Web design packages in the UK fall into three rough price tiers: a starter package of up to five pages at £500 to £1,200, a growth package of 8 to 15 pages at £1,500 to £3,000, and an e-commerce package at £3,000 to £8,000 or more. The tier you pay for mostly decides three things: how many pages you get, whether the design is made for you or adapted from a template, and whether the site can take payments. Hosting, copywriting, photography and upkeep are usually extra, and Whito's UK pricing research says those extras typically add 30 to 50% on top of the quoted price.
I'm Mohit Goyal, a freelance web developer in Gurugram, India, and I've built sites for UK hotels, venues, restaurants and shops through a London agency. This guide is written for a UK business owner comparing packages, not for a developer. All prices are in pounds, and every figure links to the page I found it on.
£500 to £1,200
Typical UK starter package, up to 5 pages (ProfileTree)
£520
Median of 28 published fixed-price UK packages (Whito, June 2026)
30 to 50%
What uncounted extras add to a quote (Whito)
£500 to £2,000+
Typical running cost per year after launch (Whito)
What do web design packages in the UK cost in 2026?
Most web design packages in the UK cost between about £500 and £8,000 as a one-off fee, or, on a pay monthly plan, anything from £25 a month at the cheap end to £400 a month at the agency end. The spread is wide because "package" means different things to different sellers.
Here is what the pages I checked say about web design prices in the UK. I've kept each source's own numbers so you can see how far apart they sit.
| Source | Starter or brochure site | Mid tier | Top or e-commerce tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProfileTree | £500 to £1,200 | £1,500 to £3,000 | £3,000 to £8,000+ |
| Redefine Web | £2,000 to £6,500 | £6,500 to £20,000 | £20,000 to £95,000 |
| ExpertSure, freelancer prices | £500 to £1,500 (3 to 5 pages) | £1,500 to £3,000 (5 to 10 pages) | £3,000 to £10,000 (e-commerce) |
| Whito, freelancer and agency | £1,500 to £3,000 (freelancer, 5 pages) | £3,000 to £5,000 (agency, 5 pages) | £5,000 to £20,000+ (e-commerce) |
Two things explain the gap.
First, who is selling. Redefine Web's bands describe agency work billed at £85 to £145 an hour in cities like Manchester and Bristol, and £120 to £220 an hour in London. ExpertSure's lower bands are for freelancers charging £25 to £80 an hour for junior to experienced work.
Second, what the seller counts as a package. When Whito collected 28 fixed-price packages that UK designers publish openly on their sites, the median was £520, and the middle half sat between £399 and £898. That is far below the same study's finding that most UK businesses pay £3,000 to £6,000 for a professionally built website. Both are true. The cheap published packages are small template sites. The £3,000 to £6,000 figure covers quoted projects with more pages, custom design and more hand-holding.
So a price on its own tells you very little. You have to read what is inside the tier.
What does each price tier include?
A starter tier buys a small template-based site, a growth tier buys custom design and more pages, and an e-commerce tier adds a shop with payments. Above that sits custom work, which is quoted rather than packaged.
This table uses ProfileTree's three tiers for prices, pages and build time, because that page lists all three in one place.
| Tier | Typical price | Pages | What is usually included | Build time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | £500 to £1,200 | Up to 5 | Mobile-friendly design, basic on-page SEO, SSL, a login so you can edit the site | 3 to 5 weeks |
| Growth | £1,500 to £3,000 | 8 to 15 | Custom design, content structured for search, analytics, training on the editor | 6 to 8 weeks |
| E-commerce | £3,000 to £8,000+ | Depends on catalogue | WooCommerce or Shopify build, payment setup, product catalogue, checkout work | 10 to 14 weeks |
A few of those words need a plain explanation. SSL is the padlock in the browser bar that shows the connection is secure. On-page SEO means page titles, headings and descriptions written so Google understands each page. A CMS (content management system) is the login area where you change text and photos yourself, and WordPress is the most common one.
What does a starter package include?
A starter package gives you a small site, usually up to five pages, built on a ready-made template with your logo, colours and words dropped in. Expect a home page, an about page, a services page, a contact page and one spare.
Typical contents, based on the starter tiers at ProfileTree and Cloudswitched: mobile-friendly design, a contact form, basic SEO, SSL and editor access. Redefine Web's starter tier adds on-page SEO for 3 to 5 keywords and a Google Analytics install.
What you usually don't get: design made from scratch, a blog, booking or payment features, and words written for you. A starter package suits a sole trader or a new business that needs to look credible when someone searches the business name.
What does a growth or business package include?
A growth package (some sellers call it "business" or "professional") covers 8 to 15 pages with a design made for your business instead of a lightly edited template. This is the tier most established small businesses need.
Cloudswitched's Professional tier is a fair example of the contents: up to fifteen pages, a CMS, a blog, lead capture forms and enhanced SEO. ProfileTree's Growth tier lists custom design, SEO-structured content, analytics and CMS training. Lead capture forms are enquiry forms that send the details somewhere useful, such as your inbox, a spreadsheet or a CRM (the system where you track customers).
The extra money goes on three things: more pages, a designer's time, and thinking about how a visitor moves from landing on the site to getting in touch. If your website is expected to bring in enquiries from Google, this is the lowest tier where that is realistic.
What does an e-commerce package include?
An e-commerce package adds an online shop: product pages, a basket, a checkout and a payment provider. In the UK it is usually built on WooCommerce (a free shop add-on for WordPress) or Shopify (a hosted shop platform with a monthly fee).
