How much does a website cost UK: real prices from 87 projects in 2026

When people look up what a website costs in the UK, they usually see price ranges so wide they’re almost useless. Most professionally built sites fall somewhere between £3,000 and £40,000, which isn’t much help when you need an actual number.

We’ve built sites all over that spectrum. The price depends on what you want the site to do, how it needs to work, and who’s building it.

A five-page site for a local business lands in a different ballpark than an ecommerce platform with hundreds of products. Agencies and freelancers also price things differently.

Why most agencies won't show their prices

Most web design companies don’t publish website prices because every project asks for something different. The number of pages, design complexity, and features can push a basic site from £3,000 to £30,000 without much warning.

There’s a sales angle too. If an agency lists £12,000 on their pricing page, anyone with a £6,000 budget vanishes. Some of those people might have stretched or changed their requirements.

This makes sense for agencies, but it leaves you guessing. That guessing makes it harder to plan or spot a fair quote.

What the money actually covers

Most of your budget goes on people’s time. Design, development hours, project management, and revisions usually make up the bulk of the cost.

The actual coding is often a smaller slice. Strategy sessions, content writing, and rounds of feedback soak up more hours than most expect.

For example, if we quote £4,500 for a project, maybe £1,200 covers development. The rest pays for planning, copywriting, and getting sign-off.

• Design time and revisions
• Development and testing
• Project management and communication
• Content creation or editing
• Integrations with booking systems or payment gateways
• SEO setup and configuration
• Managed WordPress hosting setup
• Photography or video production

Different quotes often mean a different scope. One agency might include twelve rounds of content feedback and managed hosting, while another expects you to handle content and quotes lower.

£3,000 to £6,000: starter sites

This range covers smaller sites, usually 5 to 8 pages, built on a template or lightly customised theme. You provide the content, photos come from stock or your own camera, and the design uses a pre-built kit instead of something unique.

It works for brand-new businesses that need to look credible online and start getting enquiries. It doesn’t suit established businesses with existing customers or real growth goals.

The basic website cost at this level buys speed and a tidy result. A 5-page brochure site gets built quickly, looks clean, and explains what you do.

The main limit is that nobody spends time working out what your homepage should say or which customer journeys matter. Small business website cost at this tier reflects build time, and assumes you’ve sorted the strategy already.

£8,000 to £15,000: where most service businesses land

Most growing service businesses invest here. The build is bespoke, not template-based, and the structure fits how your customers actually make decisions.

Copy guidance comes as standard. Some agencies include light copywriting support at this level.

Photography and video usually aren’t included, but the site’s built so you can add them later. Care plans and updates usually get listed separately.

A basic SEO setup is often included. That means page titles, meta descriptions, and URLs built with search in mind from day one.

£18,000 to £25,000: bespoke sites with custom content

This price range covers original content production alongside the build. Photography sessions, video work, and custom illustration become part of the project, not extras at the end.

The difference shows in conversion rate because the site looks like your business, filmed and photographed on location, instead of stock imagery that could belong to anyone.

Most projects at this level include discovery workshops, wireframing, full UX work, responsive design, development, and content production days. We usually schedule a soft launch to test with real users before rolling out fully.

Ecommerce website cost sits here when product catalogues stay under 100 SKUs. Ecommerce functionality gets built in, with payment gateways tested across devices and checkout flows mapped to real customer behaviour.

Professional copywriting covers the site, shaped by stakeholder interviews and customer research. Technical SEO gets set up during the build. Keyword research shapes the information architecture from the start, which saves time later.

A typical project takes 10 to 14 weeks from kickoff to launch.

£30,000 and up

Sites at this level handle multiple stakeholder groups, CRM integrations, booking systems, e-commerce platforms, or membership areas. Charities, sports clubs, and professional services firms usually invest here when they need a site to manage operations, not just show information.

The price reflects technical depth. On a £35,000 project, about a third of the budget pays for background functionality. Bespoke design work here addresses user journeys unique to the organisation.

Where budgets actually get blown

Content delays and cost overruns are common. Clients plan to write the copy themselves, then run out of time, and the project stalls for weeks while everyone waits.

Scope creep during the build adds up fast. One extra page is £300. A new feature might be £800. Three rounds of revisions instead of two add another £400.

Five small additions can push a £4,000 project to £6,200 before you notice.

The cheapest option often ends up costing the most. We’ve seen businesses pay £800 for a template site, then spend £5,500 eighteen months later to rebuild it properly because the foundations weren’t right. That’s £6,300 total when a solid build would have cost £3,500 from the start. Your website cost per month can snowball if you’re paying for a site that doesn’t work.

A real example from a recent project

A professional services firm with 25 people came to us with a budget of £8,000. They’d got a quote at that level from another provider and had a clear idea of what they wanted.

