This is a question we hear almost every week. And the most honest answer we can give is: “It depends!”
That might sound like a cop-out, but in reality, pricing a website is a bit like pricing a house.
You can’t give a meaningful number until you know what’s being built, what’s inside, where it’s going, and who it’s for.
And yes, like a house, your website needs more than walls and a roof.
The structure is the site itself, how it’s built, how fast it loads, how secure it is.
The furnishings are your content, the words, images, and video that bring it to life.
And the roads leading to your house? That’s your marketing, the work it takes to get people to your site in the first place.
So let’s break it down. We'll walk you through each part of the website process, what it involves, how it affects cost, and where your investment actually goes.
By the end, you’ll have a much clearer understanding of what a website really costs, and why.
The Variables: What Impacts The Cost Of A Website?
Before we even begin a quote, we’ll usually ask questions like:
What’s the primary purpose of the site?
How many services or products do you offer?
How many pages need a unique design?
Do you want something simple or something sleek and interactive?
Are there any 3rd party systems to integrate with (e.g. CRMs, booking systems)?
Who’s writing the content, you or us?
Will you need video or photography?
Are you planning to actively market the site?
Do you want to rank on Google?
Each of these questions impacts time, scope, and skill set, and therefore cost.
It’s not about charging more for the sake of it. It’s about matching the right level of investment to your business goals.
Can’t I Just Use Wix or Squarespace?
Yes… and in many cases, you should.
If you're a startup with no budget and no need for Google visibility, a DIY website is a great starting point.
Platforms like Wix and Squarespace offer easy templates and a fast route to getting online. We won’t knock them, they serve a purpose.
But if you’re trying to generate leads, grow visibility, or create a platform that’s ready to scale with your business, you’ll soon hit limitations.
Templates don’t convert like bespoke designs.
Stock content doesn’t build trust.
Plug-ins don’t always play nicely together.
At that point, working with a professional agency becomes less of an indulgence and more of a necessity.
Especially if you’ve already had one or two website builds that didn’t quite deliver.
Content Management System (CMS): The Foundation of Your Website
Let’s talk about what your site is built on.
Most websites need a CMS, a Content Management System, so you can update and manage your content without needing a developer every time.
The most common CMS is WordPress, used by more than half of all CMS-powered websites globally.
WordPress is flexible. It’s also free to use, and it has thousands of plug-ins to add features.
But here’s the caveat: those plug-ins are made by third-party developers.
They’re not always compatible with each other. They can introduce security risks. And over time, a patchwork of plug-ins can slow your site down, conflict with updates, or break entirely.
We used WordPress for years.
But now, we build almost exclusively on Statamic, a secure, lightning-fast CMS with fewer moving parts, full flexibility, and far less ongoing maintenance.
It’s not off-the-shelf. But that’s the point.
We build each site from the ground up, so it’s tailored to your business and rock-solid from day one.
Homepage Design & Development
Your homepage is your shop window, and it’s where most of your traffic will land.
This single page can take as much time and care as all the others combined. Why?
Because it needs to do everything: explain what you do, show who you are, create trust, guide visitors to the right next step, and make Google happy all at once.
A great homepage often requires five different skill sets:
A designer to create the layout and visual language.
A developer to build it responsively and cleanly.
A content writer to craft concise, persuasive copy.
An SEO specialist to optimise it for rankings.
A videographer/photographer to bring it to life.
So when someone says, “Can I get a full website for £500?,” the short answer is: not if you want all that.
Subpage Design & Development
After the homepage, we look at what sits underneath.
A basic site might include:
About Us
Contact
A single Service page
Blog (2 layouts: list + individual post)
But that’s the bare minimum.
If you offer multiple services, run campaigns, showcase projects, or want tailored content for different audiences, you’ll need more.
Each of those sections, case studies, landing pages, FAQs, galleries, service breakdowns, should have their own design and logic. They're not all built the same.
So while the first five pages might form the core of your site, the next five to ten determine its reach and effectiveness.
The good news? Once those templates are built, they’re reusable.
New pages can be created easily, but the upfront time is in building those unique, flexible templates in the first place.
Slick Design & Transitions: What Makes a Site Feel “Modern”?
This is where cost often starts to climb, and where you can often see the difference between a £3k site and a £15k site.
A basic site is often static: content appears, you scroll, that’s it.
But a “slick” site has movement. Visual hierarchy. Subtle transitions. Scroll-triggered animations. Hover states. Maybe even 3D elements (yes, we once had a spinning cat).
