How much does a business website cost?
What drives the price, what our rate is, what should be included, and the questions to ask anyone quoting for your site.
By Bath IT · Radstock · 2026
The honest answer is "it depends", and everyone hates that answer, so here is what it actually depends on, what our rate is, and how to get a number you can trust from anyone you ask — including us.
How we price it
For a small business with no website, a new site of about five pages has a fixed set-up price, then one of three plans to run it. Bigger or more custom jobs are quoted individually, in writing, before any work starts. A quote shows the hours and what they're for, so you can see where the money goes and take things out if you want to.
For comparison: you will see UK agencies quoting anything from a few hundred pounds for a one-page template site to many thousands for a branded build with a retainer. Neither is wrong — they're different products. The question is which one your business needs.
What actually moves the number
How many pages, and what goes on them
A page is more than a menu entry: it needs words, pictures, a title and description for search, and a reason to exist. Ten thin pages cost more and rank worse than five good ones. We'll often suggest fewer.
How ready your content is
This is the biggest variable in every quote and the one people underestimate. If you have your services written up, good photographs and a logo, the build is quick. If we're writing the copy from a phone call, photographing the premises and tidying a logo that only exists as a JPEG, that is real hours. Neither is a problem — but it is where budgets go.
Whether the site has to do something
A brochure site presents you. A site that takes orders, bookings, memberships or payments, or that manages a catalogue of hundreds of items, is software, and software takes longer to build and test. Integrations — a booking system, accounting, a CRM — each add hours, and each need to be tested against the real service.
New build or rescue
Taking over an existing site can be cheaper than starting again, or more expensive, depending on what we find underneath. A WordPress site with forty plugins, three of them abandoned, sometimes costs more to make safe than to rebuild cleanly. We run our free security and SEO scanners over it first and tell you which it is.
The costs that aren't the build
Domain name — registered in your name, renewed yearly; a .co.uk is typically a few pounds a year, a .com a little more. Never let a supplier register it in their name.
Hosting — included in every plan: the server, HTTPS, domain renewal, security updates and backups. If you'd rather host elsewhere, we hand the site over.
Maintenance — updates, patches, changes. Essentials is hosting and upkeep, and you make your own changes. Care adds small changes on request. Business adds shop and payment support. Changes outside a plan are quoted per job.
Photography and copywriting — worth budgeting for if you don't have them. Good photographs of your actual premises and work beat stock images every time.
Email — a business address on your own domain, with SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up so it doesn't land in spam. We do this as part of go-live.
What you should get for the money
Whoever builds it, the price should include the things that make a website work rather than merely exist. If a quote doesn't mention these, ask:
Mobile-first design, tested on real phones
Fast load times — ask for a Lighthouse or PageSpeed score on a comparable site they've built
HTTPS, security headers and sensible admin protection
Per-page titles and descriptions, a sitemap, and structured data (LocalBusiness, Service)
Your own domain, in your name, and a way to edit the site yourself
A clear answer to "what happens after launch, and what does it cost?"
Questions to ask any web designer
Who actually builds it — you, or someone you outsource to?
What is it built on, and could someone else take it over if I needed them to?
What do I own at the end? (Domain, hosting account, the site itself.)
What does a change cost after launch, and how quickly can you make one?
Can I see a site you built that is still live and still fast?
The short version
Decide what the site has to do, get your content as ready as you can, and ask for a written quote that shows the hours. Ours is free, and we'll tell you if you need less than you think.
Quick answers
Want a straight answer about your own site?
Tell us what you've got and what you're trying to do. Free, no-obligation, within a working day.