If you've asked around about getting a website built, you've probably had wildly different answers. Someone told you their nephew did it for £200. A local agency quoted you £8,000. A freelancer online said £1,500. Your competitor apparently paid "next to nothing" for Wix.
So what's the real answer?
It depends — but not in a vague, unhelpful way. It depends on specific things, and once you understand what those things are, the numbers start to make sense.
Here's an honest breakdown.
Option 1: DIY website builders (£0–£30/month)
Platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy Website Builder let you build your own site without writing code. They're cheap, they're accessible, and they look reasonably good.
What you actually get:
- A functional website with a template design
- Basic contact forms
- Some SEO tools (limited)
What's often missing:
- Professional copywriting — you write everything yourself
- Custom design that reflects your brand
- Proper local SEO setup
- Technical performance (these platforms are notoriously slow)
- Someone to maintain it when things break
The hidden cost: your time. Building a DIY site well takes 20–40 hours for a non-technical person. What is your time worth? If you're a tradesperson charging £50/hour, that's £1,000–£2,000 of your time — before you've written a single word of content.
The result is often a site that exists but doesn't work. It doesn't rank. It doesn't convert visitors. It just sits there.
Best for: Absolute beginners with zero budget who need something rather than nothing.
Option 2: Freelance web designer (£500–£3,000+)
A freelance web designer will typically build you a site on WordPress or a similar platform. Quality varies enormously.
What you typically get at £500–£1,000:
- Template-based design with customisation
- Basic pages (home, services, contact)
- May or may not include copywriting
- Basic on-page SEO (meta titles, descriptions)
What you typically get at £1,500–£3,000:
- More custom design work
- More pages and functionality
- Sometimes includes content/copywriting
- Better SEO setup
Watch out for:
- No ongoing support after handover
- Sites built on bloated WordPress themes that load slowly
- SEO "included" that means just installing a plugin, nothing more
- Disappearing after the project ends
Best for: Businesses with a reasonable brief who want to work closely with one person and have flexibility on timeline.
Option 3: Web design agency (£800–£10,000+)
Agency pricing is the widest range, because "agency" covers everything from a two-person specialist studio to a 50-person full-service firm.
Boutique agencies (£800–£2,500): Smaller teams, focused on specific niches. Often the sweet spot for small UK businesses — you get professional quality without enterprise-level overhead. Design, development, copywriting, and SEO can all be included. Faster timelines, more direct communication.
Mid-size agencies (£2,500–£6,000): More process, more people involved, more revisions. Good for businesses with complex requirements — e-commerce, booking systems, lots of pages.
Large agencies (£6,000–£50,000+): Enterprise clients, complex integrations, full marketing strategy. Not relevant for most small businesses.
Best for: Businesses that want a complete package — design, copy, SEO, support — without managing it themselves.
What drives the price up?
Here's what makes websites more expensive:
- Number of pages — a 20-page site costs more than a 5-page site
- E-commerce — online shops add significant development complexity
- Custom design — a fully bespoke design costs more than adapting a template
- Copywriting — writing good web copy is skilled work, and adds £500–£2,000+
- Integrations — booking systems, CRMs, live chat, etc.
- Local SEO — research, keyword targeting, ongoing management
- Speed and performance — proper technical optimisation takes time
What does WebOrb charge?
We're transparent about this, which is why our pricing is on the website:
- Starter — £799: 5-page professional website, mobile-optimised, contact form, hosting setup, basic on-page SEO. Delivered in 2 weeks.
- Growth — £1,499: Everything in Starter, plus full Local SEO targeting, Google Business Profile optimisation, and 3 months of support and monthly ranking reports.
- Pro — custom: For businesses that want ongoing SEO management, content strategy, ads, and regular updates.
Copywriting is included in all packages. We write the content based on a brief call — you don't need to provide copy.
What should you actually spend?
For most UK small businesses, the honest answer is: somewhere between £800 and £2,000 for a well-built, professionally copywritten site with proper local SEO.
Less than that and you're usually getting a template someone spent a few hours on, with no SEO and no copywriting.
More than that is only worth it once your business has specific requirements — lots of pages, e-commerce, complex integrations.
The most important thing isn't the headline price. It's what's included, who's doing the work, and what happens after you go live.
Interested in getting a clear quote with no jargon? Get in touch with WebOrb — we'll give you an honest recommendation based on your business, not a package that maximises our revenue.