Setting a website budget: what should you expect to pay?
Website pricing is wildly opaque. Here's an honest breakdown of what things actually cost and why the quotes vary so much.
"How much does a website cost?" is the question every web developer dreads, because the honest answer, "it depends", sounds evasive. But it genuinely does depend, and the range is enormous. you can absolutely get a website for £500 or £500,000, and both numbers might be entirely reasonable for different businesses.
Let me try to make this less opaque.
Why quotes vary so much
When you get quotes from three different developers or agencies for the same brief, you'll often see prices that vary by a factor of five or more. This isn't random. Different providers have different cost bases, different approaches, and different definitions of what "a website" includes.
A freelancer working from home with low overheads might charge £3,000 for a five-page WordPress site. An agency with an office, a project manager, a designer, a developer, and a QA tester might quote £15,000 for the same brief. Both are charging a fair rate for their time, the agency just has more people involved.
The other factor is what's included. Does the quote cover content writing? Photography? SEO setup? Training? Ongoing hosting and maintenance? A cheap quote that doesn't include these things isn't actually cheaper once you add them.
Rough price ranges
These are based on what I see in the UK market in 2022, for custom-built sites (not templates).
A simple brochure website, five to ten pages, responsive design, contact form, CMS for editing content, typically runs £2,000 to £8,000. The lower end gets you a competent freelancer using WordPress with a premium theme. The upper end gets you custom design and development with more refinement.
A marketing website with more complexity, 15-30 pages, blog, integrations with email marketing tools, custom animations, multilingual support, runs £8,000 to £25,000 depending on scope and who's building it.
An e-commerce site ranges wildly. A basic Shopify or WooCommerce shop with under 100 products might be £3,000 to £10,000. A complex e-commerce build with custom features, integrations with ERP or warehouse systems, and thousands of products could be £30,000 to £100,000+.
A web application, something with user accounts, dashboards, custom logic, starts around £15,000 and goes up from there. Software is expensive to build properly.
What you're actually paying for
You might sometimes balk at website prices because you think of it as "just a website". But a properly built website involves discovery and planning (understanding your business, your users, your goals), design (wireframes, visual design, responsive layouts), development (writing actual code, building functionality, integrating systems), content (writing, editing, formatting), testing (cross-browser, cross-device, accessibility), and launch (DNS, hosting setup, SSL, redirects).
A five-page website doesn't take a day to build. It takes two to four weeks, assuming everyone's responsive with feedback and content.
How to set your budget
Start from the business outcome, not the technology. What is the website supposed to do for your business? Generate leads? Sell products? Provide information? Reduce support calls? What would it be worth if it did that well?
If your website generates ten leads a month and each lead is worth £500 to your business, that's £5,000 a month in value. A £10,000 investment in a website that improves your conversion rate pays for itself in a few months.
Red flags in pricing
Be wary of quotes that are dramatically lower than everyone else. Either they're cutting corners you can't see, or they're underestimating the work and you'll end up paying more through change requests.
Also be wary of anyone who quotes without asking detailed questions. If someone gives you a price after a five-minute conversation, they're guessing. A good developer will ask about your goals, your audience, your content, your technical requirements, and your timeline before putting a number on it.
If you're trying to set a budget for a web project and want a straight answer about what's realistic, get in touch at [email protected]. I'll tell you honestly what your project is likely to cost.
Chris Ryan
Managing Director
17+ years in full-stack web development, most of it leading teams agency-side across e-commerce, CMS platforms, and bespoke applications. Specialises in infrastructure, system integration, and data privacy, with hands-on experience as a Data Protection Officer. Founded Innatus Digital in 2020 to offer the kind of honest, technically-led partnership that he felt was missing from the agency world.