How Much Does a Website Cost in the UK in 2026?

A UK website can cost anything from a few pounds a month on a do-it-yourself builder to several thousand pounds for a professional build. For a typical service business or trade, UK price guides published this year put a freelancer-built site at roughly £1,500 to £3,000 and an agency-built site at £2,000 to £8,000.

Below: what the guides say, why they disagree, what a proper quote looks like, and what a website costs to run once it is live.

By Ryan Nicholls, founder of Archline Digital Solutions · 9 November 2026

These ranges come from two UK pricing guides published in 2026, read on 9 November 2026. They are ranges, not quotes.

• DIY website builder: from nothing to around £50 a month, depending on the plan.
• Freelancer, basic brochure site: roughly £500 to £1,500.
• Freelancer, standard business site: roughly £1,500 to £3,000. One guide puts a five page freelancer site in the same band.
• Agency, brochure site: £3,000 to £5,000 in one guide, and £2,000 to £8,000 for a regional agency in the other.
• Larger custom site, 15 pages or more: £5,000 to £15,000 in one guide.

The guides do not agree on what most small businesses pay. One says £3,000 to £6,000. The other says £500 to £2,000 for a local service business and £2,000 to £8,000 for a company of five to fifty people. Guides like these are published by firms with something to sell, us included, so read the gap between them as honest uncertainty.

Copywriting, photography and search set-up are often priced separately. Ask whether they are in the quote.

We look at a lot of small business websites, and the story is nearly always the same. It was built on a template, or by a friend who could knock something together. It cost very little, which is a fair price for a favour. It is clunky to use. Nobody built any search work into it, and nobody can find it.

It is a postcard in a library. It is there, but it will never be found and it will never be read. The money is wasted, not because the price was too high, but because the site was never set up to be seen.

We quoted a business owner recently after a full audit of their current site. The quote covered:

• What the website does today and where the gaps are.
• How we would close those gaps, with realistic timeframes and a clear method of work.
• The scope, the price and a delivery date.
• A separate line on our master service agreement, the scope of works, insurance, liability, indemnity and ICO registration, so they knew they were dealing with a professional.

The price sat in front of them as a clear breakdown. They were pleased. They said it was thorough, and they had not realised how much was involved until we showed them what goes on. They paid their deposit and the go-live date was set eight weeks out.

If a quote is one number and a logo, ask what is behind it.

Our prices come from the work and the expertise behind it: a site that looks right, is laid out so visitors enquire or buy, and is built so people can find it on Google and in AI assistants. Nobody can honestly promise a ranking. We can promise the work is done properly.

Archline builds start from £1,500. The price rises when you add booking, payments, automations or local search work. Builds usually take four to eight weeks. Our own prices, level by level, are on our page what a small business website costs. As of November 2026 our build diary is full until January 2027. Calls and the free Line Check are open now.

The build is a one-off. Running the site is not. These ranges are from the same guides:

• Domain: about £10 to £30 a year.
• Hosting: from a few pounds a month on a freelancer set-up to around £100 a month with an agency.
• Maintenance and updates: £50 to £150 a month from a freelancer, £100 to £500 a month from an agency.

Added up, the guides put running costs at roughly £50 to £300 a month for a business site. Ask whether hosting and updates are in the price or extra. It is the most common surprise.

1. What exactly is included? Pages, words, photos, hosting, updates.
2. Whose name is the domain registered in? It should be yours.
3. How will people find it? If the answer is “they’ll Google you”, walk away.
4. What happens after launch? Who fixes it, how fast, and what does it cost?
5. Is the price fixed? If the scope changes, ask what that does to the number before you agree.

How much does it cost to run a website?

Roughly £50 to £300 a month for a typical business site, once hosting, maintenance and updates are counted. A very simple site costs less.

What is the difference between hosting and a domain?

Your domain is your address, such as yourbusiness.co.uk. Hosting is the building the site lives in. You need both, and they are usually billed separately.

Is having your own website worth it?

Yes, if it brings you enquiries you would otherwise miss. Your website is the face of your business whether you like it or not. It should generate leads, not sit there like a brochure.

We run the same checks on our own businesses. ShotBot, which we run, had its listing fixed and its reviews collected, and booking enquiries have gone up since. You can see the build in our ShotBot case study.

Run the free Line Check on your site and see where it is leaking enquiries, or ask for a 20-minute call and we will tell you what to fix first. We are based in Chippenham and work with tradespeople and service businesses across Wiltshire, Bath and Bristol. See our services and work.

Price ranges read on 9 November 2026 from ExpertSure, How Much Does a Website Cost UK 2026 and Whito, Website Design Costs UK 2026.