Ask five different people what a small business website costs and you will get five wildly different answers. Somewhere between "my nephew did one for a hundred quid" and "the agency quoted me eight thousand" lies the truth — and it depends entirely on who builds it and how.
Here is an honest breakdown of what a small business website actually costs in the UK in 2026, and where the hidden fees tend to hide.
Option 1: DIY builders (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy)
The headline prices look tempting. Wix is £13 a month. Squarespace starts at £14. GoDaddy will sell you a site for less. On paper, it is the cheapest route.
In practice, the cost adds up. By the time you have paid for a premium plan (needed to remove the builder's branding), a custom domain, the premium template, and any add-ons like a contact form that actually works, you are easily looking at £250 to £400 in the first year — and the same again every year after, forever.
You also pay in time. A sole trader who values their hours at £30 is burning a lot of billable time fighting a page builder. Most of the DIY sites we see end up looking like they were built by someone who would rather be doing actual plumbing.
True cost over 3 years: £750 to £1,200, plus your weekends.
Option 2: Freelancer (Fiverr, Upwork, a friend of a friend)
A UK-based freelance web designer will typically charge between £500 and £2,000 for a small business site. Overseas freelancers are cheaper but communication, time zones, and ongoing support can become a problem fast.
The quality varies enormously. A good local freelancer is a brilliant option — but you need to vet them. Ask to see three recent sites, get a clear written brief, and insist on a fixed price. Watch for "I will just do a basic WordPress template" — that often becomes your problem to maintain later.
True cost: £500–£2,000 build, plus hosting (£8–£20/mo) and any changes billed hourly.
Option 3: Agency
A proper agency website starts around £2,000 and runs to £10,000 or more. You get strategy, design, copywriting, development, SEO, project management — the works. For a business doing six figures plus, it is often worth it.
For a sole trader plumber in Crawley? It is overkill. You are paying for the agency's office, their account managers, and their margin — not for anything that actually helps you win more jobs.
True cost: £2,000–£10,000+ build, plus ongoing retainers typically £200–£1,000/month.
Option 4: The PageLaunch approach
We built PageLaunch to fill the gap between "cheap and rubbish" and "beautiful but unaffordable".
- Starter £120 — single-page site for sole traders
- Growth £240 — up to 5 pages for growing businesses
- Pro £480 — up to 10 pages with full SEO
All of these are one-off build costs. Hosting is an optional £4.99 a month if you want us to handle it. The maths is simple and there is no retainer. Over three years, a Growth site plus basic hosting comes in around £420 total — less than a single year with most agencies.
The hidden costs nobody warns you about
Whoever you end up with, watch for these:
- Domain renewal. £10–£15 a year. Easy to forget and painful when your domain expires.
- SSL certificates. Should be free (Let's Encrypt). If someone charges you for one, find someone else.
- Stock photography. Some builders add this per image. It mounts up fast.
- Email hosting. Often sold separately. Google Workspace is £5 a user a month; worth it for a proper business email.
- "Maintenance" retainers. Agencies love these. Ask what is actually included — sometimes it is just hosting plus the occasional tweak.
- Ownership. Does the contract say you own the files? If not, moving host later becomes a nightmare.
So what should you actually pay?
For a typical UK sole trader or small business, a fair all-in cost looks like this in 2026:
- One-off build: £120–£500
- Hosting: £5–£15 a month
- Domain: £10–£15 a year
- Email: optional, £5/user/month
Anything significantly above that, for a small business site, and you should be asking hard questions about what the extra money is buying.
If you want a straight answer for your specific business, tell us about it and we will send you a fixed quote the same day. No sales pitch, no obligation.