How Much Does It Cost to Have a Website Built? An Honest Breakdown
How much does a website cost? Real price ranges from website builders to custom development — and an honest guide to which option suits your business.
// featuredEvery business owner asks this question — and "it depends" is technically correct but practically useless. This article gives you real price ranges, clear differences between your available options, and honest guidance on when each one actually makes sense.
The four routes to a website — and what each actually costs
Comparison: website builder vs. professional custom website
There are essentially four ways to get a professional online presence. They differ not just in price, but in what you actually get at the end.
| Option | One-off cost | Ongoing cost | Your time investment | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website builder (Wix, Squarespace) | £0–400 | £12–45/month | High (DIY) | Hobby projects, basic online presence |
| WordPress template agency | £1,200–4,500 | £45–130/month | Medium | Small businesses without SEO goals |
| Custom WordPress agency | £3,500–10,000 | £90–220/month | Low | Businesses with an in-house content team |
| Custom-built website | £4,500–18,000 | £70–180/month | Low | Businesses using SEO as a growth channel |
These are realistic reference figures — there's no upper limit, but there is a floor: pay significantly less than the bottom of any range and you'll get significantly less than what the category promises.
What drives the price of a professional website
No reputable agency pulls a number out of thin air — every quote reflects specific cost factors:
Number of pages. A homepage plus five service pages is an entirely different project from a 30-page site with location landing pages and a blog. Scope is the single biggest variable.
Custom features. Booking systems, interactive calculators, multilingual content, client portals — each feature means development time. A simple contact form takes a day; a custom pricing configurator takes a week or more.
Copywriting. Professional website copy that actually converts rarely comes from the client. Delegating this to the agency costs more upfront and, in most cases, delivers a better return.
SEO setup. A technically clean foundation — structured data, correct meta tags, logical URL architecture, internal linking — is not a luxury. It is the minimum required for Google to properly index and rank your site. Many cheap builds skip this entirely.
Hosting and ongoing maintenance. Some agencies bundle these into a monthly retainer; others invoice them separately. Always ask explicitly what the ongoing cost covers before signing.
Why cheap often ends up expensive
The instinct to save on the biggest line item is understandable. For websites, it is usually a mistake.
Website builders like Wix or Squarespace feel affordable at first. Long-term, the hidden costs accumulate: you are locked into the platform and lose everything if you ever leave. Load times are structurally worse than a cleanly built site, which directly affects Google rankings. SEO control is limited — critical settings like URL structure, meta tags, and structured data can only be partially configured.
The real cost question is not: what does the website cost? It is: what does it cost when the website generates no enquiries?
Work the numbers concretely: if you lose three qualified enquiries per month because your site is slow, confusing on mobile, or buried on page three — and each enquiry has an average margin of £600 — your "affordable" solution is costing you over £21,000 per year in lost revenue. Against that figure, a professionally built website is a straightforward investment with a measurable return.
What every professional website must include
Regardless of price point, there are minimum standards every website should meet before it actively tries to attract customers:
A clear offer above the fold. The first screen has to answer three questions within five seconds: What do you offer? For whom? And why should someone enquire with you specifically? Generic buzzwords like "quality", "expertise", and "client satisfaction" answer none of these.
Contact within one click. Every single page on your site should have a visible path to get in touch — a phone number, a button to a form, a WhatsApp link. Anyone who needs three clicks to reach you will not bother.
Mobile-first design. More than 60% of all searches happen on smartphones. A website that looks great on desktop but breaks on a phone loses the majority of its potential customers before they have read a single sentence.
Load time under 2 seconds. Google treats load time as a ranking signal. Users process it unconsciously — and more than half will leave if a page takes over 3 seconds to load.
SSL and legal compliance. A site without HTTPS is flagged as insecure by modern browsers, which erodes trust immediately. A proper privacy policy, cookie consent setup, and legal notice are not optional in most jurisdictions — they are legal requirements.
Which option is right for you?
Rather than a blanket recommendation, here is an honest decision guide:
A website builder makes sense if: you have no plans to grow through organic search in the next year, the site is primarily a digital business card, and you want to manage your own content without technical help.
WordPress via an agency makes sense if: your team needs to publish blog posts, news, or product updates independently, and your budget does not stretch to a full custom build.
A custom-built website makes sense if: Google is a serious growth channel for your business, the site needs to stay stable and low-maintenance for years, and you need specific features that no plugin handles cleanly.
None of these options is inherently wrong. The wrong option is the one that does not match your actual goal.
Not sure what fits your situation?
We'll look at your specific situation and tell you honestly which option makes sense — whether that's Kasoria or not.
