A small business website in the UK costs from about £110 a year on a DIY builder to several thousand pounds from a freelancer or an agency. One research publisher put a five-page freelancer site at £1,500 to £3,000 in 2026, and an agency site at £3,000 to £5,000. I build websites in Huddersfield for £750 to £1,500, at a fixed price. The range is wide because "a website" can mean very different things.
I'm a seller, so I'm not neutral. Every outside figure below has a named source and a date, and the sources are listed at the end.
What does a small business website cost in the UK?
It depends who builds it. Here are the ranges I found from sources that give a date.
| Route | Typical cost | Source |
|---|---|---|
| DIY builder | Squarespace £12 to £79 a month on annual billing. Wix from £9 a month, billed yearly | Squarespace pricing page (10 October 2026), Startups.co.uk (March 2026) |
| Freelancer | £1,500 to £3,000 for a five-page brochure site | Whito, Q1 2026 data |
| Agency | £3,000 to £5,000 for the same kind of site | Whito, Q1 2026 data |
| Me | £750 to £1,500, depending on what's in it | My own price list |
The sources disagree. Startups.co.uk (updated March 2026) says a basic site from a web designer can cost £300 to £1,000, and puts freelancers at £25 to £50 an hour. GoDaddy (May 2026) gives a minimum first-year cost of £5,315 for a basic site from a designer. That is £4,500 for the design, then £815 a year for maintenance, hosting, a domain and an SSL security certificate. GoDaddy also sells a DIY builder, so it has a reason to make the alternative look expensive. Startups.co.uk says it may earn a commission if you buy through its links.
Whito says it is not an agency and arranges nothing. It built its figures from publicly listed rates on freelancer platforms and agency sites, plus industry rate surveys, and it doesn't give a sample size. I would treat all of these as rough guides and not as rate cards.
Why do quotes for similar-looking sites differ so much?
Scope. Two sites can look alike from the outside and be very different underneath.
More pages push the price up, especially pages that each need their own layout. So does paying someone else to write the text and take the photos: Whito puts copywriting at £50 to £150 a page and photography at £200 to £800. It says hidden costs like these, along with SEO, typically add 30 to 50% on top of the quoted price. Extra features add more, such as online booking, a shop, customer logins or a link to other software. A tight deadline and a long list of changes after the design is agreed will also raise it.
Going the other way, a site costs less if it has few pages, you supply the words and pictures, it uses a standard layout and you ask for few changes.
That is why my websites are a fixed price, agreed once I know what's wanted. The first conversation is free.
Is it better to use a DIY builder, a freelancer or an agency?
A DIY builder is the cheapest way in. If you have a few evenings to spare, a simple site and a reasonable eye, Squarespace or Wix may be all you need, and then you don't need me. The cost you don't see is your own time, and the plan fee carries on for as long as you keep the site.
A freelancer is one person who does the design and the build. Prices vary with experience.
An agency has a team, so several people work on your project. That tends to suit bigger sites, bigger budgets, and projects where several people on your side have to sign things off.
How do my prices compare?
My £750 to £1,500 is below the freelancer and agency ranges above. I can't tell you why other people charge what they do, and a lower price says nothing about quality in either direction. What matters is what a price covers. So ask me, and ask anyone else you're considering, the same question: what exactly is in this price, and what isn't? You can see what I build on the websites page.
Most of my sites go live two to four weeks after we agree the brief.
What does a website cost after it's built?
The build is paid once, but a few costs come round every year.
Domain names are the smallest. Startups.co.uk gives £8 to £20 or more a year, and GoDaddy uses £15 in its estimates. Hosting costs more. Startups.co.uk says £20 to £300 or more a year and Whito says £50 to £300. GoDaddy's designer-built examples run from £110 for a basic site to £240 for a small to medium shop. Maintenance means updates, backups and security fixes. Whito gives £300 to £1,200 a year for maintenance and updates. Startups.co.uk gives security alone as £0 to £1,000 or more a year.
Be careful with the free first year. Squarespace's help page says a free first-year domain "will renew for its listed price" after that, and that it charges your card 15 days before the renewal date. Startups.co.uk says the same about most major builders, including Wix: the free domain renews automatically after a year, for a fee. Read the renewal terms before you count on it.
My care plans are £50 to £99 a month. The £50 plan covers hosting, the domain, updates, backups and monitoring. The £99 plan adds two hours of content changes a month. Over a year that is £600 to £1,188. Whito lists hosting and the domain separately from maintenance, so its figures are not a like-for-like comparison with a plan that bundles them.
What should you check in a quote?
Whoever you ask, get these answered in writing:
- Is it a fixed price, or an estimate that can grow? If it's hourly, what's the cap?
- What's included, and what's an extra? Ask about extra pages, text, photos, and changes after sign-off.
- Whose name is on the domain? The registrant, the person or business recorded as holding it, should be you. If the designer registers it in their own name, you may have trouble moving it later.
- Who owns the website? GOV.UK's copyright guidance says the first legal owner of a commissioned work is the person or organisation that created it, "unless you otherwise agree it in writing". Its website example says a commissioned person and a company would likely be joint first owners. So the contract should say what you own.
- What do hosting and any care plan cost every year, and what happens to the price after year one?
- Can you take the site elsewhere if you want to? How much notice is needed to cancel?
- How long will it take, and what do they need from you to hit that date?
Want a price for your site?
You can read a bit about me or get in touch. The first conversation is free.
