How much does a website cost for a small business in the UK?

Two websites can look similar and be priced very differently. The difference is almost always in one of these:

• Number of pages. A one-page site for a single offer is less work than a site with a page per service and per area.
• Who writes the words. If you supply finished text, the build is quicker. If the designer has to interview you and write it, that is real work and should be priced.
• Features. A contact form is simple. Online booking, payments, a shop, member logins or a quote calculator each add work and often a monthly tool cost.
• Design from scratch or from a template. Neither is automatically better. What matters is whether the result is fast, clear and built around how your customers decide.
• Moving old content. Bringing across dozens of old pages, blog posts or products takes time, and so does setting up redirects so old links keep working.
• Connections to other systems. Linking the site to a CRM, a calendar or an accounts package can be quick or slow depending on the system.

If you are not sure what you need, start smaller. A clear site with your services, areas, prices and a working phone link will do more for most local businesses than a large site with features nobody uses.

We use our own prices here because they are the only ones we can state accurately. Other providers price differently, and you should compare like with like. All figures exclude VAT, and any third-party costs are confirmed in writing before work starts.

Working out the first year

Take the second example and add the optional care plan at its starting price: £278 one-off, plus 12 × £49 = £588, gives £866 for the first year, before VAT and before your domain and email. In year two, if nothing else changes, the cost is the care plan alone. If you would rather look after the site yourself, the first-year cost is the one-off figure plus your own domain and hosting.

Every price and what it includes is on our website and SEO price list. If your project needs ecommerce, memberships or unusual integrations, it gets a written quote instead of a package.

A low price is fine when the site does its job: it loads quickly on a phone, says clearly what you do and where, shows prices or a starting point, and makes it easy to call or send an enquiry. Plenty of local businesses need nothing more to start with.

Cheap becomes expensive in a few predictable ways:

• You do not own it. Some low monthly plans keep the site on their platform. Stop paying and you start again from nothing.
• Nobody looks after it. A site that is never updated or backed up can break, and a broken contact form loses enquiries without anyone noticing.
• It says nothing specific. A template with generic text gives customers no reason to pick you and gives Google little to match to local searches.
• Extras are added later. A low build price followed by charges for every small change can cost more over a year than a higher, clearer quote.

Expensive is not automatically better either. A large quote often includes features you may not need yet. If you are still deciding whether you need a website at all, our guide on whether a Facebook page is enough is a better starting point.