If you’ve started asking around about a new website, you’ve probably had wildly different answers — £200 from someone on a marketplace, £15,000 from an agency, and everything in between. Both can be “a website”. Neither tells you what you should expect to pay.
Here’s an honest breakdown of what a small business website costs in the UK in 2026, and — more usefully — what actually moves the number.
The short answer
For a professional, custom-built small business website you should budget roughly:
- One-page site: £500–£1,000
- Full multi-page website (4–8 pages): £1,000–£3,000
- Bespoke build (e-commerce, web apps, integrations): £2,000+
These are build costs. Ongoing hosting, maintenance and marketing are separate — usually a small monthly retainer rather than a one-off.
What actually drives the price
The page count matters far less than people think. What really moves the cost is:
Custom design vs templates
A templated site is cheap because the design work is already done — but so is everyone else’s. Custom design costs more because someone is making decisions specifically about your customers, your market and your goals. That’s what makes a site convert rather than just exist.
How the site is built
A page-builder (think drag-and-drop) is fast to throw together but tends to be slow, bloated and awkward to maintain. A custom-coded site costs more upfront but loads faster, ranks better and is cheaper to live with over time.
Strategy and content
The build is the easy part. The expensive, valuable part is the thinking before it — who the site is for, what it needs to say, and how it guides someone toward getting in touch. If copy and strategy are included, expect to pay more (and get a site that actually works).
What you shouldn’t pay for
- Ransom hosting — being locked into a host you can’t leave without losing your site.
- Per-change fees for tiny edits, with no way to update content yourself.
- “SEO packages” with no reporting that shows what you’re actually getting.
So what’s right for you?
If you’re a sole trader who just needs to look credible and capture leads, a one-page site is plenty. If you’re an established business competing for search traffic, a full site with proper SEO groundwork pays for itself. And if you’ve got bigger ambitions — selling online, custom tooling — that’s a bespoke conversation.
Not sure where you sit? Get a free, no-obligation site audit and I’ll tell you honestly what you do and don’t need.
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