An honest breakdown of what you actually get at each price point — and why the difference between £5 a month and £5,000 is bigger than you might think.
Ask ten web designers what a website costs and you will get ten different answers. That is not evasiveness — it genuinely depends on what you need, who builds it, and what is included. A website is not a single product with a fixed price. It is more like asking what a car costs. A basic runaround and a high-performance saloon are both cars, but they are very different things at very different prices for very good reasons.
Understanding what drives cost is the most useful thing you can do before approaching anyone about a website. It will help you ask better questions and avoid paying for things you do not need — or discovering too late that you have bought something that does not do what you assumed it would.
Platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly let you build a website yourself using drag-and-drop tools. The monthly fee covers hosting and access to the builder. What it does not cover is your time — and building a decent website yourself takes significantly longer than the marketing suggests. You are also paying every month indefinitely, which adds up quickly. After three years on a £25/month plan you have spent £900 and you still do not own anything — cancel the subscription and the website disappears.
A content management system where the design and technical setup is handled for you, and you simply add your text and photos. This is the lowest cost option for getting a professionally presented website without doing it yourself. Hosting is included. The trade-off is limited design flexibility — the layout is predetermined, which is exactly why it is simple and affordable.
A professionally designed and built website with a fixed scope — typically one to six pages — at a known price that includes hosting and a domain name for the first year. The designer does all the work. You provide your content. This is the most cost-effective route to a handcrafted professional website for a small business that does not need complex functionality.
A website built entirely to your specification with no template or fixed structure. Price is determined by complexity, number of pages, functionality required, and the experience of the developer. This category covers everything from a bespoke small business site to complex web applications with booking systems, member areas, e-commerce, and database integrations. The wide price range reflects the enormous variation in what is being built.
Large agencies with teams of designers, developers, project managers, and account handlers have significantly higher overheads than individual developers or small studios. Their prices reflect that. For enterprise-level projects with complex requirements and multiple stakeholders, an agency may be the right choice. For a small business website, agency pricing rarely represents good value.
Two quotes for the same type of website can look very different because of what is and is not included. Always check:
A quote that looks cheaper can quickly become more expensive once you add hosting, a domain, and any extras that were not included in the headline price.
The cheapest option is not always the most cost-effective. A £10/month website builder that takes you 40 hours to build costs significantly more than a fixed-price professional website when you account for the value of your own time.
| Type | Typical Cost | Who Does the Work | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY Website Builder | £10–£40/month ongoing | You | Those with time and patience to build it themselves |
| Managed CMS | From £25-£50/year | Developer sets up, you add content | Simple sites where content is more important than design |
| Fixed-Price Website | £350–£700 | Developer | Small businesses wanting a professional result at a known cost |
| Custom Website | £1,500–£10,000+ | Developer | Businesses needing specific functionality or design |
| Agency Website | £5,000–£50,000+ | Agency team | Enterprise projects with complex requirements |
A website is not a one-off purchase. There are recurring costs to budget for every year:
Always ask about year two costs before committing to anything. An attractively priced first year can sometimes mask significantly higher renewal rates.
