How Much Should a Website Cost for a Business in the UK?
The honest breakdown — one-off build, DIY builder, or fully managed monthly
Why website pricing is so confusing
The website industry has a pricing problem. There's no standard. A freelancer in their first year might charge £500 for a site that a senior agency charges £10,000 for. Both might produce broadly similar-looking results — at least initially.
What you're really paying for isn't just the design. It's the strategy, the ongoing management, the hosting reliability, the security, and whether anyone will be there six months later when something breaks or you need to make a change.
To make sense of it, you need to separate the cost of building a website from the cost of running one. Most people focus entirely on the former and get surprised by the latter.
The one-off build: what you actually pay
A one-off website build from a freelancer or small agency typically costs between £1,500 and £8,000 for a business website. What you get for that varies enormously, but the core issue isn't the upfront cost — it's what happens afterwards.
Once your site is built, you still need to pay for hosting (typically £25—£40/month for something fast and reliable), domain renewal (£20—£50/year), and any ongoing maintenance. If anything breaks — a plugin update, a form that stops working, a security vulnerability — you're either calling your developer back at their day rate, or you're on your own.
Small updates — changing your opening hours, adding a new team member, updating a price — often require going back to whoever built the site, which costs time and sometimes money. Many businesses end up with an out-of-date website simply because making changes is too much hassle.
DIY builders: the real cost of "free"
Platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and similar tools advertise free or very cheap plans. The reality is that a plan capable of running a credible business website — with your own domain, no platform branding, and enough features — typically costs £15—£35/month.
That's not unreasonable. What gets expensive is your time. Building a website yourself takes longer than most people expect, and the result often looks like it was built by someone who isn't a designer — because it was. First impressions matter enormously online, and a template that hasn't been properly customised rarely inspires the confidence that converts a visitor into a customer.
Beyond the build, you're responsible for everything: keeping content current, monitoring performance, resolving any issues. For a business owner who's already stretched, this is often the task that quietly falls to the bottom of the list.
The monthly managed model: one fixed monthly fee
A third option — one that's become increasingly popular for established businesses — is a fully managed monthly subscription. Rather than paying a lump sum upfront and then figuring out the ongoing costs separately, you pay one fixed monthly fee that covers the build, hosting, security, support, and ongoing updates.
At Softy, our managed website service starts at £249+vat/month with no setup fee. That includes a professionally built, mobile-first website on fast managed hosting, with security, backups, and ongoing updates and improvements included — no per-change charges.
Once hosting, maintenance, and the cost of your own time are included, the monthly model typically works out cheaper from the start — not just over time. More importantly, you always have someone responsible for your website — you're never left holding a broken site with nobody to call.
Which option is right for your business?
If you have a large, complex requirement — bespoke functionality, custom integrations, or a large-scale e-commerce operation — a bespoke development engagement is the right approach rather than a managed monthly service. It's a different scope, not a different company; the same team handles both.
If you want a professional online presence, need to generate enquiries online, and don't have the time or inclination to manage a website yourself, a managed monthly service removes all of that friction at a predictable, budgetable cost.
The question to ask isn't "how much does a website cost?" It's "how much does having a website that actually works for my business cost?" The answer to that second question is almost always higher than people expect — unless all of it is handled for you.
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