During discovery, the scope shifted. Their photography didn’t cover the range of services they now offered, and their messaging hadn’t changed in four years.

The old site structure made it tough for new visitors to work out what the firm actually did. The real cost came to £18,000. We phased the work so they could spread payments over two stages.

Phase one covered discovery, sitemap, design, and the core build for £12,000. Phase two added a video shoot and rebuilt the About section three months later for another £6,000.

Enquiry volume doubled within six months of the first phase launching. The second phase improved the quality of those enquiries.

Planning what you need to spend

Start with what the website needs to do this year. If you need 20 enquiries a month worth £2,000 each, a £15,000 upfront investment changes the maths compared to a £3,000 build.

Work backwards. List what’s included, what you’ll provide, what you need built for you, and what it costs to keep it running once live.

A website that costs £12,000 to build with £3,000 annual maintenance is a £21,000 commitment over three years. That’s the real figure to plan for.

Year 1: £12,000 build + £3,000 maintenance = £15,000
Year 2: £3,000 maintenance
Year 3: £3,000 maintenance
Total: £21,000

If those 20 monthly enquiries convert at 10%, that’s two clients worth £4,000 in revenue each month. The upfront investment only works if the site brings in enough business.

We built an instant estimator that gives you a rough figure in two minutes. The web design page shows how we structure projects, and the growth partner model covers ongoing work if a one-off build doesn’t fit your situation.

Common questions about website costs

How much will a small business website typically cost you?

A professional website for a small business in the UK usually costs between £2,000 and £6,000 if you work with an agency or experienced developer. That gets you a proper site with custom design, your content organised clearly, and basic search engine setup.

If you only need a simple brochure site with five to eight pages, expect to spend £1,500 to £4,000. That covers design, development, and getting the site live.

Which factors push the price up or down?

The biggest price factor is what your site actually needs to do.

A five-page site explaining your services costs far less than a membership platform with payment processing and user accounts.

Custom design costs more than template work.

If we build layouts specific to your brand and content, that takes more time than adapting an existing theme.

The number of pages matters.

Each page needs writing, design, and development time.

Integrations add cost.

Connecting your site to booking systems, CRM software, or payment processors needs extra development work beyond the basics.

What will you pay each month once the site is running?

Monthly running costs usually sit between £50 and £300, depending on what your site does.

These costs keep your site working properly.

Hosting forms the base cost.

Decent hosting runs £10 to £100 per month.

Simple brochure sites need less server power than busy online shops.

Security updates and backups cost £20 to £150 monthly.

WordPress sites need plugin updates, security monitoring, and regular backups to stay safe.

Some businesses add support retainers to cover content updates, technical fixes, and ongoing improvements.

Expect £100 to £500 monthly depending on how much help you want.

What do hosting and domain names cost each year?

Domain registration runs £10 to £15 a year for standard .co.uk or .com addresses.

You pay this every year to keep your domain name.

Hosting costs vary widely based on what you need.

Basic shared hosting starts around £100 per year.

Sites with heavy traffic or online shops need better hosting, which can run £500 to £1,200 annually.

SSL certificates sometimes cost extra.

Some hosts include them free, others charge £50 to £100 yearly.

Every site needs one for basic security.

What's the difference between a £1,500 site and a £10,000 one?

A £1,500 brochure site gives you basic functionality with limited customisation.

You get a simple design, probably adapted from a theme, with standard layouts for your five to eight pages.

Content structure follows common patterns.

The site works on phones and tablets.

A £10,000 custom build involves bespoke design made just for your content and business goals.

Layouts match your exact needs.

Features get built from scratch rather than adapted from existing tools.

You might get custom post types, advanced search, member areas, or booking systems.

When we built the site for Household Cavalry Museum, the budget covered custom ticketing integration and mobile-optimised design that now drives their ticket income.

That level of specific functionality costs more than a standard brochure site.

How much do freelancers and agencies charge to build websites?

Freelancers usually charge between £500 and £3,000 for small business sites. The price depends on their experience and what you’re asking for.

You’ll work with one person who handles both design and development. Some people prefer that direct contact, though it can make things slower if they get busy.

Regional agencies often charge £2,000 to £6,000 for a standard business site. You get a team, so jobs move quicker and you get a mix of skills.

Large agencies and specialists can charge anywhere from £5,000 up to £30,000 or more. These projects usually need complex functionality or custom development before anyone even starts on design.

DIY website builders cost somewhere between £100 and £300 per year if you build the site yourself. You save cash at the start, but you’ll spend plenty of your own time learning the platform and putting things together.

Template sites from these builders tend to look like, well, templates. That’s the trade-off.