A proper small business website in the UK costs between £500 and £3,500 upfront to design and build, plus £15–£150 a month afterwards for hosting, updates and support. DIY builders can be free, but usually take 40–80 hours of your own time and still look like a template. Agencies at the top of the range can quote £5,000–£25,000, which is rarely worth it for a business under about ten staff.
The real 2026 breakdown
Prices have shifted since the pandemic, hosting is cheaper, templates are better, but freelance and agency rates have crept up as everyone else charges more. Here's what different routes actually cost right now, based on quotes we see clients bring in.
DIY (Wix, Squarespace, Shopify)
Upfront: £0. Monthly: £15–£40. Your time: 40–80 hours.
You get a functional site fairly quickly. Templates are decent now. The catches are the time you'll spend picking, tweaking, learning and second-guessing, and the fact that your site will look like several thousand other Wix or Squarespace sites in your sector. Fine as a starting point for a hobby business. Rarely the right long-term answer for a business you're serious about.
Freelance web designer
Upfront: £800–£2,500. Monthly: often nothing, or £30–£80.
The classic 'friend of a friend who does websites' route. Quality is a coin toss, some freelancers are excellent, plenty are people who watched a YouTube course last year. Look for a proper portfolio of finished work, real client references, and someone who'll still exist in 18 months.
Small studio (like us)
Upfront: £500–£1,500. Monthly: £50–£150.
Where CAPVANE sits. £500 to design and build, £50/month for the ongoing plan that covers everything after launch. You get the polish of an agency without the account-manager overheads.
Full-service agency
Upfront: £3,500–£25,000. Monthly: £150–£1,000+.
For most small businesses, over-priced and over-processed. Discovery workshops, moodboards, brand strategy documents, real value at scale, waste of budget for a six-page local business site. Genuinely useful once you're a team of 20+ or need serious integrations.
Hidden costs to watch for
- Domain: £8–£25 a year for a .co.uk or .com.
- Hosting: £8–£40/month standalone. Often included by studios.
- SSL: should be free (Let's Encrypt). If someone's charging for it, walk away.
- Copywriting: £300–£2,000 if bought separately. Included in our £500.
- Photography: £250–£1,500 for a proper local shoot. Usually worth it.
- Bookings / e-commerce plugins – Fresha, Stripe, Shopify all take their cut; check the maths.
Where CAPVANE fits
We built the studio around a fixed £500 + £50/month because most local businesses were being priced out of professional web design without a good reason. It's not the cheapest option (that's still DIY), and it's not the most flexible (that's still a full agency), but for the vast majority of UK small businesses, it's the honest middle path.
If you'd rather DIY on Squarespace, or you actually need a £15k custom build, we'll say so. Either way, ask before you pay.