Guide
What a website costs in the UK
Harrowtech.ai · last checked 13 October 2026
Four UK price guides put a freelance-built small business website at £500 to £4,000. For an agency brochure site outside London, three of them give figures between £2,500 and £12,000, and the fourth puts web studios at £3,000 to £25,000+. Two put a website builder at up to about £50 a month. This page shows what each guide says, what moves the price, the costs after launch, and our own prices, from £950.
What the market charges, guide by guide
The four guides are linked at the bottom with their dates. They disagree, and each is written by a firm that sells websites or advice on them, so treat them as a rough guide.
| Kwiboo (22 January 2026) | Builder: from about £12 to £20 a month. Freelancer: £500 to £1,500 for a basic five-page brochure site, £1,000 to £3,000 for five to ten pages. Agency brochure site: about £3,000 to £12,000, and £8,000 to £25,000 from a London agency. Shop: £2,000 to £5,000 for a standard WooCommerce build from a freelancer; £5,000 to £15,000 from most agencies, and £12,000 to £40,000 for complex custom work. |
|---|---|
| Mapletree Studio (19 June 2026) | Builder: free to around £50 a month. Freelancer: £500 to £4,000. Web studio: £3,000 to £25,000+. Full-service digital agency: £15,000 to £100,000+. |
| Spotdev (2026 bands; page dated 4 August 2021) | Builder: about £100 to £300 a year. Freelancer: about £500 to £4,000 for a basic five to ten page brochure site. Regional or small agency: about £2,500 to £10,000, with some London agencies quoting £6,000 to £20,000 or more for a small brochure site. Shop: commonly £5,000 to £40,000. |
| Whito (last updated 12 October 2026) | Builder: £10 to £50 a month. Freelancer, five-page brochure site: £1,500 to £3,000. Agency, five-page brochure site: £3,000 to £5,000. Custom business site of 15 or more pages: £5,000 to £15,000. Shop: £5,000 to £20,000+. |
Whito adds that most UK small businesses pay £3,000 to £6,000 for a professionally built site, and that hidden costs such as copywriting, photography and SEO typically add 30 to 50% to the quoted price. It also notes its prices exclude VAT: most freelancers under the VAT threshold will not charge it, and agencies almost always will. Kwiboo says most website builders show prices before VAT.
What pushes the price up or down
- Pages and templates. Whito says each extra page typically adds £150 to £400. Spotdev says the number of unique templates, more than the raw page count, drives the effort.
- Who writes the words. Whito says most web designers expect you to supply the content, and puts copywriting at £50 to £150 a page if you hire it in.
- Custom design or a template. Whito says a bespoke design costs significantly more than a customised template.
- Features. Mapletree lists booking systems, price calculators, third-party integrations and membership areas as adding cost.
- Redesign or new build. Mapletree says moving an existing site involves redirect mapping, search continuity work and content audits, so it is priced as its own type of project.
- Location. The guides disagree on the London premium: Spotdev says London charges 20 to 40% more than regional pricing, Whito says a freelancer in Manchester, Leeds or Bristol typically charges 20 to 30% less than one in London and the South East, and Kwiboo says London agencies charge 65% to 280% more than regional ones.
Costs after launch
Kwiboo says to budget £500 to £2,500 a year in ongoing costs for a typical small business site. Whito puts hosting, maintenance and updates at £500 to £2,000 a year, and Spotdev puts typical running costs at about £50 to £300 a month. Ask any designer whether there is a monthly fee, and who owns the site and the domain.
Our prices
| Five-page website redo | From £950 |
|---|---|
| New five-page website | From £2,500 |
| Premium websites | From £4,500 |
| 3D websites | From £7,000 |
| Cinematic websites | From £9,000 |
Each is a starting point, and the price is fixed in writing before work begins. The £950 redo covers the site you already have: five pages, with the words written for you. There is no monthly fee from us, and hosting is billed to you directly, with no mark-up. A first project under £3,000 needs no deposit: you pay once you have seen it and signed it off. Payment stages for bigger jobs, the 90-day fix and our hourly rate are set out on our website design company page.
Sites we have built include christinahutchings.uk and the website and app for Jo’s calorie counter.
Questions
Can a good website really cost £950?
Yes, for a five-page redesign of the site you already have, with the words written for you. A brand new five-page website starts from £2,500. See the pricing on our home page.
Why do the guides disagree so much?
They define the routes differently. Kwiboo and Spotdev give freelancer ranges for five to ten pages, Whito prices a five-page site only, and Mapletree says its studio range of £3,000 to £25,000+ is wide because scope matters so much. Compare like with like: the same number of pages, the same features and the same help after launch.
Related: website design templates or a custom design · website design in the UK: a small business buyer’s guide · website launch checklist · all Harrowtech.ai guides
Sources for the market figures
- Kwiboo: How much does a website cost in the UK? A 2026 breakdown, read 13 October 2026
- Mapletree Studio: How much does a website cost in the UK in 2026?, read 13 October 2026
- Spotdev: What is the average cost of website design in the UK?, read 13 October 2026
- Whito: Website design costs UK 2026, read 13 October 2026
- Jo’s calorie counter (its own description), read 13 October 2026