Ask three web designers what a website costs and you'll get three very different answers, often without the detail you need to compare them. Here are our actual prices, what moves them up or down, and the yearly costs people forget to ask about.
The short answer
- One-page website: £250. Everything on one page that works well on a phone, which suits many trades and solo businesses.
- Two-page website: £300, usually ready within two weeks.
- Bigger websites: from £400, for businesses that need a page per service or per town.
- Hosting: from £50 a year for a standard website.
- Editing it yourself (CMS): from £100 to set up, then from £25 a year.
Those are the prices on our website development page. Web applications, booking systems and online shops are quoted after a chat, because they depend on how the business works.
What changes the price
How many pages you need
A hairdresser or a man-and-van firm can often say everything on one page: what you do, where you work, your reviews and how to get in touch. Hair By Kim in Lowestoft is a one-page site built for the phone in a customer's hand.
If you want to show up for several different jobs, each job usually needs its own page. Ivan's Exterior Cleaning has separate pages for window cleaning, gutter cleaning, soffit and fascia cleaning, and driveways, because people search for each one differently.
Whether you want to edit it yourself
Some owners are happy to send changes over. Others want to update prices, photos and opening times themselves. That's what the CMS is for: Earsham Lofts edits his own wording and photos, and each change goes live within seconds.
Features beyond the basics
An online catalogue starts from £400. Online shops, booking systems, customer records and portals are quoted separately, because they're closer to software than to a website. Our web applications page covers those.
A logo and branding
If you don't have a logo yet, a Starter brand package is from £250 and a full brand from £500. Plenty of businesses start with what they have and come back for the brand later.
The yearly costs
A website has a few running costs, and it's worth knowing them before you start:
- Hosting, from £50 a year for a standard website.
- Your domain name (the .co.uk address), renewed every year or two. We look after the settings and remind you before it's due.
- The CMS, from £25 a year, if you edit the site yourself.
- Changes after launch are agreed with you, so you know the cost before anything is done.
What to check before you pay anyone
- Who owns the site. With us you own the site and the code outright. Some providers rent you a site that disappears when you stop paying.
- What happens every year. Ask for the hosting, domain and support costs in writing, not only the build price.
- Who you'll actually deal with. With a small studio, the person you talk to is the person who builds it.
- Whether it will be found on Google. A website that nobody finds won't bring in work. Ask what's done about titles, local search and your Google Business Profile.
- What you get to see first. Nothing should be built until you've seen and agreed the design.
Local businesses in Suffolk
We're based in Lowestoft and build websites for businesses across Suffolk, from a caravan site in rural Suffolk to window cleaners and windscreen fitters. You can see more on our Suffolk web design page.