These details take time to design and build, but they’re what give your site depth.
They help guide users, create brand immersion, and elevate the overall perception of your business.
Not every site needs it. If your audience just needs information quickly, simplicity might be better.
But if your goal is to stand out, this is where it happens.
Core Features: What Every Website Should Have
No matter the industry, every site needs a few essentials:
Speed: Your site needs to load quickly. Google expects it. So do your users.
Security: Especially if you're collecting user data, you need to be protected.
Mobile responsiveness: Over 70% of browsing is mobile. Your site needs to work perfectly on any screen.
Trackable forms: Enquiry forms that not only work, but show you where your leads are coming from (e.g. Google Ads, organic search, social).
CMS access: So you can edit your content without technical help.
Beyond that, features become business-specific. A quote calculator. Booking tool. Client portal.
Whatever helps your users convert.
Content: Who’s Writing the Words?
This part often gets underestimated. And in many ways, it's the most important.
People don’t buy services. They buy clarity. They want to know what you do, how you do it, and why you’re better, and they want to know fast.
Good content turns confused visitors into confident buyers.
We always ask: "Do you want to write it, or do you want us to?" If you have the time and skill to write it yourself, great, we’ll give you guidance.
But if not, investing in professional copywriting will make everything else work harder.
Well-written content not only reads well. It supports SEO. It guides design. And it massively improves conversion.
Video & Photography: Are You Showing Your Team?
Stock photos are fine in a pinch. But they won’t build trust.
If your messaging is all about your people, your values, or your culture, then show them. Use real images. Film a short intro video. Bring personality into your brand.
You don’t need to spend thousands on a studio shoot. A single day with a videographer and photographer can capture a library of assets that’ll serve your brand for years.
Video is especially powerful.
It helps people get to know you without lifting a finger. It boosts time-on-page and improves conversion. It’s quicker to watch than to read, and it builds trust, fast.
SEO: When Should You Think About It?
Short answer: from the very beginning.
Beyond keywords, SEO is about structure, hierarchy, accessibility, site speed, and user behaviour.
A good build bakes SEO into the foundations. That means:
Clear page structures
Clean code
Logical navigation
Fast performance
Mobile-friendliness
Schema markup
You don’t need to commit to a full SEO campaign on day one. But your site should support SEO, otherwise, you’ll pay twice when your marketing agency has to unpick it all later.
The House and the Roads: Our Favourite Analogy
We mentioned this earlier, but it’s worth repeating.
Think of your website like a house.
We build the house, the structure, the foundation, the layout.
You furnish it with content, your copy, images, and video.
And if you want people to find it, you need roads, your marketing channels: Google, social, paid ads, email.
A brilliant house in the middle of nowhere is still… in the middle of nowhere. That’s why the best websites are built with marketing in mind.
If you think you’ll need SEO, email automation, or PPC campaigns in future, we’ll build for that now. So you’re not rebuilding again in six months.
So… How Much Does a Website Actually Cost?
Let’s be transparent.
You can get a basic online presence via Wix for £20 a month.
You can also spend £80,000 on a fully bespoke web platform with custom integrations, photography, video, CRM systems, and marketing automation.
Most of our clients fall somewhere in the middle.
A small brochure site with a homepage, content pages, and minimal features might start from £7,000–£12,000.
A high-performance lead-gen site with SEO, video, content writing, and custom features usually ranges from £15,000–£25,000.
Larger projects involving branding, ecommerce, bespoke integrations, or complex functionality often reach £30,000–£80,000, depending on scope.
Every site we quote comes with a full breakdown. We’ll show you the shopping list, so you can pick what you want, and see exactly how it adds up.
If you want to write your own content? That saves you a chunk.
Got brand photography already? Great, we’ll work with that.
Need help with everything? We’ve got the full team ready.
It’s flexible, but every decision affects the total.
What Are You Really Paying For?
What you’re investing in isn’t just a website.
You’re investing in:
Strategy
Design
Build
UX
SEO
Messaging
Performance
You’re paying for a team of experts who do this every day, who know what converts, what works, and how to create a site that doesn’t just look good, but performs.
Most of our clients come to us after they’ve been burned once or twice.
They’ve tried the £500 site. They’ve poured a few grand into tweaks. They’ve gone down the template route. And eventually, they’ve hit the wall, the moment they realise that saving money upfront often costs more later.
We’re not the cheapest. But we are the last agency most people need.
So when you ask, “How much does a website cost?" The answer is: it depends.
But when you ask, “What do I need to invest to get it right?,” that’s a conversation worth having.