How much does a website cost for a small business in 2026?

What the different routes actually cost

Broadly, four ways to get a website, and four very different bills.

DIY builders like Wix and Squarespace run from roughly £10 to £30 a month depending on plan. The real cost is your time: evenings and weekends learning a tool, wrestling templates, and ending up with something that works but looks homemade. For some businesses that's a fair trade. For most, the hours are worth more than the saving.

Template resellers commonly advertise sites from £200 to £500. What you're buying is the same template the last customer got, with your logo and colours dropped in. Quick and cheap, and it looks it. The catch usually arrives later: monthly fees that never end, and a site you discover you don't actually own when you try to leave.

Freelancers and small studios typically charge anywhere from a few hundred pounds to £3,000 depending on experience and how bespoke the work is. This is the widest range because it covers everyone from someone starting out to established one person studios. The work varies as much as the price, which is why the questions at the end of this guide matter more here than anywhere.

Agencies generally start around £3,000 and rise fast, £10,000 and beyond is normal for larger builds, often with monthly retainers on top. For a brand with a marketing team and a budget to match, that's the right tool. For a local trade or independent shop, you're paying for an office and an account manager you don't need.

What actually drives the price

Four things move the number more than anything else. Size: a five page site is less work than a fifteen page one. How bespoke the design is: a template adapted in an afternoon costs less than a design built around your business from a blank page, and it shows in the result. Features: booking systems, online payments and customer accounts all add real work. Content: if someone is writing your copy and organising your photography properly rather than pasting in whatever you send, that's skilled work inside the price.

A quote only means something when you know where it sits on those four dials. A £400 site and a £1,400 site aren't the same product at different prices, they're different products.

The costs nobody mentions up front

The one off price is half the story. Every website carries ongoing costs, and this is where cheap quotes earn their money back.

Hosting typically runs £5 to £30 a month depending on quality. Your domain is £10 to £30 a year. Maintenance, the updates, backups and fixes that keep a site healthy, is either your problem or someone's monthly fee. And template platforms charge their monthly fee forever: £25 a month is £300 a year, every year, for as long as the site exists.

The question that exposes it all: what do I own, and what happens if I stop paying? Some providers keep the domain in their name, some keep the site on their platform, and either way you can't leave without starting again. I've written a whole guide on that one because it's the most expensive surprise in this industry.

When the cheap option is genuinely right

Honesty cuts both ways, so: if you're testing an idea that might not exist next year, a £15 a month builder is the right call. If your work comes entirely from repeat customers and referrals and you truly just need an address to put on a card, a simple one pager does the job. Not every business needs what I build, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling, not advising.

The time to spend properly is when customers are actively searching for what you do, when the jobs are worth hundreds or thousands of pounds each, and when looking established is part of winning the work. Then the website isn't a cost, it's the thing that pays for itself on the first job or two it brings in.

What Local Web Studio charges, exactly

No "prices from" games: Essentials is £750, up to five pages. Signature is £1,450, up to ten, and it's what most businesses choose. Bespoke starts from £2,250 for custom builds with booking, payments and the like. Every price is fixed and agreed before any work starts, the first year of hosting is included, and you own the website, design, content and domain outright from day one. Websites start at £750, with optional care plans from £65 a month afterwards for hosting, updates and support, and you keep your site if you ever cancel. Full details are on the pricing page.

Against a builder charging £25 a month forever, or an agency quote with a comma in it, that's the middle deliberately: bespoke work at a price a small business can justify against what one new customer is worth.

Five questions to ask anyone quoting you

Whoever you're talking to, me included, ask these. Who owns the website, domain and content when it's done? The only good answer is you. What exactly is included in the price? Copy, photos, SEO basics, or just the shell. What are the ongoing costs, all of them? Hosting, domain, maintenance, platform fees. Who am I actually dealing with? The person quoting, or a production line behind them. What happens if we part ways? A clean handover should be a promise, in writing.

A good answer to all five is specific and short. Vague answers are the expensive kind.

Common questions