Website pricing in the UK ranges from nothing to tens of thousands of pounds. That range exists for a reason, and understanding it will save you from making an expensive mistake in either direction.
I'm going to be transparent about this because I think it's more useful than being vague. I'm a freelance web designer based in Ramsbottom who charges £499 for a professional website. Here's where that sits in the market, and why.
diy website builders: £0 to £30/month
wix / squarespace / godaddy
£0 free plan to ~£25/month paid
You build it yourself using a drag-and-drop editor. You own the subscription, not the site.
DIY builders are fine for getting something online quickly when budget is zero and simplicity matters most. They've improved a lot. The templates are decent, they're mobile-friendly out of the box, and you don't need to know any code.
The downsides are real though. You're locked in. If you want to leave Wix, you can't export your site to another host. You start again. The monthly fees add up (£300+ per year on a paid plan, indefinitely). Performance tends to be slower than a hand-coded site, which matters for both user experience and search rankings. And because everyone is using the same templates, your site looks like a lot of other sites.
For a side project or a very simple information-only page, they're fine. For a business you want to grow, they're a short-term fix that can create a longer-term problem.
wordpress: £50 to £500+ setup, plus ongoing costs
self-hosted wordpress
£50 DIY to £500+ with a freelancer
Free software, but you pay for hosting, themes, plugins, and usually someone's time to set it up.
WordPress powers a huge percentage of the web. It's flexible, there are thousands of themes and plugins, and if you need something complex (a shop, a membership area, custom post types), it can do it.
But WordPress has a maintenance burden that people underestimate. WordPress sites get hacked. Not because WordPress is insecure by nature, but because outdated themes and plugins are constantly exploited. If you're not updating regularly, you're exposed. You'll also often end up with a site that's slower than it should be because of plugin bloat, and performance matters for Google.
A freelancer building you a WordPress site will typically charge £500 to £2,000 for a small business site. Ongoing hosting is usually £10 to £30/month. You may also need to pay someone to keep it updated and secure.
freelance web designer: £499 to £3,000
independent freelancer (hand-coded)
£499 to £3,000 one-off
Someone builds it for you from scratch or using a clean, lightweight framework. You own the result.
This is where I sit. A hand-coded website built for a small business typically costs £499 to £1,500 depending on complexity. For that you get a fast, clean, custom site with no subscription software, no plugin vulnerabilities, and no template that looks like 50,000 other businesses.
The site I charge £499 for is a professional multi-page website with SEO built in, a contact form, mobile-optimised, hosted on a fast server, and managed by me if you want that. It's not a compromise. It's a proper website that loads quickly and ranks in Google.
A good freelancer also understands your business and writes or edits copy to suit it. That's harder to quantify but it makes a significant difference to whether people contact you or click away.
web design agencies: £2,000 to £20,000+
digital agencies
£2,000 to £20,000+
Multiple people involved, project managers, account managers, strategists. Suited to larger organisations with complex requirements.
Agencies are the right choice when you have complex requirements, a large team that needs to manage the site, or when you need integrated campaigns, branding, and strategy alongside the website. For most small businesses with under five employees, you're paying for overhead you don't need.
what actually matters
Price is one factor. The more important questions are: who owns the site when it's done, what are the ongoing costs, how does it perform in search, and who maintains it? A £499 website you own outright on your own domain is worth more to most businesses than a £25/month subscription site you can never fully control.
The cheapest option isn't always the most expensive mistake. But the wrong platform for your business almost always is.
My pricing is on the pricing page. There are no surprises. If you want to know what something would cost for your specific situation, just ask.