“How much does a website cost?” is a bit like asking “How much does a car cost?” The honest answer is: it depends what you need. But that is not very helpful when you are trying to budget, so here is a transparent breakdown of the main options and what drives the price.
Figures below are typical ranges for small businesses and will vary by provider, location and complexity. They are a guide, not a quote.
Option 1: DIY website builders
Platforms such as Wix, Squarespace and the WordPress.com hosted plans let you build a site yourself using templates.
- Typical cost: a monthly subscription, often somewhere in the region of £15–£45 (€15–€50 in Ireland), plus your domain.
- Pros: cheap to start, quick to launch.
- Cons: it takes your time, results often look template-based, and it is easy to miss important things like SEO, speed and legal pages.
Best for: brand-new businesses testing an idea, or hobby projects.
Option 2: Template-based professional website
A designer or agency customises a quality theme for your brand, writes or polishes your content and sets everything up properly.
- Typical cost: often in the region of £700–£2,000 (€800–€2,500) for a small brochure site of around five to ten pages.
- Pros: professional result, faster and cheaper than fully bespoke.
- Cons: some design constraints.
Best for: most small service businesses.
Option 3: Custom-designed website
A fully bespoke design created around your brand, audience and goals.
- Typical cost: frequently £2,500–£8,000+ (€3,000–€10,000+), depending on size and features.
- Pros: unique design, built precisely around your needs.
- Cons: higher investment and longer timescales.
Best for: established businesses where the website is central to winning customers.
Option 4: E-commerce websites
Selling online adds products, payments, shipping, taxes, stock management and more.
- Typical cost: a small webshop often starts from around £1,500–£4,000 (€2,000–€5,000) and rises with the number of products, integrations and custom features.
- Ongoing: platform fees, payment processing fees and apps or plugins.
Not sure whether WooCommerce or Shopify is right for you? We can talk it through on a free Health Check.
Option 5: Custom web applications and portals
Booking systems, client portals, membership areas and internal tools are priced by scope and are typically quoted individually.
What drives the price up (or down)?
- Number of pages and templates.
- Who writes the content. Professional copywriting adds cost but often makes the biggest difference to results.
- Photography and video.
- Multilingual content. A second language (for example Welsh or Irish, or the languages of export markets) can add a significant amount, especially if professionally translated.
- Integrations: booking systems, CRMs, payment gateways, email marketing tools.
- Overheads. Agencies with expensive city-centre offices have to charge more. One reason we can offer lower prices is that we run lean, without large overheads, and pass the savings on.
Do not forget the ongoing costs
A website is not a one-off purchase. Budget for:
- Domain name: usually a modest annual fee.
- Hosting: from a few pounds a month for basic hosting to more for managed, high-performance hosting.
- Maintenance: updates, backups and security, either DIY or via a care plan. Our website care plans cover this every month.
- Content updates and improvements.
Cheap can be expensive
A very low-cost website that is slow, hard to update, invisible on Google or legally non-compliant often ends up costing more in lost customers and eventual rebuilds. Equally, you do not need to spend a fortune. The right website is the one that pays for itself through enquiries and sales.
Our approach
At Codeworkflow, we work on agreed hours and transparent quotes. No long tie-ins and no surprise invoices. Tell us what you need and we will give you an honest estimate — and tell you if a simpler option would serve you better. Request a quote.
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