How much does a small business website cost in the UK?

The short answer: most small UK businesses pay somewhere between nothing and a few thousand pounds for a website. A website builder you use yourself costs roughly £10 to £30 a month. A freelancer usually charges from a few hundred pounds to around £3,000 for a small site. An agency usually starts at around £2,000. Every website also has small yearly costs, like the domain name.

The right choice depends on how much time you have, how much you want to spend, and how much the website needs to do. Here's how the options compare.

Sources: Squarespace's pricing and ExpertSure's Wix UK prices for builders, and Bark's web design price guide for freelancers and agencies. Prices checked October 2026.

The three ways to get a website

How much does it cost to build a website yourself?

Website builders like Wix and Squarespace cost roughly £10 to £30 a month and let you build a site from a template. They're quick to start and cheap in the first month.

The catch is that you pay every month for as long as the site is online. At £20 a month, that's £720 over three years. The site lives on their system, so if you stop paying or want to move, you usually start again from scratch. And it takes your time: choosing a template, writing the words and getting it to look right on a phone.

A builder is a good choice if you enjoy that kind of thing and have the evenings to spare.

How much does a freelance web designer charge?

A freelancer builds the site for you, usually for a one-off fee. For a small business site of three to five pages, prices commonly run from a few hundred pounds to around £3,000.

Quality varies a lot, so look at sites they've built and check them on your phone. Ask who will own the website and the domain when it's finished, and what happens if they're not around later.

How much does a web design agency charge?

Agencies have designers, writers and developers under one roof. They're a good fit for big sites, online shops and businesses that need a lot of custom work. For a small local business that needs a few clear pages, an agency is often more than you need, and prices usually start at around £2,000.

What extra costs come with a website?

The build price isn't the whole story. Before you pay, check who covers these:

• Your domain name. Your web address, like yourbusiness.co.uk. A .co.uk usually costs about £10 to £16 a year to renew, including VAT, and often less in the first year.
• Hosting. Where the website lives. It can be free, or managed hosting usually costs roughly £10 to £25 a month.
• Email. An address like info@yourbusiness.co.uk can forward to the inbox you already use for free. Separate mailboxes usually cost a few pounds per person each month.
• Changes. New prices, photos and opening hours. Some people charge by the hour, others offer a monthly plan.
• Words and photos. Many quotes don't include writing the text. Good photos make a big difference too.

Sources: 123 Reg on domain prices, Heart Internet's managed hosting, Cloudflare's free plan, Cloudflare Email Routing and Google Workspace pricing. Prices checked October 2026.

What does a small business website need?

Most local businesses don't need a big website. Three to five pages are usually plenty, as long as they do these things well:

• Work on a phone. Most of your visitors will be on one.
• Say what you do and where, straight away. Someone should know within a few seconds whether you can help them.
• Show prices, or at least "from" prices. People are more likely to get in touch when they know roughly what to expect.
• Make it easy to get in touch. A short enquiry form, and a phone number you can tap to call. An automatic reply to every enquiry means nobody is left waiting.
• Load quickly. Slow sites lose visitors before they've seen anything.
• Be ready for Google. Clear page titles and descriptions, a sitemap, and a link to your free Google Business Profile, so people nearby can find you.

Questions to ask before you pay

1. Who owns the website and the domain name once it's built?
2. What will it cost each year after the first?
3. If I want to move it somewhere else later, can I?
4. Who writes the words, and who supplies the photos?
5. What happens if something breaks, and what does fixing it cost?
6. How will people find it on Google?

If the answers are vague, ask again. A good web designer is happy to explain.

What we charge

Our websites start from £250, designed, written and set up for you. We can keep the price low because we build simple, fast sites that run on Cloudflare's free plan, so there's no hosting bill. The domain and the hosting account are in your name, so the website is yours whatever happens. Looking after it afterwards is optional.

If you'd like to know what yours would cost, book a free audit. We'll look at what you have now and give you a price.