Costs
How much does a website cost in the UK?
What a small business website costs in the UK, what moves the price, and how to avoid paying twice. New sites from £500, monthly care from £30.
A small business website in the UK can cost a few hundred pounds or many thousands, and the number on the quote tells you less than what sits behind it. A one-page site with a clear call to action, a mobile layout and a working contact form is a different product from a ten-page site with bookings and payments.
This guide sets out what moves the price, what you should own at the end, and the questions that stop you paying twice.
Key takeaways
- Pages, bookings and payments move the price far more than the design does.
- A fixed written quote protects you. An hourly estimate rarely does.
- You should own the domain, the hosting account and every word and image.
- Ongoing care is a separate, smaller cost. Budget for it from day one.
- A free homepage mock-up before you pay removes most of the risk.
1. What actually moves the price
Design is rarely the expensive part. The cost climbs when the site has to do things: take bookings, sell products, sync with a calendar, send automated emails or give staff an admin area. Each of those is a system that has to be built, tested and kept working.
Content is the other hidden cost. If you supply finished text and photos, the job is faster. If someone has to write, source and edit, that time is in the price whether or not it is listed.
2. One page or ten
A single well-built homepage can carry a trade, a salon, a café or a consultant for a long time. It says what you do, where you do it, what it costs and how to get in touch. Extra pages earn their place when there is a distinct thing to rank for or explain, such as a service area or a long FAQ.
More pages mean more to write, more to keep accurate and more to check each month. Start small and let demand justify the next page.
3. Templates, platforms and custom builds
A template on Squarespace, Wix or Shopify is quick and cheap to start. The trade-off is a monthly platform fee for life, limits on what you can change, and pages that often arrive heavier than they need to be on a phone.
A custom build costs more up front, loads faster and does exactly what you need. It also means you depend on whoever built it to make changes, so the handover and the ongoing care matter as much as the launch.
4. What you should own when it is finished
Your domain name should be registered in your name, in an account you control. Your hosting should be in your account too, even if someone else manages it. Every word, image and logo on the site should be yours to take elsewhere.
Plenty of businesses find out too late that the domain sits in a designer's account or the site lives on a platform they cannot export from. That turns a small change into a negotiation.
5. The running costs nobody mentions
A website is not finished at launch. Prices change, staff change, offers expire and forms quietly break. Someone has to check the homepage and the contact journey, make the edits and test them.
That is a small, predictable cost compared with a rebuild. It is also the part most quotes leave out, which is why so many sites look abandoned two years later.
What I charge
New websites start from £500 for a Launch homepage: a mobile-first page with your prices up front, a clear button to book or get in touch, and a fixed written quote before anything is paid. You can see a free homepage mock-up first, usually within 48 hours.
Monthly care is £30, £75 or £120 depending on how many content updates you need. A single agreed fault on an existing site is a £50 fix. Hosting, domains and paid tools stay in your name and are billed separately.
Frequently asked questions
Why do quotes for the same website vary so much?
Because they are rarely for the same website. One may include content writing, photography, bookings and a year of hosting; another may be the design alone. Ask each quote to list what is included and what happens after launch.
Is a cheap template site a bad idea?
Not if it does the job and you can edit it yourself. The risk is paying a platform fee for years for a site that is slow on phones and hard to change. Run a free website check on any site you are considering keeping.
Can I pay for a website in stages?
Yes. I ask for nothing until you have seen a mock-up and agreed a written quote, and the balance is only due once the site is live and you are happy.
Where to start
If you already have a site, run a free website check and see whether a refresh or monthly care is enough. If you need a new one, request a free homepage mock-up and you will have something real to react to before any money changes hands.