The short answer
| Route | Typical upfront cost | Typical ongoing cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY website builder (Wix, Squarespace, Shopify basic) | £0, plus your time | Roughly £10 to £40 a month for the plan | Testing an idea, very tight budgets, people who enjoy tinkering |
| Freelancer using a template | Roughly £400 to £1,000 | Hosting, plus paying for changes | A simple brochure site, fast |
| Small studio, custom design | Roughly £1,000 to £5,000 | Optional care plan | Most small businesses that want to look established and be found |
| Agency | £5,000 to £25,000 and up | Retainers are common | Larger firms, complex systems, big marketing teams |
Those ranges come from prices that UK designers publish openly. Among Manchester-area designers we looked at in 2026, published starting prices ran from about £499 for a basic one-page site to £999, £2,499 and £4,999 tiers for larger custom builds. Treat every figure here as a guide, not a quote.
What actually changes the price
- Number of pages and templates. A one-page site is far less work than twelve pages with five different layouts.
- Custom design or template. Designing from scratch takes longer, but it is the difference between looking like you and looking like everyone else.
- Who writes the words. If you supply the copy and photos, the price goes down. Copywriting and photography are often the hidden cost.
- Features. Booking, online payments, a shop, a members area or links to other systems all add time.
- An online shop. E-commerce usually starts at a few thousand pounds, because products, payments, delivery and stock all need setting up properly.
- SEO set-up. A good designer includes the basics: page titles, local schema, Search Console and a fast site. Ongoing SEO is a separate, monthly job.
The running costs nobody mentions
- Domain name: roughly £10 to £20 a year for a .co.uk or .com.
- Hosting: from free (for simple static sites) to £10 to £50 a month for managed WordPress or Shopify.
- Email: Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 is around £5 to £10 per person per month.
- Apps and plugins: booking tools, review widgets and Shopify apps quietly add up. Ask what you will be paying for each month.
- Changes: some designers charge by the hour for every edit, so ask how changes are handled after launch.
Is a DIY builder cheaper in the long run?
Sometimes. If your time is cheap and your needs are simple, a builder is a perfectly good start. The catch is that the monthly fee never ends, you rarely own the site outright, and the hours you spend fiddling with it are hours not spent on paid work. We go through it properly in Wix vs Squarespace vs a web designer.
How to tell if a quote is fair
- Is it a fixed fee? Open-ended hourly quotes are where budgets go to die.
- Does it say what is included? Pages, rounds of changes, copy, SEO basics and training should all be written down.
- Who owns the site and domain? It should be you. Walk away from anyone who keeps the domain in their own name.
- What happens after launch? Can you edit it yourself? Is there a lock-in contract?
- Can you see real work? Look at sites they have built, on your phone, and check how fast they load.
What we charge
We are a two-founder studio doing custom design, priced well below typical studio rates because we keep overheads low. Every project is a fixed fee agreed before we start: sites of 1 to 3 pages (The Spark) are £250 to £1,000, bigger new sites or redesigns (The Glow-Up) £1,000 to £2,500, and full multi-page sites (The Spotlight) £2,500+. You own the site, and there is no lock-in. Our optional care plans, covering hosting, backups, updates, edits and SEO, are £59, £129 or £189 a month, rolling, cancel any time. See our pricing page, or tell us what you need and we will send a written quote, usually within one working day.
Questions people ask us
How much does a basic website cost in the UK?
A basic one-page website typically costs from a few hundred pounds with a freelancer using a template, to around £1,000 or more for a custom design from a small studio. DIY builders cost roughly £10 to £40 a month instead.
How much does a small business website cost per month?
Expect a domain at roughly £10 to £20 a year, hosting from free to around £50 a month, and optional care or maintenance plans. Ours are £59, £129 or £189 a month and can be cancelled any time.
Is it worth paying a web designer instead of using Wix?
If you want a site that looks distinctive, loads fast, ranks locally and that you do not have to maintain yourself, usually yes. If you are testing an idea on a tight budget, a builder can be the right first step.
Why do agency quotes vary so much?
Agencies price in account managers, strategy workshops and overheads. For most small businesses, a small studio or a skilled freelancer delivers the same core website for far less.