It’s the question I get asked more than any other, usually within about thirty seconds of someone getting in touch: “How much is a website going to cost me?” And the honest answer — the one nobody likes — is “it depends.” But that’s a cop-out on its own, so let me actually break it down for you, plainly, with real numbers.
The three ways to get a website (and what each costs)
1. Do it yourself with a website builder. Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy and the like. You’ll pay somewhere around £10–£30 a month, so call it £120–£360 a year, forever. The upside is it’s cheap to start. The downside is it costs you your time — often a lot of it — and the result usually looks like what it is: a template that thousands of other businesses are also using. For some people that’s genuinely fine. For most, the weekends lost fighting with it work out more expensive than they think.
2. Hire a freelancer. This is the sensible middle, and it’s what I do. For a proper, custom small business website you’re typically looking at a few hundred to a couple of thousand pounds as a one-off, depending on how many pages and how much it needs to do. You get a site built around your business by an actual person, without paying for an agency’s overheads. My own websites start at £249, agreed as a fixed price up front.
3. Go to an agency. Agencies do brilliant work, but you’re paying for the office, the account managers, the sales team and the markup on top. For a small business site you could easily be quoted £3,000–£10,000+. Sometimes that’s justified. For a shop, salon or trade that needs a solid, findable website, it’s usually far more than you need to spend.
What actually drives the price
Whoever builds it, the cost comes down to a handful of things:
- How many pages. A tidy five-page site is a very different job to a thirty-page one.
- Whether you’re selling online. A brochure site that sends people to call you is simpler (and cheaper) than a full online shop that takes payments and manages stock.
- Who writes the words. Good content takes time. If you’ve got it ready, great. If you need help shaping it, that’s part of the work.
- Photos. Real photos of your business always beat stock — but sorting them takes a bit of effort.
- Special features. Booking systems, member logins, calculators — anything clever adds time.
If someone quotes you a price without asking about any of the above, be a little wary. A fair quote comes after a proper conversation about what you actually need.
One-off cost vs the ongoing bit
Here’s the part people forget. A website isn’t only a one-off. There’s also:
- A domain name (your web address) — usually £10–£20 a year.
- Hosting (where the site lives) — anywhere from a few pounds a month upwards.
- Looking after it — updates, small changes, keeping it secure and current.
None of that has to be scary or expensive, but you should know it’s there. Be very cautious of anyone who won’t tell you what happens after launch, or who keeps your site and domain locked to them so you can’t leave. You should always own your own website and domain — it’s your business, so it’s your site.
“But I’ve seen websites for £5”
You have, and you’ll keep seeing them. There’s a whole world of overseas template mills knocking out sites for next to nothing. Sometimes you get lucky. More often you get something generic, slow, impossible to get changed, and built by someone you’ll never be able to reach again. The website itself might be cheap; the cost of it not working for you — or nobody being able to find it — is the expensive bit.
That’s not me telling you to spend a fortune. It’s me telling you that cheapest and best value are rarely the same thing.
So what should you actually spend?
Honestly, for most small businesses, a proper, custom website that’s fast, findable and built by someone you can talk to sits comfortably in the low-to-mid hundreds as a one-off, plus a small amount for hosting and care. That’s more than a DIY template and a long way under an agency — and for the vast majority of shops, salons, cafés, trades and consultants, it’s exactly the right spot.
The best thing you can do before spending anything is have a straight conversation with whoever might build it. A good one will tell you what’s worth doing, what isn’t, and give you a fixed price up front so there are no surprises.
If you’d like that conversation — no obligation, no sales pitch — tell me a bit about your business and I’ll give you an honest number. And if you want to see exactly how I price things, it’s all laid out here.