How much does a website cost?

Article by
Amie Whale

Here’s everything you need to know about what a website costs to design and build in the UK.

What does a website cost? It’s a question our website design agency gets asked all the time.

In truth, the answer to it depends on several variables. The best way to establish what an effective, quality website costs (and looks like) is to dig a little deeper.

Different types of website designs and their costs

If you just want a cheap website design, you’ll get a basic, templated result which will struggle to leave a positive impression on customers you need to generate business and enhance your searchability online.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can spend thousands of pounds on a dynamic, eye-catching website design but subject your visitors to sluggish load times and a dreadful UX (user experience) in the process.

To give you a quick idea of the average cost of website designs, here’s a rough guide:

Basic website design cost – £0-£1,500
Custom/brochure website design cost – £1,500-£7,000
Custom feature/e-commerce website design cost – £3,000-£25,000
High-end website design cost – £10,000-£50,000+

The cost of a basic website design (£0-£1,500)

If you have a limited budget, this is the band for you. Starting with the DYI free website template designs/website builders, such as Wix or Squarespace, which are free to use and only require relatively small hosting fees which you can read about below.

While some people might be able to knock something decent together, a vast majority find using free website template designs unreliable, time-consuming and a hindrance to ranking on search engines.

For the best results, we can provide your business with a simple one-page website starting from £700.00 + VAT. Designed from scratch with bespoke coding using WordPress, you can easily change text and upload images yourself.

The main reason to invest in a paid one-page website design instead of using a DIY website builder is that you’re buying a unique design created by an expert website design agency. This also includes a bespoke code which isn’t replicated across the internet and grants the ability to add pages as your business grows.

Example of a basic website design: Everest & Co Umbrella Solutions

The cost of a custom/brochure website design (£1,500 - £7,000)

The next step up from your basic cheap website design is the perfect option for SMEs looking for a professional website with multiple pages.

To put it simply, a brochure website is a site that doesn’t take any kind of payment but shows your products, services, blogs, and case studies via different pages. It also asks visitors to get in touch with you using contact forms, tap to call buttons and often provides valuable content via a free PDF download.

With a brochure website, you’ll get a personal touch and an added level of creative flair which can maximise your branding.

While the price for a brochure website in the UK depends on functionality, basic developer costs usually include full integration with social media platforms, Google Maps and Google Analytics. However, the price can increase if you want to integrate email software such as Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor.

The more functionality and pages you need the more the website design will cost. The best way to determine your needs is to do a quick audit and plan how many pages you’re likely to need to boost SEO, improve the UX and increase leads. Get in touch if you need a hand with this part of the process.

Example of a custom/brochure website design: Technology Law Alliance

The cost of a custom feature or e-commerce website (£3,000-£25,000)

If you want to maximise online sales, it’s worth investing in a reliable e-commerce website design. The very best examples look clean, stylish and professional while integrating your entire order management system (A real time saver).

Building a custom feature website also needs a lot of planning, coding and development time to ensure the functionality is of the highest quality.

At eighty3 creative, we provide our clients with a pay-monthly e-commerce website package service. With no large upfront fees, you get a professionally designed website and round-the-clock maintenance with secure hosting, SEO and Google AdWords management.

Example of an e-commerce website design: Avensys

The cost of a high-end website design (£10,000-£50,000+)

If you’re searching for the average cost of a website design for small businesses, don’t let this price category put you off. This is strictly for Audi-type brands that have never-ending budgets and rely on optimising their visual branding to sell products.

These website designs are custom created without any templates and offer advanced functionality. Some will be database driven and will update content on an automated basis, based on artificial intelligence/the analysis of consumer habits.

Other website design costs to consider

Besides the one-off cost of building a website, you need to consider the ongoing technical expenses such as purchasing and keeping a domain name, web hosting and SSL certificate.

Once again, the prices depend on which band you choose to go with. For example, if you create a DIY website using Wix, web hosting starts from only £3 per month to simply connect your domain, all the way up to £18 per month for unlimited bandwidth, the removal of Wix ads, a free domain and various SEO boosters.

On average, a domain name usually costs around £9.99 per year from GoDaddy. Although, there are often deals which involve buying several domains or getting it cheaper for the first 12 months.

As for an SSL certificate, which provides authentication for your website and enables an encrypted connection, this is around £120 per year.

However, if you use a website design agency like us, we provide this all under one simple monthly payment schedule, starting from £14.50 + VAT. This payment method eliminates the need to engage in multiple companies and be overcharged.

Should I invest in a new web design or update your existing website?

Investing in a new website design isn’t always cheap, especially if you need e-commerce functionality. So, understanding if you can simply update your existing site without a complete rebuild can save your business time and money.

