Having a professional website that accurately represents your brand is one of the most important aspects of any business. Research has even suggested that a web presence increases a business’ revenue by up to 45%. Despite this, it is estimated that around two million UK businesses still do not have a website.
It is always a huge question mark over how much a decent website should cost. Should your business spend thousands of pounds to hire a web designer, or just build it yourself? If you decide to hire a web designer to have a website designed, what would the ongoing costs be? As business owners ourselves, it is hard to know where to start.
In this article, our team has explored all the costs involved in setting up and maintaining websites of all different sizes to give you a clear picture.
General Website Costs
A website can cost anywhere between £200 and £10,000 in total, depending on the type of website you want to create. There are several different types of websites, but for the purpose of this article we have broken them down into four different categories; basic, small business, e-commerce, and bespoke.
Website designers prices based on the type of website:
Basic website prices
£200 – 500
- ‘Brochure’ style
- One to five pages and a landing page
- Mobile friendly aka responsive
- Basic functions such as a contact form and social media links
Ideal for:
- Self-employed workers
- Small businesses in traditional industries
- Does not require to update content regularly
Small business website prices
£500 – 1,000
- ‘Brochure’ style
- Several pages
- Mobile friendly aka responsive
- Content management system (CMS)
- Social media integration
- Google analytics
Ideal for:
- Startups
- Small businesses
- Those who need to update their content regularly
E-commerce website prices
£1,000 – 2,500
- All the features of a ‘small business website’, plus:
- E-commerce functionality
- Order management system
- Delivery tracking functionality
- Live chat
Ideal for:
- Any business looking to sell online
- Selling physical and/or downloadable digital products
Bespoke website prices
£2,500 – 10,000
- Database driven websites
- Advanced functionality
- Unlimited sub pages
Ideal for:
- Business requiring complex functionality (e.g. financial services, recruitment or property companies, health and fitness businesses, architects, etc.)
Of course, the cheapest option for building and maintaining a website is the DIY option. There are several website builders on the market which allow you to create a website from scratch, for free, with no technical experience. Website builders are great for creating a simple site that can fit into a pre-designed template (e.g. restaurant, online shop). However, for a more sophisticated and unique website, we would always recommend using an experienced web developer.