How Much Does a Website Cost for a Small Business in the UK?

If you have been asking “how much does a website cost for a small business in the UK?”, you have probably noticed that nobody gives a straight answer. One result says £300. The next says £10,000. Both can be true, because they are describing different things.

This guide explains what drives the price, what the common routes cost and how to compare quotes fairly, so you can decide what is right for you.

The three routes and what they cost

Most small businesses end up taking one of three routes. The figures below come from startups.co.uk’s small business website cost guide, which was last updated in March 2026. Prices change, so treat them as a guide and check current figures.

1. A DIY website builder. You build the site yourself on a platform that bundles hosting. The guide lists plans from about £1.99 to £259 a month, with example list prices such as Wix at £16 a month and Squarespace at £12 a month. The cash cost is low. The real cost is your time, and the quality depends on your own eye for design and your writing.

2. A freelance web designer. The same source quotes freelancers at around £25 to £50 an hour, and suggests £300 to £1,000 as a typical spend for a basic site from a designer. A good freelancer can be a great fit for a small business, and quality varies widely, so look at their past work and how they communicate.

3. A web design agency. Small agencies are quoted at roughly £50 to £150 an hour, with larger agencies higher. The guide puts custom or bespoke builds at £10,000 and above. That figure usually reflects bigger projects with complex features and large teams.

What actually drives the price

Two websites that look similar from the outside can have very different price tags. These are the things that move the number.

• How many pages. Five pages is a very different job from fifty.
• Who creates the content. Writing the copy, taking photos and filming video all take time. If you supply them, the price drops.
• Features. A simple enquiry form is easy. Online booking, payments, memberships and shops add build time and ongoing costs.
• Design depth. A page built around your brand and your customers takes more thought than one dropped into a standard layout.
• Integrations. Connecting to a booking system, a mailing list or a stock system adds work.
• Timescale. Rush jobs usually cost more.
• Support after launch. Training, updates and care plans are sometimes included and sometimes extra.

What it costs after launch

The build is not the whole bill. Some costs keep coming back every month or year.

• A domain name. The same guide gives a typical range of £8 to £20 or more a year.
• Hosting. If you are not on a builder that bundles it, the guide gives £20 to £300 or more a year.
• Tools and extras. Booking systems, email marketing and similar add-ons often have monthly fees.
• Updates. Prices, photos and opening hours change, and someone has to update them.

We go through these in detail in our post on website running costs per year.

Where cheap goes wrong, and where expensive does

Being fair, neither end is automatically good or bad.

A very cheap site can be perfectly fine if the scope is small and honest. It goes wrong when the price hides extras (a fee to edit, a fee for the domain, a fee to leave) or when the site is a generic template with your name dropped in.

A very expensive site is not guaranteed to be better. Some small businesses pay for features they never use. Others get a beautiful site with no thought for who will keep it up to date.

The best question to ask is not “what is the cheapest?” but “what exactly do I get for this price, and what happens afterwards?”

How to compare quotes fairly

Put every quote side by side against the same checklist.

1. How many pages are included?
2. Who writes the text and supplies the images?
3. Is the design made for your brand or taken from a template?
4. Will it work well on a phone?
5. What are the payment stages?
6. Which costs repeat each year (domain, hosting, tools)?
7. Who owns the domain, the logins and the files? (See who owns your website.)
8. What happens if you want changes after launch?

If a quote cannot answer these, it is not yet a quote you can compare.

What a small, designed site costs with us

We build for small businesses and startups, and we keep the scope clear. Our website packages start at £150 for a one-page Lite site, with Starter at £295 for up to five pages and Pro at £595 for up to ten pages with domain and hosting included for the first year. Every site is designed around your own brand and laid out for phones first. You pay in two halves: the first to secure the build and the second just before the site goes live. Bigger or custom builds are quoted to fit what you need. See every package on our website packages page. Terms are agreed in writing before any work starts.

Five pages is plenty for many small businesses: a home page, what you offer, an about page, prices or packages and a contact page. If you need more, such as a shop or bookings, we will say so and quote for it.

Next step

If you want to know what your site would cost, tell us what you do and what you want the website to achieve. We will tell you what is realistic. You can also read how our website builds work, or see why a custom approach does not have to mean a huge bill in our guide to what a bespoke website really costs.