How much does a website cost in the UK?
A professionally built website for a small UK business usually costs between £1,500 and £4,000. Here is what moves the price, and what it costs to run each month.
Jump to the short answer
A professionally built website for a small UK business usually costs between £1,500 and £4,000. A simple brochure website from a freelancer can be £500 to £1,500. Bigger custom sites usually run £4,000 to £15,000, and large bespoke builds can reach £50,000. On top of the build, budget around £30 to £50 a month for managed hosting and support, or about £150 a month if you want regular updates.
The price is only half of it. A £600 website that never brings in an enquiry is expensive. A £4,000 one that brings in 2 jobs a month is cheap. The rest of this guide helps you work out which one you are being quoted for.
What UK businesses pay for a website in 2026
These ranges are what UK web designers and agencies publish on their own sites. They are asking prices, not an official average, but they agree with each other closely.
| Type of website | Typical price | What it usually is |
|---|---|---|
| DIY website builder (Wix, Squarespace) | £10 to £50 a month | You build it yourself |
| Freelancer, brochure website | £500 to £1,500 | 3 to 5 pages that say who you are, what you do and how to get in touch |
| Small business site, custom design | £1,500 to £4,000 | 5 to 15 pages, designed for you, built to bring in enquiries |
| Larger custom site | £4,000 to £15,000 | Lots of pages, service and location pages, bookings |
| Large bespoke build | £15,000 to £50,000 | Custom features, integrations, client logins |
| Online shop | £2,000 to £20,000+ | Depends heavily on how many products and how they sell |
Based on prices published by UK web designers and agencies in 2026. All excluding VAT.
What you pay every year after it goes live
This is the part most quotes leave out, and where surprise bills come from.
| Running cost | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Hosting, security and support | £30 to £50 a month |
| Regular updates and changes | Around £100 a month on top |
| Total | £360 to £600 a year, or £1,560 to £1,800 with monthly updates |
Ask any web designer 3 things before you sign: what hosting costs and who it is with, how changes are charged after launch, and what happens if you want to move the site somewhere else.
Why one quote is £600 and another is £4,000
It usually comes down to 4 things.
- 1. Pages. A 4 page brochure site is a different job to a site with a page for every service and every town you cover. Useful service and area pages help people find you on Google, as long as each one has something genuinely helpful to say.
- 2. The words. Someone has to write them. If the quote assumes you will, budget your own time, or £50 to £150 a page to have them written.
- 3. Photos and video. Stock photos are cheap and everyone can tell. Real photos of your team and your work cost more, and they are what makes people trust you.
- 4. What it has to do. A contact form is simple. Bookings, payments, quote calculators or a client login all add time.
The cheapest quotes usually skip the thinking at the start: what each page needs to say, and how someone gets from landing on the site to getting in touch. That is the part that decides whether the site earns its money back.
Is a cheap website worth it?
Sometimes. If all you need is your name, what you do and a phone number online, a basic brochure site or a DIY builder will do it.
But your website is where everything else lands. Your ads, your social media videos, your Google profile and every word of mouth recommendation all end up there. If it loads slowly, looks dated on a phone or makes people hunt for your number, all of that leaks. You never see the enquiries you lost, which is why it feels cheaper than it is.
The sum that tells you what to spend
Take the price of the website. Divide it by the profit 1 new customer brings you.
- Say you are a heating engineer and a new boiler job leaves you £1,500 profit. A £3,000 site needs to bring in 2 jobs to pay for itself. Over the 3 to 5 years before most sites need a refresh, that is a low bar.
- Say you are a solicitor and a new client brings in £1,500 profit. 2 clients cover the build. Running costs and marketing come on top.
- Say you run a café. A website matters less than your Google profile and Instagram. Spend accordingly.
If the answer is 1 or 2 customers, a proper site is worth it. Just check the quote is for a site built to bring in enquiries.
8 things to check before you sign
- 1. Do you own the domain? It should be registered in your name, not the designer's.
- 2. Can you leave? Ask if you can take the site to another host or designer. Some cheap monthly deals lock you in.
- 3. Is it built for phones first? Most of your visitors will be on one.
- 4. How fast is it? Ask for the Google PageSpeed score of a site they have built. Anything in the 90s is a good sign, though it is only 1 measure.
- 5. Is Google set up? Search Console, analytics and your Google Business Profile linked, so you can see roughly where your enquiries come from.
- 6. Who writes the words? Get it in writing.
- 7. How are changes charged after launch? Per hour, per change, or a monthly plan.
- 8. Can you see a real site they built, with its owner's name on it?
What a website costs in Essex
Outside London, prices usually sit in the lower half of the UK ranges. For an Essex service business, a proper small business site with a page for each service and the towns you cover typically costs £1,500 to £4,000, with running costs on top.
How we build websites
Most of our clients spend between £1,000 and £5,000 on their website. Bigger custom builds go further, and our largest so far was £50,000. Every one gets a fixed quote before anything starts.
The difference is that we usually build them alongside the video and social media we make for the same business. So the site has real photos and videos of you and your work from day 1, a page for each service and the towns you cover, and tracking set up so you can see which enquiries came from social, from Google and from ads.
Rob Perkins at Football Law, after we built theirs: "Thank you so much for designing and delivering what is a fantastic website that totally hits the brief. We feel very lucky." See the Football Law case study, or more on our web design page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a 5 page website cost in the UK?
Usually £1,500 to £3,000, before VAT. A simple brochure site can be less, and a larger agency will often quote more.
Is Wix or Squarespace cheaper?
Up front, yes, at £10 to £50 a month. The real cost is your time building it and the enquiries a slow or unclear site loses. If you have the time and the eye for it, it can work.
How long does a website last?
Most small business sites last 3 to 5 years before they need a proper refresh, as long as they are kept updated in between.
Do I need to pay monthly for a website?
You will always pay something to keep it online, usually billed monthly or yearly. Expect around £30 to £50 a month for hosting, security and support, and around £100 a month more if you want regular updates.
How long does it take to build a website?
A small business site usually takes 3 to 6 weeks. The biggest delay is almost always waiting for words and photos, which is why it helps if those are part of the job.
Want a fixed quote for your website? Speak to the team and tell us what it needs to do.
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