The short answer
For a typical small business, meaning a handful of pages that explain what you do and a way for people to get in touch, a website in the UK costs roughly £500 to £5,000 from a freelancer, £3,000 to £8,000 from a small agency, or £10 to £40 a month to build yourself on a platform like Wix or Squarespace. Whichever route you take, budget separately for running costs: a domain, hosting and business email typically add £10 to £50 a month before any maintenance.
Build it yourself
£10 – £40 a month
Wix, Squarespace and similar builders. Templates, drag-and-drop editing, hosting included.
- Good for
- Getting something online this week on almost no budget, if you have the time and enjoy doing it.
- Watch out for
- You are renting, not owning. The site generally can't be moved elsewhere if you outgrow the platform, and the fee runs for as long as it stays online. Your own hours cost something too.
Hire a freelancer
£500 – £5,000
One person designing and building the site, usually for a fixed price or a day rate.
- Good for
- Most small businesses. You deal directly with whoever is doing the work, and there is no agency overhead in the price.
- Watch out for
- Quality varies more than on any other route. Look at sites they have actually built, and make sure you will own everything if they stop trading.
Hire an agency
£3,000 – £8,000+
A team: designer, developer, project manager. London agencies often start at around £8,000.
- Good for
- Larger projects, brand work alongside the site, or one company taking responsibility for design, content and marketing together.
- Watch out for
- A good share of the price pays for the structure around the work: account managers, offices, sales. Worth it on a big project, less so on five pages.
These are brochure-site prices. Online shops, bookings and customer logins all move a project up a tier. Ranges are drawn from published UK price guides, checked September 2026.
What drives the price
Two quotes for “a five-page website” can be thousands of pounds apart and both be fair. These are the things that actually move the number, roughly in order of how much.
What the site has to do
The biggest factor by a distance. A site that explains what you do and has a contact form is one job. Letting customers log in, storing what they submit, taking payments or running a shop each add a whole layer of work, and of responsibility, because the site now holds people's data or money.
Who writes the words
The most underestimated part of any website, and the most common reason projects run late. Supplying your own copy keeps the price down. Having it written for you is usually charged per page, and is often money well spent, because the words are what do the selling.
Designed from scratch, or from a template
A design made for your business takes longer than a theme with your logo dropped in, and is priced accordingly. What matters more than either is that the site is fast, clear and easy to use on a phone, because that is where most of your visitors will be.
Getting found on Google
Page titles and descriptions, a sitemap, Google Search Console and analytics are a modest cost at build time and awkward to add later. Anyone who guarantees you a ranking is guessing.
Connections to other services
Booking systems, email newsletters, payment providers. Each is usually a fixed chunk of work to connect, and often comes with its own monthly subscription on top.
Moving an existing site
Rebuilding a site you already have means moving the content across and redirecting old addresses so you keep the search rankings you have built up. It is also how business email gets broken, if nobody checks where it is hosted first.
The legal pages
If the site collects personal details, even through a contact form, it needs a privacy notice. Marketing or analytics cookies usually mean a banner that asks first. Selling online needs terms of sale and a returns policy that meet consumer law.
The costs after launch
The build is a one-off. These are not, and they are the part most budgets forget. Figures are typical at the time of writing.
- Domain name
- £5 – £20 a year
- Your .co.uk or .com. Make sure it is registered in your name, not your developer's.
- Hosting
- £0 – £30 a month
- Depends on what the site does. A simple, well-built site costs very little to host; one with logins and a database costs more.
- Business email
- £5 – £8 per person a month
- Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, so email comes from you@yourbusiness.co.uk rather than a Gmail address.
- Card payments
- 1.5% + 20p per payment
- Stripe's standard fee for UK cards. Premium and overseas cards cost more, and other providers are similar.
- Maintenance
- £30 – £150 a month
- Updates, backups, security fixes and small changes, on a monthly plan or paid by the hour as things come up.