We highly recommend you regularly update your website content if you have important news or engaging content for your consumers. Updating your website effectively can result in increased traffic and conversions without the expense of an entire rebuild.

Knowing when to update or upgrade your website becomes clear when you can see the signs. Monitoring your website performance across UX and SEO should become your main concern if you’re trying to decipher an improvement or something completely brand new.

So, take a fine tooth comb to your existing website and monitor the performance across SEO and other tracking sites such as Google Analytics.

How much does a website cost with WordPress?

A WordPress website can cost between £30 and £700 to establish in upfront costs before £10 and £50 a month to maintain.

Having an abundance of features and benefits involved with WordPress can result in additional costs when utilising the following components:

Apps/plugins – Some plugins are free but premium plugins will charge upfront or pay-monthly prices.
Themes – WordPress themes are available at a one-off cost, but some are free to use.
Hosting – Hosting is an essential cost with most platforms requesting small upfront costs.
Security – Free security plugins are available, but we recommend you invest in the protection of your website, especially if you operate an e-commerce brand.

Other additional costs, such as hiring professional support are also worth consideration within a WordPress website. However, WordPress’s monthly subscription is free to use and offers numerous benefits.

WordPress is a good website platform provider if you want to keep costs low. The subscription is free and there are many free features available. But if you want a premium theme and hosting then it can quite quickly creep into the thousands.

The 5 best UK WordPress providers

We believe the best WordPress providers for the UK are:

Bluehost – £2.13 per month
SiteGround – £5.99 per month
123 Reg – £5.49 per month
1&1 IONAS – £1 per month
GoDaddy – £2.97 per month

Some hosts will offer shared or managed hosting plans with managed hosting typically more expensive. Despite the additional costs, letting your hosts handle the technical side can save you a lot of time and frustration. Plus, at such a minimal expense, it’s a worthwhile investment.

Shared WordPress – £2 – £15 per month
Managed WordPress – £20 -£ 60 per month
E-commerce – £7 – £30 per month

Any additional WordPress cost can come in the form of professional support, acquiring a domain name, premium plugins, themes, and security.

Outsourcing your website design: Should I choose a freelance web designer or a web design agency?

If you don’t want to build your site alone, the next thing to consider with the cost of a website in the UK is thinking about whether you want to hire a freelance web designer or a digital agency/website design agency. Here are some pros and cons of both.

With a freelancer, you’ll get:

A skilled individual who charges less, but may not be as experienced in all areas of website design, development, content creation, marketing and SEO.
Someone who has to juggle multiple clients on their own and can’t always amend things immediately.
A freelance website designer will cost you anywhere between £25-£50 per hour or £200-£300 per day.

With a digital agency or website design agency, you’ll get:

A whole team working for you, with different individuals specialising in one or two components.
A wider array of services, including marketing and SEO are both imperative if you want to rank on search engines and get customers to find your website.
A bigger team can support you in a variety of ways.
A digital agency or website design agency will cost you an average of £50-£200 per hour or £300-£1,000 per day.

While the costs of getting a freelancer to build your website may sound more appealing, it can often cost your business more in the long run. This is because the length of time it takes to build, maintain and improve your website over the next year or so will take a freelancer a lot more time than if there was a team on hand to help.

Plus, there are many components involved in designing a website, from writing to coding and designing. This might require you to hire more than one freelancer which can prove challenging as the process develops.

A web design agency will likely have more combined experience, a larger client base and a vast array of skills to help create bespoke solutions as well. With more credibility, resources, support and diverse expertise across multiple web development disciplines, an agency is often the safer and smarter option.

A website checklist to consider before making a start

If you’re looking to build your website to save costs, we recommend you look over this checklist to ensure you don’t make any costly mistakes.

Little by little

Now it’s understandable to have big ambitions for your website but try not to get carried away. After establishing your goals for your website in line with your business model, begin by arranging and tackling the largest priorities first.

Stay within your capacity

Limit your spending to your allotted budget and don’t overestimate your technical ability. Achieving your goals for your website is more likely when you have achievable goals.

Answer the key questions

Understanding the overall cost of your prospective website also includes answering a few other questions, such as:

How do I want to manage my website?
What features are essential, and what can wait?
Can I handle the technical demands?

Discover the cost of your website with our website calculator

If you’re curious about what your ideal website might cost, eighty3 creative now has a website calculator available for you to use. From design through to build and launch, specify your style and page numbers, and we

Hire a specialist to create and maintain your website

In summary, the cost of your website design depends on your requirements, If you’d like a bespoke quote from a leading digital marketing and website design agency from the West Midlands, get in touch with our team at eighty3 creative today.

To see examples of our website design work, take a look at our case studies and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.