How much does a website cost in the UK in 2026?
By Dapp Marketing Team ·
Table of contents
The short answer
UK website cost by tier (2026)
One-off vs pay monthly
Ongoing costs nobody mentions
What a WordPress site really costs you
What we charge at Dapp Marketing
FAQ
"How much does a website cost in the UK?" is the most common question we get on the first call. The honest answer is: between £499 and £15,000, depending on what you actually need. Here's how to know which end of that range applies to you — and what every UK agency should be telling you before they invoice.
The short answer
In 2026, a professional UK small business website costs £299 to £2,000 as a one-off build , or £29 to £199 per month on a pay monthly plan. Anything cheaper is usually a template you fill in yourself. Anything pricier than that is bespoke development for businesses with specific software needs.
The number that matters more than the headline price is what's included for the next twelve months. A £499 site with no hosting and no support ends up costing more than a £49/month plan that covers everything.
UK website cost by tier (2026)
£0 to £20 per month — DIY builders
Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy. You design the site yourself from a template. The price is the platform fee, not the website. Realistic time investment: 20 to 40 hours if you've never done it before. Suitable for hobby projects and side hustles. Not suitable if your time is worth more than minimum wage.
£299 to £799 — entry-level professional builds
A small custom or semi-custom website built by a designer, usually 3 to 5 pages. At this price you should expect mobile responsive design, basic SEO setup, hosting, and an SSL certificate. You should not expect bespoke copywriting, in-depth research or ongoing support unless it's explicitly included.
£800 to £2,500 — proper small business websites
The sweet spot for most UK small businesses. 5 to 15 pages, professional copywriting, local SEO, contact and booking forms, faster hosting and ongoing support. This is what most independent UK agencies charge for a one-off build.
£2,500 to £8,000 — bespoke and ecommerce
Online shops with Shopify or Stripe, multi-location sites, booking systems, customer portals or any site needing real backend logic. Pricing scales with the number of products and integrations.
£8,000 and up — custom software
Web apps, member areas, dashboards, marketplaces and anything bespoke enough to need its own architecture. At this level you're not really buying a "website" — you're buying a piece of software with a website attached.
One-off vs pay monthly: which is actually cheaper?
It depends what you compare. A one-off £999 build looks cheaper than 12 × £99/month (£1,188). But the monthly figure usually includes hosting, support, content updates, SSL and security — which on the one-off route are extra annual costs.
The pay monthly model works for most small businesses because:
No upfront cost during launch when cash is tight
Hosting, security and updates are bundled — no annual surprises
Rolling monthly contracts with 30 days notice, not 24-month lock-ins
The agency stays incentivised to keep your site working, because if it breaks you cancel
We've broken down exactly what's bundled on our pay monthly websites page.
Ongoing costs nobody mentions in the quote
This is where one-off builds quietly become more expensive than they look. Budget for these annually:
Domain renewal: £10 to £20 a year
Hosting: £60 to £400 a year depending on plan and traffic
SSL certificate: Free with Let's Encrypt, or £50–£200/year with paid providers
WordPress maintenance: £30 to £100 a month if you don't want to update plugins yourself
Backups: £5 to £30 a month with a managed plugin or external service
Content edits: £40 to £80 per hour at most agencies, or a monthly retainer
SEO maintenance: £79 to £500+ a month depending on the scale of campaign
A "£499 website" can quietly turn into £1,200 of year-one running costs once you add hosting, SSL, plugin support, edits and basic SEO. Always ask for a 12-month total cost of ownership before you sign.
What a WordPress site really costs you
WordPress itself is free, but it's the cheapest part of the stack. A typical small business WordPress build adds:
Premium theme: £50–£100 one-off, plus annual renewal for updates
Page builder (Elementor, Divi): £50–£100/year
SEO plugin (Yoast Premium, RankMath Pro): £79–£120/year
Backup plugin: £40–£100/year
Security plugin: £80–£300/year
Forms plugin: £40–£100/year
Plugin maintenance and security patches: ongoing time or paid retainer
So before the first month of hosting, a "free WordPress site" needs roughly £400 of plugins to behave like a professional site — and someone has to keep them updated forever. That's the trade-off we built our business around removing. Hand-coded sites have no plugins to maintain, so the monthly fee never gets eaten by add-ons.
What we charge at Dapp Marketing
We're transparent on pricing because most UK agencies aren't. Our 2026 packages:
Starter — £499 one-off or £49/month. 5 pages, professional copywriting, hosting, SSL, local SEO, ongoing content updates.
Professional — £699 one-off or £69/month. 10 pages, business email, advanced SEO, booking forms, priority support.
Enterprise — £1,299 one-off or £129/month. Unlimited pages, custom integrations, performance monitoring, dedicated account manager.
Everything is hand-coded, hosted on managed infrastructure, and ships with foundational local SEO included. No CMS, no plugin renewals, no surprise invoices.
FAQ
How much does a basic website cost in the UK?
A small UK business website starts at £499 one-off, or £49 per month on a pay monthly plan that includes hosting, SSL and support.
How much does it cost to maintain a website in the UK each year?
Realistic annual maintenance costs are £100 to £700 depending on whether you're on WordPress (more) or hand-coded (less), and whether maintenance is included in your monthly plan. Pay monthly plans bundle this in.
How much does a custom website cost in the UK?
Custom (hand-coded, no CMS) websites start around £499 for a small business site and scale up to £8,000+ for ecommerce or bespoke web apps. The pricing is closer to template-built sites than most people expect because the build process is faster without a CMS to configure.
How much does a Wordpress website cost in the UK?
A WordPress build typically costs £500 to £2,500 to set up, plus £200 to £600 a year in plugin renewals, security and maintenance. The platform is free but the running costs add up.
Is pay monthly cheaper than buying a website outright?
Not in total, but it's almost always cheaper in year one once you include hosting, SSL, support and updates. The longer you stay, the more a one-off build saves you in absolute terms — but you lose the bundled support.
Need a fixed UK quote in 24 hours? We give a real, itemised price before you commit. Get your custom quote or call 0141 459 1202 .