How much does a website cost?
There is no list price for a website, and anyone quoting one before they have asked about your business is guessing. What follows is what actually moves the number, and the ranges you should expect to see.
The honest answer is that a website costs whatever the work in it costs, and the work varies enormously. A five-page site for a plumber and a five-page site for a law firm with a case-study library are the same page count and nowhere near the same job.
That said, "it depends" is a useless answer if you are trying to budget. So here is the shape of the market.
| Type of site | Typical range | What is usually included |
|---|---|---|
| Single landing page | £500 – £2,000 $650 – $2,500 | One page, one goal, a form. Often for a campaign or a product launch. |
| Small business site (4–8 pages) | £1,500 – £6,000 $2,000 – $7,500 | Home, services, about, contact. A content editor so you can make changes. |
| Larger brochure site (10–25 pages) | £5,000 – £15,000 $6,500 – $18,000 | Multiple service areas, a blog, more custom layouts. |
| Ecommerce | £4,000 – £25,000+ $5,000 – $30,000+ | Products, checkout, tax and shipping rules, payment setup. |
| Custom web application | £20,000+ $25,000+ | Accounts, dashboards, anything with logic behind it. |
These are market ranges, not our prices. We quote each project individually and put one fixed figure in writing. Any range this wide is a starting point for a conversation, not a price list.
What actually drives the price
Three things account for most of the variation between quotes.
1. How much custom design work there is
This is the biggest driver, and the one most people underestimate. A site built on a proven layout with your content and branding dropped in is a fundamentally different job from one where every section is designed from scratch. The difference between those two is often the difference between £2,000 and £8,000 for the same page count.
2. Page count, but less than you think
Pages are not linear. The first page is expensive because it establishes the design system. Pages six through twelve are cheap because they reuse it. This is why going from four pages to eight rarely doubles the price, and why a designer who quotes strictly per page is not thinking about the work properly.
3. Anything that talks to another system
A booking system, a CRM, an inventory feed, a payment provider. Each integration is a small project of its own: it has to be configured, tested, and handled when it fails. Two integrations can add more to a quote than four extra pages.
What barely matters
The platform. WordPress, Webflow, Shopify and Squarespace all get quoted at broadly similar rates for equivalent work. Designers who claim one is dramatically cheaper are usually describing a difference in how much they customise it, not a difference in the tool.
Why quotes for the same job differ so much
If you send the same brief to five designers you will get five very different numbers. That is not because some are ripping you off. It is usually because they have each imagined a different project.
- Different assumptions about content. One assumes you supply finished copy and images. Another has priced in writing it for you. That gap alone can be thousands.
- Different assumptions about revisions. "Two rounds" and "until you are happy" are wildly different commercial positions.
- Different assumptions about scope. Does the quote include setting up hosting? Migrating old content? Training you to use it? SEO basics?
- Genuinely different levels of craft. Some of the gap is real. A more experienced designer works faster and makes fewer expensive mistakes.
The fix is not to collect more quotes. It is to make every designer quote the same scope, in writing, so you are comparing like with like.
What a quote should tell you before you agree to it
Whoever you hire, insist on these in writing before any money moves. If a designer will not put them in writing, that is your answer.
- One fixed figure for a defined scope, not a day rate with an open end.
- What the price does not cover. The exclusions matter more than the inclusions.
- A launch date, and what happens to it if you are late supplying content.
- How many revision rounds are included, and what a round means.
- Who owns the finished work — the design files, the domain, the hosting account.
- What happens after launch if something breaks, and for how long that is free.
The single most common cause of a project going wrong is not a bad designer. It is a scope that was never written down, so both sides remembered it differently three weeks in.
Ongoing costs people forget
The build price is not the whole cost of owning a website. Budget for these separately.
| Item | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | £10 – £40 / year | Should be registered in your name, not your designer's. |
| Hosting | £60 – £400 / year | Ecommerce and high-traffic sites sit at the top of this. |
| SSL certificate | Usually free | Included with most hosting. Be wary of anyone charging much for it. |
| Premium plugins or themes | £0 – £500 / year | Ask which are needed and who pays for renewals. |
| Maintenance | £0 – £150 / month | Optional. Updates, backups, security patches. |
None of these are large individually, but a designer who never mentions them is leaving you to discover them at renewal time.
Common questions
01Why will no one give me a price on their website?
Because a website is not a product with a fixed specification. The same brief can be a two-week job or a two-month one depending on how much custom design, content work and integration is involved. A published price is either a starting figure that will move, or a fixed package that may not fit what you actually need. What you should insist on instead is a fixed price in writing before work begins.
02Is a cheap website always a bad idea?
No. A £900 site built on a proven layout can be exactly right for a small local business that needs to look credible and be found. The risk with very cheap work is not usually quality, it is what is missing: no written scope, no ownership of the files, no support after launch. Ask what is excluded before you judge the price.
03Should I pay a deposit?
A deposit is normal and reasonable. Somewhere between 25% and 50% up front is standard. What is not normal is paying the full amount before work starts, or having no written agreement about what the deposit buys and what happens if the project stops.
04Does the platform change the price much?
Less than most people expect. WordPress, Webflow, Shopify and Squarespace all get quoted at broadly similar rates for equivalent work. What changes the price is how much of the design is custom and how many systems it connects to.
05How much should I budget for a small business website?
For a four to eight page site with a content editor, most UK small businesses should expect somewhere between £1,500 and £6,000, and most US businesses between $2,000 and $7,500. Below that range you are usually buying a template with your content in it, which is a legitimate choice but a different product.
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