If you’ve ever tried to find out how much a website costs, you’ll know the frustration. You Google it, and you get answers ranging from “completely free” to “tens of thousands of pounds.” Nobody gives you a straight answer. Everyone wants you to “get in touch for a quote” before they’ll tell you anything useful.
That’s not helpful. So let’s fix that.
This is an honest breakdown of what a website actually costs for a small business — what’s included, what isn’t, and what the differences in price actually mean.
Why Prices Vary So Much
Before the numbers, it’s worth understanding why website pricing is all over the place. A website isn’t a single product with a fixed price — it’s more like a building project. A garden shed and a five-bedroom house are both “buildings,” but they cost very different amounts for very good reasons.
The same is true for websites. What you’re paying for — and how much you pay — depends on:
- Who builds it (a large agency, a freelancer, or yourself)
- What platform it’s built on
- How many pages and how complex the design is
- Whether you need anything bespoke like booking systems or e-commerce
- What ongoing support and maintenance is included
With that in mind, here’s how the main options stack up.
Option 1: Do It Yourself — £0 to £300/year
Platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress.com let you build a website yourself for little or no upfront cost. You pay a monthly or annual subscription, pick a template, and build it yourself.
What you get: A functional website if you put the time in. Some templates look genuinely good.
What you don’t get: A professional result without significant time investment, technical support when things go wrong, or any help with SEO, copywriting, or making it actually work for your business.
The hidden cost: Your time. Building a website properly — even on a DIY platform — takes longer than the adverts suggest. And ongoing management falls entirely on you.
Best for: Businesses with very tight budgets, very simple needs, and someone with the time and inclination to learn.
Option 2: A Cheap Freelancer or Template Site — £200 to £800
There’s a market for very low-cost website builds, often found on platforms like Fiverr or through ads promising a “5-page website for £299.” These are usually template-based builds with minimal customisation.
What you get: A live website, faster than DIY, at a low upfront cost.
What you don’t get: Much personalisation, a deep understanding of your business, or any ongoing relationship. Many of these providers build the site and move on. If something breaks six months later, you’re on your own.
The hidden cost: The price of fixing problems later, or rebuilding entirely when the site stops doing the job.
Best for: Businesses that need something basic online quickly and have very limited budgets — with the understanding that it may need replacing sooner than a higher-quality build.
Option 3: A Local Professional or Small Agency — £800 to £3,000+
This is the middle ground where most small businesses are best served. A local web professional or small agency will build you a proper, custom WordPress website — designed around your business, optimised for search engines, and built to last.
What you get: A professional result that genuinely represents your business. Someone who takes the time to understand what you do and who your customers are. Proper SEO foundations built in from the start. And critically — an ongoing relationship with someone you can actually call.
What you don’t get: The lowest possible upfront price.
The hidden cost: There isn’t one, which is the point. A properly built site with ongoing support costs more upfront but far less over time than repeatedly fixing or rebuilding a cheap one.
Best for: Small businesses that want a professional web presence and the peace of mind of knowing someone is looking after it.
Option 4: A Large Digital Agency — £3,000 to £20,000+
Big agencies have big overheads — account managers, project managers, designers, developers — and their prices reflect that. For large businesses with complex requirements, this makes sense.
What you get: A polished, professionally managed project. Lots of process and documentation.
What you don’t get: A personal relationship, direct access to the person actually working on your site, or value for money if you’re a small business with straightforward needs.
Best for: Medium to large businesses with complex requirements and budgets to match. Generally not the right fit for small, local businesses.
The Ongoing Costs Nobody Mentions Upfront
Whatever you pay to build a website, there are ongoing costs to factor in. These catch a lot of small business owners off guard.
Domain name – typically £10–£20 per year. This is your web address (yourbusiness.co.uk).
Hosting – typically £5–£30 per month depending on the provider and what’s included. This is what keeps your website live on the internet.
Maintenance – if it’s included in a care plan, typically £30–£100+ per month for a small business site. This covers updates, security, backups, and support. If it’s not included, you’re either doing it yourself or paying ad hoc when things go wrong.
SSL certificate – the security padlock that appears in browsers. Usually included with hosting now, but worth checking.
A properly packaged service will bundle hosting and maintenance together so you have one predictable monthly cost and a single person to contact for everything.
What You’re Really Paying For
Here’s the honest truth about website pricing: the cheapest option is rarely the cheapest in the long run.
A £300 website that takes hours of your time to manage, breaks regularly, doesn’t rank on Google, and needs replacing in two years will cost you far more — in time, lost customers, and eventual rebuild costs — than a properly built £1,500 site that’s professionally maintained from day one.
The question isn’t just “how much does a website cost?” It’s “how much is an unreliable, unprofessional web presence costing my business?”
What Does It Cost To Work With Me?
I’m not going to give you exact prices here because every business is different — a one-page site for a sole trader is a different job to a ten-page site for a busy local retailer. But I will always give you a clear, honest quote before any work begins. No surprises.
What I can tell you is that my pricing is designed for small businesses — not big agency rates, not a race to the bottom. A fair price for a professional job, with ongoing support from someone you can actually get hold of.
Get in touch and tell me what you need — I’ll give you a straight answer.
I provide WordPress website builds, hosting, and ongoing maintenance to small businesses in Leicestershire. Clients get a personal, reliable service from someone they can actually call.
