HomeWebsite costs
How much does a website cost in the UK?
From a few pounds a month for a website builder you set up yourself, to several thousand pounds for an agency. Most small businesses that hire someone pay between a few hundred and a few thousand pounds. Every figure below is a real published price, with where it came from and when I checked it.
The short answer
| Route | Up front | After that | Who owns it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website builder you set up yourself | £0, plus your time | About £30–£300 a year for the plan | You rent the platform |
| Pay-monthly website | £0–£300 | About £25–£200 a month, often on a 2–3 year term | Depends on the contract: read it |
| Freelancer or small studio | About £200–£5,000 | Sometimes a hosting or care plan, about £20–£250 a month | Usually you, but check |
| Agency | Usually £3,000 and up | Maintenance plans vary | Usually you, but check |
Ranges are drawn from the published prices below. They are a guide to the market, not quotes.
Doing it yourself: website builders
A builder is the cheapest way to get online, and for a simple site it can be enough. You pick a template, add your words and photos, and pay a plan fee for as long as the site is up.
Prices on the builders' own UK pages on 24 October 2026:
- Squarespace Basic: £12 a month paid yearly, or £16 paid monthly. A free domain for the first year on yearly plans.
- Shopify Basic (for shops): £19 a month paid yearly, or £25 paid monthly, plus 2% + 25p on each UK online card payment.
- Hostinger Website Builder: from £2.39 a month when you pay 48 months up front, renewing at £10.99 a month.
- Wix Light: £9 a month paid yearly, or £11.50 paid monthly (Wix showed our checker US dollars, so these are Expertsure's UK figures, verified August 2026).
Things the headline price leaves out: the cheapest plans often lack features a business needs, the low monthly rates usually mean paying a year or more up front, and VAT may be added at checkout. The site lives on the builder's platform, so leaving usually means rebuilding it elsewhere. The biggest cost is often your own time.
Pay-monthly websites
Someone builds the site for little or nothing up front, and you pay a monthly fee. It spreads the cost, but two things matter more than the monthly figure: how long you're tied in, and what happens to the site when you stop paying. Here is what four sellers' own pages and terms said on 24 October 2026, quoted rather than summarised:
| Seller | Price | Term | When you stop paying |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zelly | From £25 a month | No minimum term | “Your website will be taken offline.” The design and code “remains our intellectual property” (terms) |
| iWebServices | From £25 a month + £199 setup | “A 36-month minimum term applies to all packages.” | Not stated on the plans page: ask before you sign |
| Fletcher's | Basic £29 a month in year one, £45 from year two (3-year contract) | 2 or 3 years | “Pay monthly, own your site from day one”; “your code handed over professionally if you leave” |
| Pixelish | From £144 a month, care plan included | 36-month figures | “You own the site outright after 36 months.” |
Over three years: Fletcher's Basic comes to £1,428, iWebServices' starter plan to £1,099 including setup, and Pixelish's brochure site, with its care plan, to £5,184. Terms differ more than prices, so read the cancellation and ownership clauses before you compare the monthly figure.
Hiring a freelancer or small studio
On 24 October 2026 I checked the published price lists of seven UK freelancers and small studios. A one-page site started at £199. A multi-page site ran from about £450 to £4,000, and an online shop from about £900 to £5,000.
Several add a monthly hosting or care plan, from about £20 to £250 a month, and some prices are quoted before VAT, so compare what you would pay over two or three years, not just up front.
Hiring a tradesperson's site? What a trade website needs, and what it costs.
Agencies
Agencies rarely publish prices; most quote per project after a call. GoDaddy's UK guide (May 2026) puts a designer-built basic site at about £4,500. You are paying for a team, a process and usually more research, which makes sense for larger or more complex projects.
What it costs every year after launch
Whoever builds it, a website has some running costs. Prices checked 24 October 2026:
| Cost | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Domain (.co.uk) | 123 Reg: £3.99 for the first year, then £12.99 a year before VAT (about £15.59 with VAT). Cheap first years usually renew higher. |
| Hosting | Included with a builder. With a designer, it ranges from nothing to a monthly plan: ask. |
| Security certificate (the padlock) | Normally included free by builders and hosts. Worth confirming. |
| Business email | Google Workspace Business Starter: £5.90 per person a month on a yearly plan, before tax. |
| Care or maintenance | Optional with most designers, roughly £20 to £250 a month in the price lists above. |
| Shop fees | On Shopify, the plan plus 2% + 25p per UK online card payment. |
Year one, three examples
Do it yourself on Squarespace Basic
£144 for the year on the yearly plan, domain included for year one. Then £144 a year plus a domain.
Pay-monthly with Fletcher's Basic
£348 in year one, then £540 a year: £1,428 over the three-year contract.
Frontstudio's Business website
£999 once, plus your domain, about £16 a year. Optional care is £29 a month.
Arithmetic from the published prices above, before any VAT a seller adds.
What to check before you pay anyone
- Is VAT included, or added on top?
- Is the domain registered in your name, so it stays yours whatever happens?
- If you stop paying, does the site stay up, and can you take it with you?
- Is there a minimum term, and does the monthly price rise after the first year?
- Is there a hosting or care fee after launch, and is it optional?
- What does “from” leave out: pages, forms, photos, changes after launch?
- Do you see the whole site before it goes live, and is the price fixed in writing?
What Frontstudio charges
For transparency, here are my own prices, on the same terms as everything above.
- StarterOne page£499
- BusinessUp to 5 pages£999
- Business+Up to 10 pages£1,499
Online shops from £1,499, bespoke projects from £1,999. No hosting fee and nothing you have to keep paying me. Care is £29 a month if you want it, cancel any time. Anything extra is £50 an hour, agreed first. I'm not VAT registered, so these are the prices you pay. Half to begin, half before launch. Your domain is in your name and the site is yours.