A professionally built small business website in the UK typically costs between £1,000 and £3,000 for a simple brochure site, £3,000 to £8,000 or more for a custom-designed business site, and £3,000 to £10,000 or more for an online shop. These are approximate market ranges, and the real figure depends on what you need the site to do.
The honest answer to “how much should I pay?” is this: pay for the result you want, not the number of pages.
What changes the price?
- Design: a template-based design costs less than one built around your brand and your customers.
- Number and type of pages: five pages that explain your service are far cheaper than a site with booking, memberships or a product catalogue.
- E-commerce: selling online adds product setup, payments, shipping rules and tax, which is why online shops cost more.
- Content: if you need help with copywriting and photography, allow for it. Weak content is the most common reason a good-looking site fails.
- Search visibility: a site built to be found on Google takes more care than one that simply looks nice.
The costs people forget
Budget for the running costs as well as the build: your domain name, hosting, ongoing updates and security, and a little time each month to keep content fresh. A cheap site with no support often ends up costing more when it breaks or gets hacked.
Cheap, mid-range or premium: what you actually get
The lowest quotes usually mean a reused template, few revisions and no support once the site is live. A mid-range build gives you a design made for your business, a site you can edit yourself and a clear launch plan. Premium work adds strategy, bespoke features and detailed conversion testing. Most small businesses do best in the middle, with a partner who stays around after launch.
How to compare quotes
Ask each agency what is included, who owns the site when it is finished, how many rounds of changes you get, and what happens if something goes wrong in month six. The cheapest quote is rarely the lowest cost over three years.
What a good website pays back
A website is not an expense to minimise. It is the one salesperson who works every hour of the day. One Azure Creative client told us their site was delivered quickly and on budget, with follow-up support that kept customers coming back. That combination is what you are really buying.
Get a clear quote
At Azure Creative we build clean, modern WordPress websites that are easy to update and designed to bring in customers, with more than ten years of experience behind them. Tell us what you need and we will send you a clear quote. Request your quote at azurecreative.co.uk