How much does a small business website cost in the UK and Wales?

Do it yourself on a builder such as Squarespace, Wix or GoDaddy and you pay a subscription that covers the software and the hosting, while the design, the words, the photographs and the time are yours. It usually costs least in money and most in hours.

A freelancer is one person paid for the build. An agency is a team, perhaps a designer, a developer, a writer and a project manager, often with support after launch. Either may build on a website builder, on WordPress or on a system of their own, and that choice shapes what you pay in later years.

We found no independent source for typical freelancer or agency fees, so this guide prints none; the range above comes from a company that sells a website builder.

You pay for the build once. The rest returns every year: the domain name, the hosting or builder subscription, email at your own address, any apps or plugins that charge, and somebody’s time to apply updates. Ask every supplier to price each one as a yearly figure.

Free first years end. Squarespace includes a free domain for the first year with an annual plan, and Wix gives a domain voucher with selected yearly plans, not monthly ones; after that year, both renew the domain at their standard price. Ask what the second year of anything costs.

For a Welsh address, .cymru and .wales sit alongside .uk and .co.uk. Nominet runs .cymru and .wales and supplies them only through accredited registrars, so compare two or three, renewal price included.

Then VAT. Most services carry the standard rate of 20%, and only a business registered for VAT can claim it back. If yours is not registered, read every price with VAT added, because that is what you will pay.

The price on the invoice is not always the cost. A business registered for VAT can usually reclaim the VAT on a website it buys for the business, so a £10,000 build invoiced at £12,000 costs £10,000 once that VAT is reclaimed.

A limited company may also get Corporation Tax relief on the spend. How depends on the work: HMRC generally treats building a new site as capital, relieved under different rules, and updating or running it as a day-to-day expense. The rate depends on profits: 19% on profits up to £50,000, 25% above £250,000, and marginal relief between the two.

As an illustration only: if the whole £10,000 qualified for relief straight away, it would save £2,500 at the 25% rate, an effective cost of £7,500, or £1,900 at the 19% rate, an effective cost of £8,100. Whether any of it qualifies, and in which year, depends on your business.

Pages. Each one is planned, written, laid out and checked, so count the pages you need before you ask for a price.

Doing, not just telling. Online booking, a shop, deposits, a members’ area or a link to your stock or accounts software adds work at the start, and some add a monthly charge.

Words and pictures. Some quotes assume you supply all the text and photographs. Copywriting, or a photographer’s day, is a separate line, and often where a low quote and a high one differ. Text in your customers’ own words is also what search engines and assistants work from.

A second language. Two sets of pages, menus, forms and emails, and Welsh from somebody fluent. That needs a section of its own.

In simple terms, no. A site that says clearly what you do, where you work and how to reach you, in one language or two, is not a five or six figure project. Quotes in that range are for a different kind of work: software built to order, links into other systems, a large team or a long programme of changes.

If a quote that size covers things you need, it may be fair. If it does not, ask the agency to show which lines pay for which work, and ask yourself whether you need each one.

If you have had a quote in that range, send it to us. We will give you a like-for-like quote for the same work, because we invest in the relationship, not just the technology.

A bilingual site is two sets of pages, not one set with a translate button. Google recommends a separate address for each language and judges a page’s language from its visible text, not its code, so keep each page in one language rather than setting Welsh and English side by side. Each version should also name the other in its code, in both directions.

The Welsh has to come from somebody fluent. Cymdeithas Cyfieithwyr Cymru, the professional association for Welsh translators, says translators usually charge per 1,000 words, most with a minimum fee, and that some charge VAT. For short pieces, Helo Blod, the Welsh Government’s free service, translates up to 500 words a month for a business, and points you to a professional translator for more.

A low bilingual price often hides one of two shortcuts. One is machine translation that no Welsh speaker has read: in 2024 Google said low-quality automatic translations might count against a site, and advised having a native speaker review and fix them. The other is Welsh pages whose main text was never translated, the one case in which Google says a language version counts as a duplicate.

So build both languages in from the start. Squarespace’s own help pages show the alternative: adding a language by hand means copying and translating each page, built-in text such as the checkout stays in one language, and the two languages cannot have separate domains. Ask any builder or designer how the Welsh pages will get their own addresses, forms and emails.

A cheap site can be perfectly readable and an expensive one close to invisible. Search engines and assistants work from the text and the code behind the design, and Google’s guidance on its AI features asks for nothing beyond what ordinary search needs. Four things matter at any budget.

Words as text. Services, prices, opening hours and contact details written on the page, not set inside a picture. Google advises against putting important text in images, especially headings and menu items.

Facts in structured data. A short block of code states your name, address, hours and services in a vocabulary that search engines share. Google’s guidelines say it must describe only what a visitor can see on the page.

Both languages declared, as described above, and a way to edit the words yourself. A site you cannot update drifts out of date, and an assistant can only repeat what your pages say.

It is also the one channel you own. A social platform decides who sees a post and for how long; your site says what you choose for as long as you choose, and it is one of the places search engines and assistants read about you.

Send every designer or agency the same brief: the pages, what the site must do, who supplies the words and photographs, and which languages. Put the questions below to each, in writing. Quotes are only comparable when the answers are.

Ownership matters most. Have the domain registered in your business’s name, with the login held by you, and the words and photographs owned by you. On a builder or the designer’s own system, ask what you can take with you, and what happens to your address, if you move. For a second opinion, Business Wales, the Welsh Government’s fully funded business support service, gives free advice online, by phone and one to one.