Short answer: £350 to £20,000+ depending on who builds it and what you need. Most small UK businesses sit at £500–£2,000 for a one-off build, plus £100–£500/month if they want it looking after. Here are the real 2026 numbers, by builder type and by business size.

UK web design prices — by builder type

The single biggest variable in UK web design prices is who's quoting. Same site, four different prices.

DIY on Wix or Squarespace — £14–£40/month subscription, your own time. Average is around £25/month for a Business plan. Over five years: £1,500. Time cost: 20–40 hours upfront, then a few hours a month forever.
Solo freelancer or small studio — £350–£2,000 one-off, plus optional retainer. Lincoln, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester all in this range. London freelancers add 30–50%.
Mid-size agency — £4,000–£15,000 one-off, plus £300–£1,200/month retainer. You get account managers, a designer, a developer, and a project manager. The website itself is usually fine; you're paying for the overhead.
Big agency (50+ staff) — £15,000–£100,000. Same five-page site as the freelancer, but with a brand workshop, slide decks, and twelve people on Zoom calls. Not bad work — just enormously inflated.

UK web design prices — by business size

Sole trader, single-trade business — £350–£700

Five pages: home, services, gallery, area, contact. The most common build in the UK. A competent freelancer does it in 10 days for £350–£700. Anything more and you're paying for someone's overhead. If you're a tradesperson, we have specific guides for plumbers, electricians, builders, and tradesmen.

Small SME, multi-service — £500–£2,000

Eight to twelve pages, a real service architecture, area pages, a CRM-linked form. Solo builders quote £500–£1,200. Small agencies quote £2,000–£4,000. Either can do it well.

Multi-location or complex service business — £1,500–£8,000

Twenty-plus pages, separate location pages with local schema, CRM integration, possibly a booking system. Pricing varies hugely depending on integrations. A clear scope sheet keeps it under £4,000 with the right builder.

E-commerce — £1,500–£15,000

Shopify or WooCommerce up to 100 products: £1,500–£5,000. Custom Stripe e-commerce or B2B catalogue site: £5,000–£15,000. Pricing here depends almost entirely on the integrations (stock feed, payment, fulfilment).

The hidden costs nobody quotes

These line items turn a £500 site into a £2,500 surprise:

Copywriting — £80–£200 per page. Five pages = £500 you didn't budget for.
Photography — half-day shoot, £200–£400. Worth every penny for restaurants, hotels, trades.
SEO setup — keyword research, schema, Search Console. Sometimes bundled, often not. £150–£400 one-off.
Hosting — £8–£100/month depending on platform and traffic.
Email — Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, £6/mailbox/month.
Page-builder licence — Wix/Webflow/Squarespace all bill monthly. £14–£36/month forever.
"Maintenance" — agencies charge £75–£300/month for what's often just SSL renewal and a backup script running automatically. Ask what's actually being done.

How much does ongoing work cost?

Once the site is live, expect:

Hosting £10–£100/month
Domain £10–£20/year
Email £6–£12/mailbox/month
Edits and upkeep £50–£500/month (optional)
SEO monitoring £100–£500/month (optional)
Social media management £250–£1,500/month (optional)

A typical small UK business sits at £150–£400/month total ongoing if they outsource the basics, or £20–£40/month if they DIY everything except hosting.

How Zebweb prices it

Fixed: £500 Standard (5 pages), £750 Plus (10 pages), £1,000 Premium (unlimited). Care plans from £250/mo Bronze, £400/mo Silver, £550/mo Gold (6-month minimum, rolling monthly after). Same price whether you're in Lincoln, Leeds, or London — see the UK web design page for the full breakdown.

If you want a 60-second answer to "what would mine cost", use the calculator — no email required.