How much does a website cost in the UK?

How much does a website cost in the UK? Quotes range from a few pounds a month for a website builder to five figures from an agency, and both can be fair, because they pay for very different amounts of work. Here's what UK businesses pay in 2026 by who builds the site, with sources, what keeps costing after launch, how VAT changes the comparison, and how to read a quote before you sign, ours included.

Website cost in the UK in 2026: what small businesses pay

The figures come from two UK guides: Media Village's website cost guide and Cude Design's small business website costs. They differ at the edges because “a freelancer” and “an agency” cover very different set-ups, but they agree on the middle: a proper brochure site from a UK agency sits in the low thousands.

VAT on website quotes: compare like with like

Some UK quotes include VAT and others don't, and the standard rate is 20% (GOV.UK VAT rates), so two quotes can look far apart when they aren't. A freelancer below the VAT threshold won't charge it at all (when to register). If your business is VAT-registered you can usually reclaim it, so the figure that matters is the one before VAT; if you aren't, compare the totals with VAT. Our prices are shown before VAT, which is added on the invoice.

Website builder, WordPress or bespoke: what each costs

A website builder like Wix or Squarespace

You pay a monthly plan (£10-£50/month according to Media Village) that includes hosting, choose a template and add your text. It's the cheapest in money and the dearest in time: several evenings to build it and a regular slot to keep it current. It suits you if you're just starting or the site is only a business card.

WordPress, built by you or by someone else

WordPress itself is free; you pay for the domain, the hosting and often a premium theme and plugins. Built by a freelancer or an agency, you pay for the design, the copy and the set-up, and you get a site you own and can move to another host whenever you like.

Bespoke design and development

A design made for your business with features of its own (bookings, a client area, a link to your stock system). That's where prices climb towards the top of the ranges above. A local service business rarely needs it; it pays when the site has to do something no template does.

What pushes a website quote up or down

Copy is often the slowest part, and the one that decides whether the site brings in enquiries. Speed matters as much: Google considers loading good when the main content appears within 2.5 seconds for real visitors (web.dev). And accessibility isn't optional polish: the Equality Act 2010 expects businesses serving the public to make reasonable adjustments, online too (GOV.UK guidance). Replacing an old site that still gets visits is part of the job as well; see website redesign.

What a website costs per month and per year after launch

Cheap shared hosting can make a fast site slow, and a maintenance plan is only worth what it includes: updates tested first, backups kept off the server and someone checking your form still sends. If you'd rather not deal with it, that's website maintenance.

What an online shop costs in the UK

A shop is a bigger project than a service website: a catalogue, payments, delivery rules, returns and the information UK distance-selling rules ask you to show before people pay (GOV.UK). Media Village puts ecommerce sites at £5,000-£25,000 or more. A small shop with a defined catalogue on Shopify or WooCommerce sits towards the bottom of that range, plus Shopify's monthly plan if you use it. How we build them is on ecommerce website design.

What a website quote should include

1. Every page, one by one, and who writes the copy for each.
2. What the site has to do: call and message buttons, forms, bookings, a shop.
3. Whether it's built for Google (titles, structure, speed) or only designed.
4. Whether the price includes VAT.
5. The delivery date, and whether it's in the contract or just an estimate.
6. When you pay, and what monthly or yearly costs come after launch.
7. That the domain, the site and the content are in your name.

Warning signs in a website quote

• A total with no list of pages behind it.
• Most of the price paid up front, before you've seen anything working.
• A monthly “website package” with a long tie-in and the site in the provider's name.
• No mention of copy: you'll be asked for it once the design is done, and the site waits.
• Promises of position one on Google. Nobody controls that.

If you also want ongoing work to rank higher once the site is live, that's a separate service with its own price; we set out what it costs in how much SEO costs in the UK.

How we put your website quote together

It starts with a free website audit: how your customers search, what they find today and how your current site works on a phone. In under a week you get a page-by-page plan and a fixed quote with a signed delivery date (usually about 6 weeks). You know the exact figure before deciding, and you pay nothing until everything in your proposal is live. How we price is on how we price. Fancy running the numbers first? Our free calculators are here, and there are more guides like this on the blog.