catches: it costs your evenings instead of your money, the results usually look like a template, and the monthly fees quietly add up to more than a simple professional build within a couple of years. Nobody writes the words for you either, and the words are usually the hard part.
2. A freelancer or independent: roughly £300 to £1,500
The sweet spot for most local businesses. You get a professional, mobile-friendly site built around getting you enquiries, without agency overheads. Prices vary with how many pages you need, whether the copy is written for you, and what extras (booking, forms, local SEO) are included. This is the tier I work in, with fixed prices agreed up front.
3. An agency: £2,000 to £10,000+
Worth it when you genuinely need it: big multi-page sites, e-commerce with lots of products, custom systems, or a brand project with a team behind it. For a local service business that mainly needs to be found on Google and take enquiries, an agency build is usually paying for overheads you do not need.
The hidden costs nobody mentions
- Hosting: typically £5 to £30 a month. Ask whether it is included and for how long.
- Domain name: usually £10 to £15 a year.
- Content: if the price does not include writing the words, that job lands on you.
- Updates and small changes: ask what happens after launch. Some charge every time you need a sentence changed.
- Ownership: make sure you own the domain and can take the site elsewhere. Beware of deals where cancelling means losing everything.
What actually moves the price
- Number of pages and how custom the design is.
- Who writes the content (them or you).
- Features: booking systems, payments and online ordering cost more than a contact form.
- Local SEO: whether the site is actually set up to be found on Google, or just looks nice.
The question that matters more than price
A cheap site that brings in no enquiries is expensive. A fairly priced site that wins you one or two extra customers a month pays for itself quickly. Judge quotes on what the site will do, not just what it costs: will people find it, trust it, and get in touch?
My own pricing is fixed and transparent: no hidden agency fees, the words written for you, your first year of hosting free, and you can see a free mockup of your site before spending a penny.