How Much Does a Custom Website Cost in the UK in 2026?

Almost every first call I take with a UK business owner starts the same way. Before we talk about features, design or deadlines, they ask: "Roughly what is this going to cost?" It's a fair question, and it's frustrating when the answer is "it depends" followed by nothing useful.

So here's the useful version. These are the real price ranges you'll see in the UK in 2026, what moves a quote up or down, and the running costs that tend to get left out of the first conversation.

The short answer

For a custom-built website (not a template you drag and drop yourself), most UK small businesses will pay somewhere between £1,500 and £15,000. Online shops usually start around £2,500 and climb quickly with integrations. Web apps and SaaS products are a different category and typically start at £4,000 for a lean MVP, going well into five figures.

That's a wide range, and the reason is simple: "a website" can mean a five-page brochure site for a local plumber or a booking platform with payments, user accounts and a CRM sync. Let's break it down.

Price ranges by type of website

• Brochure / small business site (5–10 pages): £1,000 – £5,000 with a freelancer or studio, £3,000 – £12,000 with an agency. Usually 2–6 weeks.

• E-commerce store: £2,500 – £15,000, more with custom integrations. Usually 4–10 weeks.

• Custom web app or SaaS MVP: £4,000 – £40,000. Usually 6–16 weeks.

• Complex platform (multiple user roles, heavy integrations): £35,000+. Usually 3–9 months.

These numbers line up with what UK pricing guides published this year report, and with what I quote day to day. London agencies sit at the top of every range, sometimes double the figures above, mostly because of office and staffing costs rather than better code.

Who builds it changes the price more than anything

DIY builders (Wix, Squarespace, Shopify)

Roughly £10 to £250 a month. Great if you have more time than budget and your needs are simple. The catch is that you're the designer, copywriter and SEO person, and you'll hit the platform's limits the moment you need something it wasn't built for.

Freelancers

UK freelance developers charge anywhere from about £250 to £550 a day depending on experience. For a small business site that usually means £500 to £4,000. Good freelancers are excellent value. The risk is that you're relying on one person: if they get busy, ill or move on, your project stalls.

Studios and small teams

This is where we sit. A small studio gives you a designer and developers working together, a defined process, and someone to call after launch, without the overhead of a big agency. Expect £1,500 to £25,000 depending on scope.

Full-service agencies

£15,000 and up, often much more. You're paying for account managers, strategy workshops and brand work. If you need all of that, it's worth it. If you just need a fast, well-built site, you're paying for a lot you won't use.

What actually drives the cost up

When I scope a project, these are the things that move the number the most:

• Custom functionality. Booking systems, quote calculators, member areas and dashboards take real development time. A contact form doesn't.

• Integrations. Connecting to Xero, a CRM, a stock system or a payment provider adds testing and edge cases. Each one is usually a few days of work.

• Design from scratch vs. a solid base. A fully bespoke design system costs more than adapting a well-built component library. Both can look great.

• Content. If you need copy written, product photos edited or 300 products imported, budget for it. This is the most common reason projects run late.

• Deadlines. A tight launch date means more people on the project at once, and that costs more.

• Migration. Moving from an old WordPress site means redirects, content transfer and protecting your existing Google rankings. Done badly, it can cost you traffic for months.

The running costs nobody mentions upfront

The build is a one-off. These aren't:

• Domain: around £10 to £30 a year for a .co.uk.

• Hosting: anything from £5 to £100+ a month. A modern static or Next.js site can often run on very cheap hosting; a busy shop or web app needs more.

• Maintenance and support: security updates, backups, small content changes and fixing things when a third-party service changes its API. Typically £25 to £500 a month.

• Paid plugins and services: email delivery, premium WordPress plugins, search, analytics tools.

A realistic all-in running cost for a small business site is about £500 to £2,500 a year. Ask any developer you're talking to for this number before you sign. If they can't give you one, that tells you something.

Where TechInnoLab fits

We're a remote studio building for UK and European businesses. Because we don't carry London overheads, our prices sit at the lower end of the studio range while the engineering stays the same standard you'd expect from a much larger team. Our starting points are:

• Web development: from £1,200, usually 2–6 weeks

• E-commerce: from £2,500, usually 4–10 weeks

• Web apps and SaaS: from £4,000, usually 6–16 weeks

• Maintenance and support: from £150 a month

You can see the full breakdown on our pricing page. "From" really does mean from: a simple project lands near that number, and anything bigger gets a fixed quote before any work starts, so there are no surprises halfway through.

How to get an accurate quote (from anyone)

Whoever you end up working with, you'll get a far more accurate price if you go in with:

1. A rough list of pages or features you need now, and what can wait for phase two.

2. Two or three websites you like, and what you like about them.

3. Any systems the site must connect to.

4. Your launch date and whether it's fixed.

5. A budget range. It's not a trap. It lets a developer tell you what's realistic instead of guessing.

And compare quotes on what's included, not just the total. A £2,000 quote without hosting setup, SEO basics or post-launch support can easily cost more than a £3,000 one that includes them.

Want a real number for your project?

Book a free 30-minute scoping call and tell me what you're planning. You'll get a fixed, itemised quote within 48 hours, with no obligation and no sales pressure. Get your free quote →