There is no single price for a small business website in the UK. You can pay a few pounds a month for a do-it-yourself builder, or tens of thousands for a bespoke agency build. What matters is what you actually get for the money, and whether you own it at the end.
The short answer
These are the typical ranges quoted in recent UK cost guides, including Kwiboo's 2026 breakdown and Startups.co.uk's guide. Treat them as a guide, not a quote.
- DIY website builder: roughly £12 to £20 a month for a typical plan, though plans across the market run from under £2 to over £250 a month. Prices are usually shown before VAT.
- Freelancer: around £500 to £1,500 for a five-page brochure site, and £1,000 to £3,000 for a site of five to ten pages.
- Agency: around £3,000 to £12,000 for a brochure site, and more again with London agencies.
- Ready-made template with set-up: our Template Only package starts at £500, and Template + Branding at £1,000.
What pushes the price up or down
Four things drive most of the difference between a cheap site and an expensive one:
- Custom or ready-made design. A bespoke design means a designer starts from a blank page. A good template gives you a finished, tested design to adapt, which is why it costs far less.
- Number of pages. Five pages is a different job from fifty. See what pages a small business website needs before you commit to a number.
- Features. Online booking, a shop with a basket, customer accounts and integrations all add cost, because someone has to build and test them.
- Content. Writing, photography and branding are separate jobs. If you supply them, you pay less. If you need them created, you pay more.
The costs people forget
The build price is not the whole bill. Startups.co.uk's guide lists the running costs that catch people out, including domain names (roughly £8 to £20 or more a year), hosting (roughly £20 to £300 or more a year), plug-ins and apps, security, and ongoing updates. If a quote does not say who pays for these, ask.
Also check whether the quoted price includes VAT. Many builder prices are shown before VAT, which adds 20% to the bill. If you are VAT-registered you can usually reclaim it, but if you are not, it is a real cost.
Renting versus owning
A builder subscription looks cheap each month, but you are renting the site. Stop paying and it disappears. Over three to five years the subscription can cost more than a one-off build, and you still own nothing. We wrote more about this in why you should own your website instead of renting it.
What you get with Cheapwebsitestore
Our prices are fixed, so you know the cost before you start:
- Template Only, from £500. The template files are emailed to you within 24 hours, so you can build the site yourself if you have some technical knowledge.
- Template + Branding, from £1,000. You give us your logo, fonts, colours and style and we set it up for you.
- Custom Order. For bespoke requirements, quoted individually.
- Support services. Optional monthly care, analytics and SEO help. They can be cancelled at any time.
Our instant quote tool builds an estimate for exactly what you need, and adds 10% off your one-off set-up costs when you choose two or more set-up add-ons. Some add-ons use third-party tools such as Swell, Stripe, Cal.com or Beds24, whose own fees are billed separately by those providers. We explain which ones apply on your onboarding call.
Questions to ask before you buy
- What exactly is included, and what costs extra?
- Do I own the site and its files if I stop paying?
- What will I pay every month or year after it launches?
- How long will it take, and what do you need from me?
- Can I change things later without paying a developer?
The bottom line
For most small businesses, a good template with proper set-up is the best value: a professional result at a fraction of the cost of a bespoke build, and you keep the site. If you need something truly unique, a freelancer or agency makes sense, but you should go in knowing the ranges above.