Short answer: A professionally built small business website costs about £1,200 to £5,500 plus VAT in the UK and $1,000 to $15,000 in the US, and an online shop costs more. A DIY website builder is £0 to £50 a month. My small business sites start from £1,500 ($1,999).
You can build a website for nothing on a free builder plan, and you can spend more than $100,000 on one. Both are websites, and both prices are real. The question isn’t what a website costs, it’s which kind of website you’re buying.
So here are the published ranges for each type of site in the UK and US, each with its source and date, what pushes a quote up or down, what it costs to keep running, and how long it takes. My own price is at the end, stated plainly.
How much does a website cost by type of site?
A website costs from £0 to £50 a month on a DIY builder, about £1,200 to £5,500 plus VAT for a professionally built UK small business site, and £2,000 to £15,500 plus VAT for a small to medium online shop. US ranges run higher: $1,000 to $15,000 for a small business site and $5,000 to $50,000+ for ecommerce.
In short: UK figures from Expert Market’s website cost guide, updated 20 December 2024. US small business and ecommerce figures from GoodFirms’ analysis of more than 100 web development companies, February 2024. US bespoke and enterprise figures from WebFX’s web design pricing guide, updated September 2026. Squarespace price from its pricing page, seen 30 September 2026.
The UK ranges come from Expert Market’s guide to website costs, which doesn’t publish a method, so read them as a market guide rather than a survey. The US small business and ecommerce ranges come from GoodFirms’ 2024 website costs and timelines report, based on data from more than 100 web development companies. I haven’t converted one currency into the other: they’re different sources, different years and different markets.
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A UK small business site costs up to £5,500; an online shop can reach £15,500
How much does a website cost in the UK?
A website in the UK costs about £960 to £1,500 for a basic one-to-five-page site from a freelancer and £1,200 to £5,500 plus VAT for a small business site built professionally, according to Expert Market. Bespoke sites run £2,500 to £10,100 upfront.
Expert Market puts UK freelance web developers at £50 to £100 an hour, so the £960 to £1,500 range buys roughly 10 to 30 hours of work. Agencies quote a wider spread, £500 to £2,500 for the same one-to-five-page site, because some sell templates in volume and some price in project management and design time.
The “+ VAT” on some ranges is a real difference when you compare quotes. A VAT-registered agency adds it to the figure you see, and a freelancer below the threshold doesn’t. Put both quotes on the same basis before deciding which is cheaper.
How much does a small business website cost?
A small business website costs $1,000 to $15,000 in the US, with GoodFirms noting one can be set up within $1,000 to $7,000, and £1,200 to £5,500 plus VAT in the UK from a professional builder. The cheapest route is a builder at £0 to £50 a month, if you build it yourself.
A small business site is usually five to fifteen pages: home, a page for each service, about, contact, and perhaps a blog. What separates a £1,500 site from a £5,000 one isn’t the page count. It’s how much of the thinking the builder does: whether they research what customers search for, write the words, design from scratch and set up the site so Google can find it, or whether they pour your text into a theme.
For most local and service businesses, the pages matter more than the design. A site with one clear page for each service people search for will win enquiries that a beautiful three-page site never gets a chance at. My guide to what SEO costs covers what it takes to rank once the site is live.
How much does an ecommerce website cost?
An ecommerce website costs £2,000 to £15,500 plus VAT for a small to medium UK online shop, and $5,000 to $50,000+ in the US according to GoodFirms. Running one costs £2,300 to £16,000 a year in the UK, covering hosting, maintenance and content updates.
A shop costs more because each product is a page, and each page needs a photo, a description, a price, stock and a checkout that works. Payment set-up, shipping rules, tax and returns all have to be built and tested before the first sale.
The running cost is the part that surprises people. Expert Market breaks the £2,300 to £16,000 a year down into a domain, SSL, hosting at £120 to £1,200, technical maintenance at £850 to £3,500 and content updates at £1,200 to £10,800. The last line is the one you control: a shop that adds products weekly pays for someone’s time, or spends yours.
A hosted platform like Shopify moves part of that cost into a monthly subscription, covered in the next section.
How much do website builders cost?
Website builders cost £0 to £50 a month in the UK, including hosting and security, according to Expert Market. On 30 September 2026, Squarespace’s US plans ran from $19 to $99 a month billed annually, and Shopify’s standard plans from $29 to $299 a month billed yearly.
US dollar prices as shown on the Squarespace and Shopify pricing pages on 30 September 2026. Prices in other currencies may differ.
Squarespace’s pricing page listed Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced plans at $19, $29, $49 and $99 a month billed annually, or $25, $39, $65 and $139 billed monthly. Basic charges a 2% transaction fee on online store sales, and annual plans include a free domain for the first year.
Shopify’s pricing page listed Basic at $29, Grow at $79 and Advanced at $299 a month billed yearly ($39, $105 and $399 monthly). Its offer of three days free then $1 a month for three months reverts to the standard rate after that. Shopify Plus started at $2,300 a month.
A builder is the right call for a simple site you’re happy to build and keep up yourself. The cost you don’t see is your time, and the ceiling: you’re limited to what the platform’s templates and apps can do, and moving off it later usually means rebuilding.
What makes a website cost more?
A website costs more with each page, custom design, integration and online-shop feature it needs, and when the builder has to write the words or move an existing site. Expert Market puts UK copywriting at £50 to £150 an hour, and WebFX puts US copywriting at $60 to $300 a page.
