Website pricing in the UK is all over the place. You can spend £200 on a Squarespace subscription or £15,000 with a London agency, and both will claim to give you a professional result. So what does a small business actually need, and what should it cost?
Here's an honest breakdown, from the cheapest options to the most expensive, along with our take on when each one makes sense.
Option 1: DIY Website Builders (£200–£500/year)
Platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify let you build a site yourself using drag-and-drop templates. They're cheap, fast to set up, and require no technical knowledge.
What you get: A decent-looking site, basic hosting, and a free subdomain (yoursite.wix.com) unless you pay for a custom domain.
What you don't get: A truly custom design, proper SEO control, fast load speeds, or anything that looks significantly different from thousands of other sites using the same template.
DIY builders are a valid starting point if you have no budget at all, but most business owners underestimate how long it takes to build something that actually looks good. And once you factor in your time, the cost isn't as low as it appears.
Option 2: Freelance Web Designer (£600–£3,000)
A UK freelance web designer typically charges between £600 and £3,000 for a straightforward small business site, usually 4–6 pages.
What you get: A custom design built around your brand, someone to handle the technical setup, and a site that actually reflects your business.
What to watch for: Freelancers vary wildly in quality. Check their portfolio carefully. Also confirm what's included, many charge separately for hosting, domain registration, and ongoing maintenance, which can add £200–£400/year on top.
Option 3: Small Agency (£900–£5,000)
Small marketing agencies, like us, typically sit between a freelancer and a big agency in both price and service. You can request a proper content managment system so you can handle your own updates, alongside a proper team, and, for that price, services bundled together (SEO, domain setup, photography) that a solo freelancer wouldn't offer.
At Marketing Handled, we don't publish a fixed price because every business is different. But we work with small business budgets and build plans around what you're working with, not the other way around.
Option 4: Big Agency (£2,500–£10,000+)
UK web design agencies typically charge £2,500–£10,000 for a standard small business website. London agencies can charge significantly more. You're paying for their overhead, their account managers, their project management software, and their brand, not necessarily a better website.
For most small businesses, an agency at this price point is overkill. The extra cost doesn't translate to proportionally better results.
What Does Ongoing Maintenance Cost?
This is where many business owners get caught out. A website isn't a one-off purchase, it needs hosting, security updates, occasional tweaks, and domain renewal every year.
- Domain name: £10–£25/year
- Hosting: £15–£200/month (varies hugely)
- Maintenance: £0 if you DIY, or £50–£150/month with a managed service
- SSL certificate: Usually free with good hosting
At Marketing Handled, if it suits your needs we offer hosting and maintenance at competetive rates. So we can build you a site, hand it over and you can handle it yourself or we can handle all the technical stuff and you're not left trying to fix things yourself when something breaks.
So What's the Right Budget?
For most UK small businesses, a realistic budget for a professional, lead-generating website is £900–£3,000 to build, plus ongoing maintenance costs.
At Marketing Handled we know not all businesses need a complex website, therefore we can offer cheaper prices which come with a more simplified design, less pages, and basic SEO.
The most important thing isn't how much you spend, it's making sure you get a website that actually works for your business.
What About SEO?
A website without SEO is like a shop without a sign. Make sure whoever builds your site includes at least basic on-page SEO, proper page titles, meta descriptions, clean URL structure, fast load speeds, and a Google Business Profile setup. These aren't extras; they're essentials.
If you want to learn more about how local SEO works, read our guide: What Is Local SEO? A Plain-English Guide for Small Businesses.
The Bottom Line
Don't go with the cheapest option just because it's cheap, and don't assume the most expensive agency will deliver the best results. Look at their portfolio, ask what's included, and make sure they understand small businesses, not just web design.
If you'd like to know what a website would cost for your specific business, get in touch. Tell us what you're after and we'll put together a clear, no-surprises quote.