What got quicker: the routine part of the build
AI coding assistants are now ordinary working equipment. In Stack Overflow’s 2026 survey of around 30,900 developers, 83% used at least one AI tool.
On a single, clearly specified job they make a measurable difference. In a 2023 Microsoft Research experiment, developers with GitHub Copilot built a small web server 55.8% faster than developers without it. In three later field experiments at Microsoft, Accenture and a Fortune 100 company, nearly 4,900 developers with an AI assistant completed about 26% more tasks, and the less experienced gained most.
Much of a small business website is that kind of work: setting up the project, building page layouts from a design, wiring up a contact form and adding structured data. It is well-trodden, clearly specified work, the kind those experiments measured.
Why it is not a simple discount
The evidence does not all point one way. In a 2025 trial by the research group METR, experienced developers working on large projects they knew well took 19% longer with AI tools, while believing they had been faster. METR now describes that result as out of date, and says its 2026 follow-up could not measure today’s effect reliably.
The time saved also moves rather than vanishes. In a UK government trial of AI coding assistants, developers estimated they saved about 56 minutes a day, yet only around 15% of the code the tools wrote was used without a person editing it. Somebody still has to read, test and correct what a tool produces.
And nobody has measured what this has done to prices. We found no independent survey of what UK small businesses pay for a website, and none tracking how quotes have changed since these tools arrived, so we cannot tell you that prices in general have fallen. What we can say is which parts of a build got quicker, and which did not.
What has not got cheaper
Words. Good writing about your business still takes somebody who understands it. In the ProCopywriters survey of UK copywriters, professionals reported their day rates rising by around 9% in 2025.
Accessibility checking by a person. Automated checkers catch part of the problem: when the Government Digital Service tested 13 tools on a page with 142 deliberate barriers, the best single tool found about 40% of them. A 2024 study found accessibility problems in 84% of the websites ChatGPT generated. A person still has to test with a keyboard and a screen reader.
Welsh. Machine translation can help a qualified translator work faster, but the Welsh Language Commissioner’s guidance advises working with professional translators rather than relying on a machine. A Welsh page should be written or checked by somebody fluent.
Photographs of your own premises, people and work. An AI image of a business is not a picture of yours, and the Advertising Standards Authority’s rules on misleading advertising apply to AI images as to any other.
Hosting can cost little, if you read the terms
A simple site that does not change from visitor to visitor can be hosted very cheaply. Cloudflare Pages, for example, serves static pages on its free plan with no limit on the number of requests.
Free plans come with conditions. Vercel’s free Hobby plan is for non-commercial personal use only, so a business site needs a paid plan, and GitHub says GitHub Pages is not for running an online business. A business site on a free plan that forbids commercial use is on borrowed time.
Ask what your site is hosted on, under which plan, and what that costs you each year.
If your developer has not mentioned it, ask
There are fair reasons a developer may not have raised it. Most of their quote may be time that AI does not shorten: meetings, design, writing, testing and support. They may spend the time saved on more checking. Or nobody has asked them.
Asking is not an accusation. A good developer will be glad to explain where your money goes, and the answers will tell you more about a quote than its total does.
- Which parts of this quote are building the site, and which are writing, design, testing and support?
- Has the way you build changed since 2023, and has the price?
- What does a person still check by hand before the site goes live?
- What will the site be hosted on, on which plan, and what does that cost each year?
- Who writes or checks the Welsh?
What we changed
Safle builds sites on a platform that does the routine part automatically, which is how we have been able to reduce the cost of building and hosting a bilingual website.
What we have not handed to a machine is the judgement. Every page, in each language, is approved by a named person before it goes live, after automated checks of accessibility, structure and both languages on every build.
If you have a quote and would like to compare, send it to us with the brief and we will price the same work.
Frequently asked questions
Do AI tools make web developers faster?
On clearly specified tasks, controlled studies say yes: 55.8% faster on one small task, and about 26% more tasks completed across nearly 4,900 developers in field experiments. On large, familiar projects a 2025 trial found experienced developers slower, so it depends on the work.
Should a website quote be cheaper in 2026 than in 2023?
Nobody has measured whether UK quotes have fallen. The routine build is quicker, but writing, testing, accessibility checks and Welsh still take people. Ask which parts of your quote are which.
Can AI build a small business website on its own?
It can produce one, but a 2024 study found accessibility problems in 84% of the sites ChatGPT built, and Welsh needs a fluent person. A person should check every page before it goes live.
Is free hosting good enough for a business website?
Sometimes, if the plan allows commercial use. Some free plans do not: Vercel’s Hobby plan is for non-commercial personal use only, and GitHub says GitHub Pages is not for running an online business.