How much does a website cost in the UK?
Quotes from £300 to £15,000 for what sounds like the same website, and no idea which one is taking you for a ride. Here's the honest anatomy of what you're actually paying for.
Where it hurts
The reason quotes vary so wildly is that 'a website' covers everything from a one-page DIY builder to a bespoke e-commerce build. A Wix or Squarespace site you build yourself might cost £15 to £40 a month and a weekend of your time. A freelancer typically lands somewhere in the low thousands. A design agency, with strategy, custom design and project management, runs from several thousand into five figures.
What actually drives the cost is how custom the build is, whether it sells things (payments, stock, tax), how much copy and photography you need, and how much hand-holding you want. The page count matters far less than people assume. A brochure site is cheap. A shop that talks to your accounts is not.
The costs people forget are the ongoing ones. Hosting, the domain renewal, SSL, plugin licences, and maintenance. A £500 site that nobody updates becomes a slow, insecure liability within a couple of years. And watch the red flags: a price with no mention of who owns the site afterwards, no ongoing support, or a 'free' website that locks you into an expensive contract.
What I'd build
I should be candid: I'm not a web agency and I won't pretend to be one. I build sites when they're part of a wider fix, connecting the site to your accounts or booking system, sorting a shop that has to sync stock and orders, replacing something slow or broken. If a plain brochure website is all you need, I'll happily tell you a good freelancer or a Squarespace build is better value than hiring me. Where I add most is when the website has to talk to the other software you already pay for, and I'll always tell you up front what's a one-off build cost versus what you'll keep paying every year.
What changes
- A clear picture of DIY-builder versus freelancer versus agency pricing in the UK
- The ongoing costs (hosting, domain, maintenance) laid out so nothing surprises you
- The contract red flags to check before you sign anything
- An honest steer on whether you even need me, or a freelancer would do
Related fixes
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