There are really four ways a small business gets a website, and they sit at very different price points. Knowing which one you're actually buying is most of the battle.
The four routes — and what each costs in 2026
- DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace): ~£100–£300 a year, forever. You build and maintain it yourself.
- Budget / template designer: £69–£250 one-off. Fast and cheap — usually a shared template, often offshore.
- Freelancer: £800–£3,000 for a custom small-business site; most 4–5 page builds land around £1,200–£2,000.
- Design agency: from around £4,000, up to £15,000+ for larger projects.
- On top of any of these: budget £100–£300 a year for domain, hosting and maintenance — unless they're bundled in.
The DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy) looks cheapest because the monthly is small. But you're renting indefinitely, you're building it in your evenings, and the moment you stop paying it goes offline. Over a few years the "cheap" option quietly becomes one of the dearer ones — and it's your time being spent.
The budget designer at £69–£250 gets you online fast. The catch is what's underneath: a template thousands of others share, often slow, rarely set up properly for local or AI search, and frequently built abroad with little aftercare. Fine if you just need a placeholder; rarely the thing that brings in customers.
The freelancer is where most small independents land, and for good reason. You get a custom site, you talk directly to the person building it, and you skip the agency overhead. £1,200–£2,000 is typical for a proper few-page site — more if there's branding, a shop or booking system, less if it's simple.
The agency earns its £4,000+ on large, complex projects with multiple stakeholders. For a café, salon or small advice firm, you're mostly paying for account managers and overheads you don't need. (I've written the honest, side-by-side version of that here: freelancer vs agency vs DIY.)
What actually drives the price
Two "5-page websites" can be hundreds of pounds apart, because the number of pages is one of the smaller factors. What really moves it:
Custom vs template. A design built around your business costs more than a theme with your logo dropped in — and looks and performs like it. Copywriting. Words that actually sell take time; if you write them, you save money. Branding. A logo and identity from scratch is its own piece of work. Integrations. A booking system, an online shop, a members' area or custom forms add scope. Search setup. Proper local SEO and AI-readiness baked in from launch is worth paying for — it's the difference between a website and a website that gets found.
"The cheapest website to buy is rarely the cheapest to own. A £69 template that doesn't bring in customers costs you every single month it sits there."
The ongoing costs nobody mentions
The build price is only half the picture. Every website needs a domain (around £10–£15 a year) and hosting, plus a bit of maintenance to stay secure and current. With a DIY builder, that's your monthly subscription — forever. With most freelancers and agencies, budget £100–£300 a year on top, and always ask what happens if you want a change later.
This is the bit worth pinning down before you sign anything. "How much to build?" is the easy question. "What will it cost me every year after that, and what happens when I need to change something?" is the one that protects you from surprises.
So what's a fair price for a small business?
For most UK independents, a proper custom website is a low-thousands one-off — and the honest way to judge it is against the alternative: years of subscription fees plus your own time wrestling a builder, or a cheap template that never quite brings the customers in. Spending a bit more once, on something built to actually work and be found, usually pays for itself faster than the "cheap" routes do.
That said — if all you genuinely need is a one-page placeholder, don't let anyone talk you into a £5,000 project. A good designer will tell you when the simpler, cheaper option is the right one. (If they won't, that tells you something too.)
How I price it
Every project is quoted individually, fixed-price, agreed upfront after a quick chat — no day-rate meter running, no surprise extras. The build is a one-off: I custom-build it, then host and look after it for you, so you never wrestle an editor or get a surprise renewal email. The only ongoing costs are your domain's annual renewal and an optional care plan from £29/month if you'd like me on hand for changes — entirely your call. No agency overhead, no monthly platform fee, no lock-in.
If you want a feel for what your project might involve, have a look at how I work with small businesses, or just tell me what you're after and I'll come back with an honest number.
The bottom line
A small business website in the UK can cost anything from £69 to £15,000 — but for most independents, the sensible custom option sits in the low thousands, one-off, with modest costs after. Don't shop on price alone. Shop on which option will actually bring in enough customers to pay for itself — because that's the only number that really matters.