How Much Does a Website Cost in the UK? (2026 Honest Guide)

If you've tried Googling "how much does a website cost in the UK," you've probably found a range so wide it's useless. Both ends are technically true. Neither is helpful.

This guide gives you real figures from a working UK developer, with the bits that make a quote go up or down.

Quick answer

For most small business websites, the honest range is £300 to £3,000. It all depends on what you need.

A simple landing page usually costs £300 to £800.

A small business website with 3 to 5 pages usually costs £800 to £2,000.

A fuller brochure site with 6 to 8 pages usually costs £2,000 to £3,000.

eCommerce sites and custom web applications need to be quoted properly, because the scope can vary a lot.

These are freelancer rates. Agency rates are typically 40 to 80 per cent higher for the same output.

Simple landing pages: £300 to £800

A landing page is a one page site designed to get people to contact you or take one clear action.

At the lower end you're getting a clean, fast page with a contact form. At the higher end you're getting custom design, SEO setup on the page, and a connection to tools like Mailchimp or a CRM.

What affects the price: custom versus template design, number of sections, and whether you need to connect other tools.

Small business websites: £800 to £2,000

A three to five page site covering home, services, about, and contact. Professional, good on phones, and built to show up on Google for your business name and local searches.

What a good small business site includes:

Design that works properly on phones
Page SEO, including title tags, meta descriptions, and structured data
Contact form with email notification
Google Analytics setup
Fast load times
SSL certificate

What affects the price: number of pages, whether the design is custom or based on an existing style, and how much copy needs writing.

Full brochure sites: £2,000 to £3,000

A six to eight page site with more pages, a blog, more detailed service pages, and a more polished design. Common for established small businesses that want to rank for specific services or locations.

What adds cost: custom design from scratch, a blog with multiple posts, additional service pages, and more rounds of revisions.

eCommerce and custom web applications

eCommerce adds genuine complexity. You're not just building pages, you're building a system: product catalogue, shopping cart, checkout, payment processing, and usually a way to manage products yourself. Pricing depends heavily on the scope and is quoted on request.

Custom web applications (booking systems, internal tools, dashboards) are similar. I've built tools like BackupMonitor, which polls Microsoft 365 mailboxes, parses backup emails, and displays results on a calendar dashboard. Projects like that are scoped and priced individually.

If that sounds like what you need, get in touch and I'll give you a straight answer.

Freelancer vs. agency: what's the actual difference?

A freelancer building the same site as an agency will typically cost 30 to 60 per cent less. Not because the quality is lower, but because there's no overhead: no account managers, project managers, or office costs.

When an agency makes sense: large projects that need several specialists under one contract, or businesses that need a dedicated account manager.

When a freelancer is the better choice: small to medium businesses that want direct communication, projects where budget efficiency matters, and when you want the same person building your site to be the one you talk to.

What makes prices go up

These are the things that most reliably push costs beyond initial quotes:

Scope creep. "While you're at it, can we also add..." Agree the full scope in writing before work starts.
Undefined content. Developers can't design around placeholder text forever. Having your copy ready before development starts saves time.
Custom design from scratch. A custom design takes two to four times longer than adapting an existing style to your brand.
Integrations. Every outside tool adds hours.
Extra revision rounds. Good contracts specify a number of revision rounds included in the price.

What to watch out for

Unusually cheap quotes. A £200 brochure site from an agency is almost certainly a template with five minutes of customisation.
No written brief or contract. If there's no document defining what's being built, disputes are inevitable.
Maintenance contracts you don't need. You don't need a £200 per month retainer to keep a static site running.

FAQs

How much does a website cost per month? Hosting costs £5 to £30 per month depending on the platform. Domain names cost £10 to £20 per year. There's no ongoing cost for a static site beyond that. Ongoing maintenance is extra if you want it.

How much does a 5-page website cost in the UK? A clean, professional five page site typically costs £800 to £2,000 from a freelancer.

Can I get a website for free? You can get something online for free with Wix or Squarespace, but you won't own it, you'll be on a generic subdomain unless you pay, and the SEO is limited. For a business that wants to grow, a proper site is an investment, not a cost.

How long does it take to build a website? A landing page takes one to two weeks. A brochure site takes two to four weeks. See how long it takes to build a website for a full breakdown.

Have a project in mind and want a straight answer on what it'll cost? Get in touch and I'll give you a clear estimate within 24 hours.