It’s one of the first questions any business asks, and can be one of the hardest to answer. We’d suggest prices starting from £1,300+VAT for smaller, service industry sites, from £2,500+VAT for ones requiring more content or functionality, through to prices from £5,000+VAT for a large site or one which requires a lot of functionality. With that said, every project we work on is quoted individually in order to ensure we deliver precisely what you need, so these figures are starting points, not the final answer . Contact us now for a no-obligations quote or read on to learn a bit more.
Why don’t you used fixed-cost packages?
In our experience, websites which are offered in pre-built packages only end up causing more problems than they solve, inevitably forcing you to fit a square peg into a round hole and leaving you with issues which cost you more to resolve in the long run.
A five-page site for a local tradesperson and a membership platform with user accounts and custom logic both require significantly different amounts of work. Anyone quoting you a single flat number without first clarifying exactly what you need is either guessing or cutting corners.
What we can do is set out the ranges we typically work within, and what moves a project from one end to the other.
What determines the price?
There are generally three factors which drive most of the cost variation we see:
- Page or item count
More pages, more products, more content to structure and design around. - Additionally-required functionality and integrations
The more work your site needs to do for you, the more development is required to put that in place and test. A enquiry form may be simple but a booking system which needs to integrate with a third-party calendar or a site which requires users to login to access additional content requires more effort. - The importance of search rank and AI
If search or AI visibility matters to you then additional time is required to properly develop content and content structure to ensure optimal appeal and additional functionality such as a blog may be required to support it.
Ballpark pricing tiers
From £1,300+VAT — straightforward, service-industry sites: home, about, services, contact. Content that doesn’t change often, no complex functionality.
From £2,500+VAT — sites needing more content or more nuanced functionality: detailed enquiry or application forms, event listings, more involved page structures.
From £5,000+VAT — larger sites, whether that means a lot of content or significant custom-built functionality, such as membership sites or bespoke features built specifically for your business.
These are starting points for each tier, not fixed packages. We quote every project individually once we understand what you actually need, and can adjust figures to accommodate budgets and expectations.
The dangers of cheap website offers
If you’ve been browsing for costs, you will likely see websites advertised for a few hundred pounds and they offer a tempting solution particularly if budget is tight.
But before you consider such an option, consider the following questions about what you might be given:
- Is it a pre-built theme with your logo dropped in and your content jammed into whatever space is available?
- Do they just take whatever content you provide without any thought to if it’s achieving your site goals or whether it’s positioning your site against those of competitors?
- Do they use the same boring stock imagery as everyone else or does the imagery even make sense for your site?
- Is it properly structured for search engines and LLMs, or even just for those with visual impairment?
- Has any effort been put in to ensure the site loads quickly and thus doesn’t impact user experience or search engine appeal?
As covered in more detail in our related insight “Do you really just need a simple website?”, a site which merely exists isn’t the same as a site which achieves your goals. A cheap build can still leave you with slow load times, a poor experience on mobile, or content that doesn’t say what your business does or convince anyone to get in touch.
Over the years we’ve redeveloped many websites because their original incarnations were buggy and unprofessional or because they were restricting updates and developments. In the end it often ended up costing clients more than if they had just had the site properly built in the first place.
Whilst budget genuinely does matter in terms of what you can expect from your site, we understand that not everyone can spend several thousand pounds. But there’s a meaningful difference between a site built to a budget and one built to a price with nothing else considered. If the cheapest option looks too good to be true, it probably is.
The real cost tends to show up later, in enquiries you don’t get or a rebuild you didn’t plan for.
How we price and how payment works
We quote every project individually, based on your specific requirements, rather than working from fixed packages but we are always fully transparent at all stages. Once we understand what you need, we’ll give you a clear project-based quote.
Our standard terms are a 30% deposit to begin development, with the remaining 70% plus any agreed extras invoiced once development is complete. We can be flexible around this where needed, so talk to us if a different structure would suit you better.
The build is the start, not the end
A website isn’t a one-off purchase you can forget about. The best-performing sites are the ones that are properly maintained and continue to develop as your business’s needs change. Not every site needs a huge amount of ongoing management, but keeping it safe, secure, performant and stable is essential to it doing its job.
Find out more about how we handle this on our Website Management Service page.
Common questions
Because “a website” covers everything from a five-page brochure site to a custom platform with user accounts, and the amount of work involved varies enormously. We give ranges so you have a starting point, then quote properly once we understand your actual requirements.
Not necessarily bad, but worth questioning. Ask what you get in return – properly thought-through design and content which fits your needs or a template with minimal changes?
A very cheap site can still work if your site goals are minimal but it’s unlikely to be built to convert visitors or grow with your business.
Yes, hosting and some level of ongoing care are part of running any website, in the same way you’d budget for the upkeep of any other business asset. How much depends on the individual site but we’ll talk you through what’s needed once we understand your project.
Simply call us or get in touch and tell us what you need, and we’ll give you a proper, transparent quote based on your specific requirements rather than a generic package price.
