How much does a website cost in the UK for a small business? Real numbers, 2026
What you actually pay for a small business website in the UK, from DIY builders to agencies, with the hidden monthly costs listed and the three prices I charge.
Search "website design UK cost" and you get a hundred articles that end with "it depends" and a form to fill in. It does depend, but not that much, and you deserve the actual numbers before you ring anyone. Here they are, including mine.
The short answer
For a small service business in the UK in 2026, a website that is written for you, works on a phone and takes bookings costs somewhere between £400 and £2,000 as a one-off, plus £10 to £25 a month to keep it online. Below £400 you are doing it yourself or getting a template with your logo dropped in. Above £2,000 you are paying for an agency's office, or for a shop with hundreds of products, or for something custom that a hairdresser, a physio or a plumber does not need.
My own prices, for the record: Starter £395, Business £795, Full Launch £1,495. All one-off, all with the booking system set up. They are on the pricing page with everything that is in each one.
The four ways to get a website, and what each costs
1. Do it yourself on a builder: £0 to £30 a month
Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy will all let you build a site yourself. The plan you need for a real business, with your own domain and no adverts, is about £10 to £25 a month. Add a domain at around £10 a year.
What that does not include is the fifteen to thirty hours it takes to build something decent, the writing, and the bit that most people skip: the structured data, the sitemap, the Google Business Profile and the booking system settings. DIY sites tend to be a home page, an about page and a contact form, which is exactly what your competitors have. If you enjoy it and have the time, it is a fine option. Most people I meet started this way and gave up at the "connect your domain" step.
2. A freelancer: £300 to £1,500
A freelancer working from home charges for their time and not much else. That is where I sit. The range is wide because the work is wide: a five-page site written from your notes is a few days; a fifteen-page site with a blog, town pages and a booking system wired to your calendar is a few weeks.
Things to ask any freelancer before you pay: who owns the account the site is built on, whether the words are written or copied from a template, whether the booking system is included, and what happens to changes after launch. The answers should be "you", "written", "yes" and "a set number of days included".
3. A local agency: £1,500 to £6,000, often plus a monthly fee
Agencies have offices, account managers and designers, and you pay for all three. The site is often very good. It is also often the same site they built for the last client with your colours on it, and the price is rarely on their website, which tells you something about how they sell.
The number to watch with agencies is the monthly one. "Hosting and maintenance" at £50 to £150 a month adds £600 to £1,800 a year to the headline price, and after three years it usually costs more than the build did.
4. A "free website" from a directory or a booking platform
Fresha, Treatwell, Yell and others will give you a page for free. Fresha's is decent, and I use Fresha as the booking system for a lot of salons. But a page on someone else's site is not a website. It does not rank for your town, you cannot put your prices and your story on it the way you want, and if you leave the platform the page goes with it. Use it, but do not mistake it for the thing.
The monthly costs nobody mentions
Whatever route you take, these are the bills that continue after launch:
- Domain: about £10 a year for a .co.uk. Register it in your own name, always.
- Hosting or platform plan: £10 to £25 a month on Wix, or similar on the others. This is what keeps the site online.
- Booking system: Wix Bookings is included in the Business plan. Fresha is free for the business and takes a small cut of new-client bookings from its marketplace, plus card fees.
- Email: a proper address on your domain is about £5 a month through Google Workspace. Worth it. A Gmail address on a business card looks temporary.
- Care or maintenance: optional. Mine is £29 to £129 a month and covers updates, changes and content. Agencies charge more, sometimes a lot more, and it is often compulsory.
For most small businesses the honest running cost of a site is £20 to £35 a month with no care plan. That is less than one no-show.
What makes the price go up
Three things, in my experience:
- Pages. Every page has to be written, and writing is the slow bit. A site with a page for each service and each nearby town takes longer than a five-pager, and ranks for a lot more.
- A shop. Products, variants, stock, shipping and payment take a different kind of build. If you sell things, expect the price to start where a service site ends.
- Changing your mind. Not a criticism. It is just that "can we try it in blue" costs an hour each time, so a build with a clear brief and quick answers comes in at the bottom of the range.
What should not make the price go up
Being in a particular town. Being new. Wanting the booking system included. Wanting your own prices on the page. Wanting to own the account. None of those are extras, and if someone is charging for them, ask why.
How to spend the money well
If the budget is tight, spend it in this order. First, the words: pages written for the searches people in your area actually make, with prices on them. Second, the booking system: connected to your calendar with reminders on, so you stop losing clients to phone tag. Third, the Google Business Profile: free, and the single biggest source of local enquiries. Fourth, the design. Design matters, but a beautiful site that says "contact us for a quote" loses to a plain one that says "£45, book now" every time.
That order is why my Starter package is five written pages plus the booking system plus the listing, rather than ten pages of stock photos.
The prices, again
Starter £395. Business £795. Full Launch £1,495. Care plans from £29 a month, optional, cancel any time. Extra pages £100 for five. Logo refresh £75, full brand kit £295. No VAT.
If you want to know which one fits, ring me on 07940 022854. It takes about two minutes and there is no pitch.