Website design cost
How much a website costs in the UK — with the numbers written down.
Nobody wants to fill in a form to find out whether they can afford something. So here's what a small-business website actually costs, what makes one quote three times another, and which of those differences you should pay for.
In short
A professionally built small-business website in the UK usually costs between £500 and £2,000 as a one-off. Our guide prices are £499 for a five-page starter site, £999 for a ten-page business site and £1,499 for a larger growth site, half up front and the balance on launch. Hosting, domain and email are paid direct to the providers at no markup.
What each price actually buys
Starter Site
Sole traders & small local businesses
£499 from
- · Up to 5 core pages
- · Mobile responsive
- · Contact form
- · Click to call
- · SSL
- · Basic SEO setup
- · Sitemap
- · Search engine friendly structure
Business Site
Growing local businesses
£999 from
- · Up to 10 core pages
- · Custom professional design
- · SEO architecture
- · Keyword targeting
- · Local SEO foundations
- · Schema markup
- · Google Analytics setup
- · Search Console setup
- · Conversion optimisation
- · AI-search-ready structure
- · Contact and enquiry systems
Growth Site
Businesses serious about organic growth
£1499 from
- · Larger / custom website
- · Advanced SEO structure
- · Competitor research
- · Keyword mapping
- · Location and service strategy
- · Schema markup
- · Content optimisation
- · Analytics and Search Console
- · Technical SEO
- · AI search optimisation
- · Lead-generation architecture
Monthly SEO is separate and starts at £199. Everything on the pricing page.
The four things that decide the price
Two quotes for "a website for a plumber" can be £400 and £4,000 and both can be honest. These are the variables doing the work.
1. How many pages, and how many are real. A site with one page per service and one per area you actually work in costs more than a single page listing everything, and it earns more, because each of those pages can rank for something different. Padding page counts with thin duplicates is the opposite — more pages, less value.
2. Who writes the words. Writing is the slowest part of any website. If you supply the copy, the build is cheaper. If we write it from a conversation, it costs more and usually converts better because it says what you actually do rather than what a template thinks a business says.
3. Whether the SEO structure is done. Page hierarchy, titles, internal links, schema, sitemap, Search Console. On our builds this is included rather than sold as a phase two, because retrofitting it later costs more than doing it once.
4. What happens after launch. A cheap build with nobody watching it is a site that quietly breaks. Some quotes include ongoing upkeep, most don't. Ours separates them so you can see what you're paying for — see website maintenance.
Ongoing costs, in plain numbers
These are not our fees. They're what running any website costs, and you pay them direct to the provider so there's nothing added on top.
Domain name: roughly £10 to £20 a year for a .co.uk or .com. Keep it in your own account — this is the single most important thing to own, because whoever controls the domain controls the website.
Hosting: typically £5 to £20 a month for a small-business site. Cheaper shared hosting exists and it usually shows up as slow pages on a phone, which costs you enquiries.
Business email: a few pounds per mailbox per month. Worth it. A quote from a gmail address loses work against a quote from your own domain.
SEO, if you want it: from £199 a month with us, and genuinely optional. A well-structured site earns some search visibility on its own. Monthly work is for when you're competing with people who are also trying.
Where cheap gets expensive
We've rebuilt enough sites to know the pattern. The bill people regret isn't the £499 one — it's the £199 one that had to be replaced eighteen months later, plus the enquiries that never arrived in between.
The usual causes: the site was built on a platform the owner can't get into; the developer registered the domain in their own name; there's no analytics so nobody can say whether it ever worked; every page has the same title tag; or the whole thing is one long scrolling page with nothing for Google to rank against a specific search.
None of that is fixed by spending more. It's fixed by asking better questions at quote stage: do I own the domain, do I own the site, can I edit it, is there a page per thing I sell, and what happens if I want to leave. If a quote can't answer those in writing, price is not your biggest problem.
Cost by number of pages
People often search for the price of a site by its size — a five page website, a six page website, a ten page website. It's a reasonable way to think about it, so here are honest numbers for each.
A five page website — home, about, one services page, a gallery or reviews page and a contact page — is the classic starter build. Done properly with the SEO structure in, it sits around the £500 mark. Our £499 starter package is exactly this, and it's the right size for a new business or a trade that gets most of its work from one service.
A six page website usually means the same starter shape with the services split in two — because most small businesses sell at least two distinct things, and each deserves its own page that can rank on its own. Expect it to land just above the five-page price, roughly £550 to £700 depending on who writes the words. The extra page is usually the best money on the quote, because it's the one that doubles the number of searches the site can appear for.
A ten page website is where a business with several services, or one service across several areas, starts to be taken seriously by Google. Our £999 package covers this: a page per service, proper internal linking between them, and the structure to add more later without rebuilding. Above ten pages you're into growth-site territory — our £1,499 package — which suits businesses that want to publish articles and keep expanding.
One warning on page counts: the number only matters if the pages are real. Ten pages that each answer a different search are worth more than thirty near-identical pages with a town name swapped in — Google has been penalising that pattern for years, and we won't build it.