- Other subscriptions
- Varies
- Booking tools and newsletter platforms usually charge their own monthly fee, separate from the website.
Compare the three-year cost, not the build price
A “free” website on a £50-a-month contract costs £1,800 over three years. Add up the build, the running costs and any contract term before comparing quotes, then check whether you own anything at the end of it.
Questions to ask before you pay anyone
Whoever you choose, me or anyone else, get clear answers to these in writing before you pay a deposit.
- Is this a fixed price, or an estimate?
- An estimate can grow; a fixed price for a written scope cannot. If it is charged by the hour, ask for a cap.
- What exactly is included, and what isn't?
- Copywriting, images, SEO setup, a cookie banner and moving an old site are the usual gaps. Find out now, not on the final invoice.
- Who will own the site, the code and the domain?
- It should be you, outright, once you have paid. The domain in particular should be registered in your name.
- What will it cost every year after launch?
- And what does that cover? You want the running costs as a number before you commit.
- What happens if I want to leave?
- You should be able to take the site to another developer without a release fee or starting again.
- How many rounds of changes are included?
- And what does another round cost? This is where “just one more tweak” turns into an invoice.
What it costs here
I publish my prices because a quote is easier to trust when you can see where it sits. These are the ranges; every project gets a fixed price in writing before anything starts.
- Basic£350 – £5002 weeksA small business that needs a credible presence and a way to be contacted.
- Basic + SEO£650 – £8502 – 3 weeksThe same site, set up to actually be found — and measured once it is.
- Simple App£1,100 – £1,5004 – 5 weeksWhen people need to log in, and what they submit has to be stored and reviewed.
- Full App£2,000 – £2,5006 – 8 weeksA product that takes payments, sends email, and needs running properly.
- Storefront£3,200 – £4,2009 – 12 weeksEverything in Full App, plus actually selling: a catalogue, a checkout, and orders to manage.
Basic starts under the typical freelancer range on purpose: four pages, one round of revisions and a tight written scope, for a business that mainly needs to look credible and be easy to contact. If you also want to be found on Google, Basic + SEO is the better starting point.
Why these sit below agency prices: it is one person, with no office, sales team or account manager to fund. The trade-off is capacity: I take on a small number of projects at a time, reply within two working days, and don't offer same-day turnaround. If you need an agency's capacity, it is worth paying for. If you don't, you shouldn't have to.
Full pricing, add-ons and care plansThree example budgets
Priced from the list above, so you can see how the pieces add up. Care plans are optional. Third-party costs are paid to those providers directly and are not included in the totals.
A sole trader who needs to be found
An electrician, a dog groomer or a bookkeeper: a handful of pages, a contact form, and set up properly for Google.
- Basic + SEO package£650 – £850
- To build
- £650 – £850
- Then each month
- £15 – £20Hosting & domain management plan
- First year in total
- £830 – £1,090
Also budget for: Your domain name, and business email if you want it.
A salon that takes bookings online
The same kind of site, plus customers booking appointments directly and analytics running behind a proper cookie banner.
- Basic + SEO package£650 – £850
- Booking or calendar integration£200 – £400
- Cookie consent & privacy policy setup£100 – £200
- To build
- £950 – £1,450
- Then each month
- £35 – £55Basic care plan
- First year in total
- £1,370 – £2,110
Also budget for: Your domain, email, and the booking platform's own subscription.
A small maker selling online
A product catalogue, a cart and checkout, and an admin for orders, stock and shipping.
- Storefront package£3,200 – £4,200
- Terms of sale & returns policy setup£150 – £300
- Cookie consent & privacy policy setup£100 – £200
- To build
- £3,450 – £4,700
- Then each month
- £85 – £125Standard care plan
- First year in total
- £4,470 – £6,200
Also budget for: Your domain, email, and Stripe's fee on each sale.
Prices correct as of September 2026 and subject to change.