It's the first question almost every business owner asks, and it's almost impossible to find a straight answer to. Search "how much does a website cost" and you'll get ranges from "free" to "£20,000" with no explanation of why. So let's fix that. Here's what a small business website really costs in the UK in 2026 — the honest version, with the hidden fees included.
DIY builders run roughly £10–£30/month. A freelance designer typically charges £300–£3,000 one-off. Agencies usually start at £3,000 and climb past £15,000. The right number depends almost entirely on who builds it — not on the website itself.
The three ways to get a website
Every option you'll come across falls into one of three buckets. The price gaps between them are huge, and they're mostly about who does the work and what their overheads are — not how good the final site is.
| Option | Typical UK cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy) | £10–£30/mo + your time | Hobbies, very tight budgets |
| Freelance / solo designer | £300–£3,000 one-off | Most small businesses & trades |
| Agency | £3,000–£15,000+ | Larger firms, complex sites |
1. Do it yourself (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy)
On paper this is the cheapest route — £10 to £30 a month and you're away. In practice the real cost is your time. Expect to lose a weekend or three wrestling with templates, stock photos and settings. The result usually looks like what it is: a template thousands of other businesses are also using. And because these builders add a lot of bloated code behind the scenes, DIY sites often load slowly and rank poorly on Google — which defeats the point of having one.
It can work for a side project. For a business you actually want to get found on Google and trusted by customers, it's usually a false economy.
2. A freelance or solo web designer
This is the sweet spot for most trades and small businesses. A good freelancer gives you a custom design, writes your copy, sets up your domain and gets you live — usually for somewhere between £300 and £3,000 depending on the number of pages and their experience. You deal with one person, decisions are fast, and there's no agency markup paying for offices and sales teams.
The catch: quality varies enormously. Some "freelancers" just spin up the same template you could've bought yourself. The good ones code your site from scratch, which means it's faster, more flexible, and far better for SEO.
3. A web design agency
Agencies start around £3,000 and routinely run well past £15,000 for a small business site. Sometimes that's justified — large, complex sites with booking systems, e-commerce, or dozens of pages genuinely need a team. Often, though, you're paying for layers of people: an account manager, a salesperson, a project manager, and an office in a city centre. For a five-page trade website, that overhead rarely earns its keep.
The fees nobody mentions upfront
The build price is only half the story. A website has ongoing costs whether you're told about them or not:
- Domain name — your web address (e.g. yourbusiness.co.uk). Roughly £10–£20 a year.
- Hosting — where the site actually lives so people can visit it. Around £5–£30 a month depending on the provider.
- Maintenance & updates — security, fixes, content changes. Either a monthly retainer or pay-per-change.
- SSL certificate — the padlock in the browser. Should be free and included; some hosts still charge for it.
The trap to watch for is the cheap headline price that quietly turns into a pricey monthly bill — or worse, a build where you don't actually own your domain, leaving you stuck. Always ask two questions: "What are the total ongoing costs?" and "Do I own my domain and files?"
We build custom-coded sites from £100 to get started, then £20/month that covers your domain, hosting and ongoing maintenance — with the price locked for life. You own your domain from day one. See the full breakdown →
So what's actually "fair"?
A fair price isn't the lowest number — it's the one where you know exactly what you're getting and what it'll cost you over a year. Before you commit to anyone, get clear on:
- The total first-year cost (build + domain + hosting + maintenance), not just the build.
- Whether the site is coded or templated — it directly affects speed and Google ranking.
- Who you'll actually deal with, and how quickly changes get made.
- That your domain and files are in your name.
Get a clear answer to those four and the "how much" question answers itself.
See your price before you decide
The honest way to find out what your website would cost is to get a quote with a design attached. We'll build you a free custom preview of your homepage — real layout, real copy — before you pay anything. If you don't love it, you walk away.
Get my free preview