How to compare two quotes properly
When you have two quotes in front of you, ignore the total for a minute and ask both sides the same five questions. The answers make the comparison for you.
How many pages are included, and is there one per service I sell? Who writes the words, and do I get to approve them? Is the SEO structure — titles, schema, sitemap, Search Console — included or extra? Do I own the domain and the site, in writing? And what does it cost me if I want to leave or move the site in two years?
A quote that answers all five clearly at £999 is almost always better value than one that answers none of them at £399. The expensive website is rarely the one with the bigger number — it's the one you pay for twice.
A 6 page website, page by page
If you're pricing a six page website, it helps to see what each page is for. A sensible layout for most small businesses looks like this.
Home — who you are, what you do, where you work, and one clear way to get in touch. Service one and service two — a page each for your two main jobs, written so each can be found for its own searches. About — the person behind the business, because people buy from people. Reviews or gallery — real photos and real feedback. Contact — a simple form, your area and your hours.
That shape costs a little more than a five page site and earns noticeably more, because two services on two pages gives Google two chances to show you instead of one. It's also easy to grow: when you add a third service, it slots in as a seventh page without rebuilding anything.
Website cost by number of pages
Page count is the simplest way to compare quotes. Here's how our own prices line up, so you can sanity-check anyone's.
- 1 to 5 pages: our £499 starter. Fewer pages doesn't make it much cheaper, because setup, speed work and SEO structure cost the same whatever the size.
- 6 page website: usually £550 to £700, depending on who writes the words.
- 7 to 9 pages: priced between the starter and the business package, worked out from your list of services.
- 10 page website: our £999 business site.
- Larger sites: our £1,499 growth site, or a fixed quote for anything bigger.
Every price includes the build, mobile testing, SEO structure and Search Console setup. Hosting and your domain are paid direct to the provider with nothing added.
Common questions
How much does a website cost in the UK?
For a small business, a professionally built website usually lands between £500 and £2,000 as a one-off. Our own guide prices are £499 for a five-page starter site, £999 for a ten-page business site and £1,499 for a larger growth site. Below roughly £400 you're normally buying a template with your logo dropped on it; above £5,000 you're normally paying for account managers rather than better work.
Why do quotes for the same website vary so much?
Because 'website' describes anything from a one-page template to a bespoke system. The honest variables are the number of pages, who writes the words, whether the SEO structure is done properly, and whether anybody is doing the technical work after launch. Ask any two quotes to list those four things and the gap usually explains itself.
Is it cheaper to build it myself on Wix or Squarespace?
In cash, yes — you'll pay the monthly fee and your own time. It works if your customers already know your name and you only need a presence. It works badly when you need to be found for competitive searches, because the page structure, speed and internal linking are where those rankings come from, and that's the part the templates don't do for you.
What ongoing costs should I expect?
A domain is usually £10 to £20 a year. Hosting for a small business site is typically £5 to £20 a month. Business email is a few pounds per mailbox per month. You pay those direct to the provider with nothing added by us. SEO is optional and separate — ours starts at £199 a month.
Do you take a deposit?
Yes. Half up front so we can start, the balance when the site goes live and you're happy with it. No monthly lock-in, no contract you can't leave, and you own the site and the domain at the end of it.
Are there costs people forget to budget for?
Three usually. Photography — stock images of somebody else's workshop cost you trust. Copywriting, if you'd rather not write it yourself. And content changes later, which are cheap but not free. We'd rather flag them at quote stage than let them turn up as surprises.
How much does an ecommerce site cost?
More than a brochure site, because payments, postage rules and product data are real work. A small shop with a short fixed range sits near the £999 mark; a bigger catalogue with variants and stock syncing is quoted after we've seen the product list. Details are on our ecommerce page.
Is a cheap website ever the right answer?
Yes — if you're testing whether the business works at all, a small honest starter site beats spending £3,000 on something you'll rethink in six months. The mistake isn't starting cheap, it's starting cheap on something that can't be built on later.
What does your quote actually include?
The build, the SEO structure, mobile testing, speed work, schema markup, analytics and Search Console setup, forms, SSL and a walkthrough so you can update it. Written in the quote, priced before we start, and it doesn't move unless you ask for something new.
How much does a 5 or 6 page website cost?
A properly built five page website — home, about, services, gallery or reviews, contact — sits around the £500 mark, and our £499 starter package is exactly that. A six page website, where the services are split so each can rank on its own, usually lands between £550 and £700 depending on who writes the words.
How much should I pay for a website as a small business?
Enough to get a page per service, words that say what you actually do, and the SEO structure done at build time — in practice that's £500 to £2,000 for most small businesses. Pay less and you're usually buying a template; pay much more and you're usually paying for account management rather than a better site.
Want a real number for your business?
Tell us what you sell, roughly how many services you offer and where you work. You'll get a fixed price by email — usually within one working day — with what's included written down.