How much does a website cost in the UK in 2026?
Short answer: a small business website in the UK costs between £0 and £10,000, and most of that range is noise. For a five-page site that ranks locally and brings in enquiries, the honest figure is £400 to £2,500 up front plus £30 to £150 a month. Here is where the money goes at each level, so you can tell a fair quote from a padded one.
The four ways to buy a website
| Option | Up front | Monthly | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy) | £0 | £15 to £40 | Hobby projects and people with a weekend to spare. Rarely ranks locally. |
| Pay-monthly template provider | £0 to £499 | £30 to £60 | Cheap to start. You never own the site, and nobody works on your rankings. |
| Freelancer or small local studio | £400 to £1,500 | £0 to £150 | Most small businesses. Look for published prices and a care plan. |
| Agency | £1,500 to £10,000 | £100 to £500 | Larger firms, e-commerce, custom features. Overkill for a five-page local site. |
What you should get for £400 to £600
At this price a good local designer should give you a mobile-first site of around five pages, copy written with you rather than pasted from your old brochure, basic on-page SEO for your trade and town, a contact form, and your Google Business Profile set up. If any of those are missing, ask why.
- Design that works on a phone first, because that is where most local searches happen
- Page titles and headings that say what you do and where
- A form that goes to your email, with spam protection
- The domain registered in your name, not theirs
What the monthly fee is for
Hosting alone costs a designer £5 to £20 a month, so a £30 to £60 fee is mostly margin. A fee of £100 to £150 should include real work: content edits, a new page or article each month, security updates, and a report that tells you where you rank. Ask for the list of what is included, in writing.
Prices in Cheshire specifically
Chester and Warrington agencies quote £1,500 to £8,000 for a small business site. Pay-monthly providers in the county start at £30 a month with a £500 setup. Our own price is £399 up front and £150 a month for the care plan, which is why we wrote this guide: the market is confusing on purpose.
Questions to ask before you pay
- Do I own the domain, the site and the content?
- What exactly is in the monthly fee, and what happens if I stop paying?
- Who writes the words, and how many rounds of changes are included?
- Will my pages be written for my town, or is this a template with my logo on it?
- Can I see three sites you built for businesses like mine, and where they rank?