In short: The biggest jumps come from a shop and from integrations, because each one has to be built, connected and tested. Page count and copywriting add steadily rather than in steps.
WebFX’s web design pricing guide, which draws on a survey of 250 US marketing professionals, puts intermediate sites with a CMS or copywriting at $15,000 to $50,000 on average and advanced sites at $50,000 to $100,000. WebFX is an agency, so treat its figures as the top of the market rather than the middle.
Moving an existing site is the line most often missing from cheap quotes. If the old site has rankings, every old URL needs a redirect to its new page, or the links and positions it earned point at an error page on launch day. It’s a few hours of work, and far cheaper than winning the rankings back. The website redesign SEO guide covers how to do it.
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What should your website cost?
Six scope questions. Pick the side that sounds more like your project.
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Pages, shop, design and integrations decide which type of site you're buying.
A site this simple could be built on a website builder, which Expert Market puts at £0 to £50 a month including hosting.
Copywriting is usually extra: £50 to £150 an hour from a UK writer (Expert Market), or $60 to $300 a page in the US (WebFX).
Replacing a site that ranks means redirecting every old URL to its new page. Ask whether the quote includes it, because a rebuild done with SEO in mind keeps the rankings the old site earned.
A rough steer, not a quote: the ranges are published market figures, cited in this guide, and a real price needs someone to look at the project. My small business sites start from £1,500 ($1,999), built in Astro and hosted on Vercel. Larger sites and ecommerce are quoted.
What are the ongoing costs of a website?
A small business website costs about £3 to £295 or more a month to run in the UK, according to Expert Market: hosting at £3 to £45 a month, content updates at £0 to £250 or more, and a domain at £2.99 to £100 a year. A shop with sales features runs £192 to £1,314 a month.
Expert Market, How much does a website cost?, updated 20 December 2024. Small business website running costs, UK.
The domain and hosting are the fixed part and the cheapest. The variable part is keeping the site current: new pages, updated prices, plugin and security updates on WordPress, and fixing whatever breaks. On a builder, the subscription covers hosting and security, and the updates are yours to do.
Ask any builder three things before you sign: who pays for hosting after launch, who applies updates, and what an hour of changes costs once the project is closed. A site with no plan for any of the three slowly gets slower and staler.
How long does it take to build a website?
A small business website takes two to six weeks to build in the UK, according to Expert Market, and GoodFirms puts US small business sites at one to twelve weeks. Ecommerce sites take four to sixteen weeks (GoodFirms) or three to six months for a large shop (Expert Market).
UK figure from Expert Market (updated 20 December 2024). US figures from GoodFirms’ 2024 website costs and timelines report, February 2024.
A site on a builder can go live in a few hours, per Expert Market, if the words and photos are ready. That’s the real schedule risk on every project: content. Design and build are predictable, and waiting on copy, photos and sign-off is what turns a four-week job into a three-month one.
Add time after launch too. A new site doesn’t rank the day it goes live. Google has to crawl and index the pages first, and my guide to why a website isn’t showing up on Google covers what to check if it still can’t be found a few weeks later.
How do you judge a website quote?
Judge a website quote by what it produces and what it leaves out, not by the headline price: the pages, who writes them, the redirects, the hosting, and who owns the domain and files afterwards. Two quotes are only comparable once both answer the same questions.
Before you accept a website quote
0/ 7
That is the whole list. Anything still unticked is your next job.
What do I charge for a website?
My small business websites start from £1,500 ($1,999), built in Astro and hosted on Vercel. Larger sites and ecommerce are quoted after I’ve looked at what you need.
That price includes planning the pages around what your customers search for, because a site that nobody finds doesn’t earn back its cost. I design and build the site myself, without a page builder, so there’s no account manager between us. The SEO web design service page has what’s included, and the pricing page has my other services.
It’s also how I rebuilt a slow WordPress site for a vehicle customisation studio in Arizona: hand-built in Astro, with Google clicks per day up 26% afterwards.
Common questions
Is a cheap website worth it?
It can be, if cheap means simple rather than careless. A five-page site on a good template with clear words and fast pages will outperform an expensive site nobody can find. Cheap goes wrong when the saving comes from skipped basics: no keyword research behind the pages, no redirects from the old site, a slow theme, or a builder who disappears after launch. Ask what's left out, not just what it costs.
Should I pay for a website upfront or monthly?
Upfront usually works out cheaper over three or more years, and you own the result. Monthly website packages spread the cost but often keep the site on the provider's platform, so leaving can mean starting again. If you choose monthly, check the minimum term, what happens to the site and domain when you cancel, and whether you can take the files with you.
Does a new website include SEO?
Only if the quote says so. A site can be built to be found, with pages based on keyword research, proper titles and headings, fast load times and redirects from the old site, or it can simply look nice. Both get called a website. Ongoing SEO after launch, such as new content and technical checks, is a separate service and usually a monthly cost.
Who owns my website once it's paid for?
You should, but check the contract. The domain should be registered in your name, and you should have the login for the hosting and the right to the design, code and content you paid for. If a provider registers the domain in their own name or won't hand over the files, you're renting the site, not buying it.
Do UK website quotes include VAT?
Often not. Many UK agencies quote prices plus VAT, and some of the published ranges in this guide are shown that way. A freelancer who isn't VAT-registered won't add it. Ask whether a quote is inclusive or exclusive before you compare two of them, because the difference can decide which is cheaper.