ProfileTree's e-commerce guide splits shops into their own three tiers: a starter shop at £800 to £2,500 with a template theme and up to 20 product pages, a growth shop at £2,500 to £8,000 with semi-custom design and one payment and one fulfilment integration, and a custom shop at £8,000 to £25,000 or more.
Check four things in any shop package: how many products are loaded for you, which payment provider is set up, whether delivery rules and VAT are configured, and whether the order emails are styled and tested. Loading products is slow work. If the package covers 20 and you sell 200, somebody has to enter the other 180.
What does a custom or premium package include?
A custom package is a quoted project with a package label on it. It covers bespoke design, more pages and features built for how your business works.
Cloudswitched's Premium tier describes it as up to thirty pages, bespoke design, custom features, integrations and priority support. Redefine Web prices its Custom band at £20,000 to £95,000 for 20 or more pages over 12 to 26 weeks, which is agency pricing for larger firms. ExpertSure puts complex custom freelance builds of 20 or more pages at £10,000 to £50,000 or more.
If you're a small business and a seller pushes you towards this tier, ask which specific feature needs it. Often the honest answer is one integration, and that can be added to a growth package as a priced extra.
Related guide: Freelance web designer vs web developer: who do you need?
What do real web design packages examples look like?
Real UK packages come in two shapes: a one-off price per tier, or a monthly fee with hosting bundled in. Here are four examples with prices published on the sellers' own sites when I checked in November 2026. I have no connection to any of them, and prices change, so check each page yourself.
| Seller and package | Published price | Pages | Notable terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cahillbrand Starter | £594 including VAT, or £54 a month | 1 scrolling page | First year of domain, hosting and SSL included |
| Cahillbrand Growth | £1,674 including VAT, or £150 a month | 5 to 7 | Blog and basic integrations included, no shop |
| Cahillbrand Business + | £2,394 including VAT, or £210 a month | 8 to 10 | Multi-step forms and a handful of products |
| iWebServices Startup | From £25 a month plus £199 setup | Up to 10 | 36-month minimum term |
| iWebServices eCommerce | From £40 a month plus £299 setup | Not stated | 36-month minimum term, PayPal payments for your customers |
| RWD Brochure Website | From £180 a month plus VAT | Not stated | No upfront fee, 6 hours of updates a year |
| RWD eCommerce Package | From £315 a month plus VAT | Not stated | No upfront fee, 10 hours of updates a year |
| Netmatters pay monthly | £44 and £71.50 a month both appear | Not stated | Hosting and SSL included |
Look at what these web design packages examples have in common. Page count is the main dial. Forms get more capable as you go up. A shop only appears at the top. And the details that matter most to you later, such as contract length and who owns the site, are often not on the pricing page at all.
So read the contract, not only the pricing page.
Are pay monthly web design packages cheaper than paying once?
No, pay monthly usually costs more in total, but it spreads the cost and often bundles hosting and support. Redefine Web's guide puts pay monthly plans at £80 to £400 a month over 12 to 36 months, with the total running 10 to 25% above the fixed price.
The only way to compare is to do the sum over the whole term. The totals below are my own sums from the published prices above, not figures the sellers quote. Each uses the lowest "from" price, so treat them as the least you would pay:
- iWebServices Startup: £199 setup plus 36 payments of £25 comes to £1,099 over three years (source).
- iWebServices Business: £250 setup plus 36 payments of £30 comes to £1,330 (source).
- iWebServices eCommerce: £299 setup plus 36 payments of £40 comes to £1,739 (source).
- RWD Brochure Website: 36 payments of £180 comes to £6,480 before VAT (source).
- Cahillbrand Growth: £150 a month passes the £1,674 one-off price in month 12, so ask how many months the monthly option runs for (source).
- iWebServices Startup1099£
- iWebServices Business1330£
- iWebServices eCommerce1739£
- RWD Brochure6480£
Those totals aren't like for like. A £1,099 three-year plan and a £6,480 one will not include the same design time or the same amount of support. The sum still helps, because it turns "£25 a month" into a real number you can hold against a one-off quote plus three years of hosting.
Pay monthly can be a sensible choice when cash is tight and the plan covers hosting, updates and small changes. It is a poor choice when the minimum term is long, the price can rise, and you walk away with nothing if you stop paying.
Ask who owns the site
Before you sign a pay monthly plan, get it in writing that the domain name is registered in your name and that you can take the site files with you when the minimum term ends. Some plans only rent you the site.
What is usually left out of a web design package?
Words, photos, hosting, upkeep and VAT are the usual gaps. A package price covers design and build. It rarely covers the material that goes into the site or the cost of keeping it online.
| Extra | Typical UK cost | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Copywriting (someone writes your pages) | £50 to £150 per page | Whito |
| Photography | £200 to £800 | Whito |
| SEO setup beyond the basics | £300 to £1,000 | Whito |
| Domain name | £10 to £30 a year | Whito |
| Hosting | £50 to £300 a year | Whito |
| Paid plugins or themes | £50 to £300 | Whito |
| Each extra page | £150 to £400 | Whito |
| Booking tools such as Calendly | Free to £15 to £25 a month | ProfileTree |
Copywriting catches most people out. Cloudswitched says plainly that its packages include basic content guidance and that professional copywriting is an add-on. If you plan to write the pages yourself, be honest about how long that will take you. Late content is one of the most common reasons a launch slips.
VAT is the other one. Sellers quote both ways: Cahillbrand's prices include VAT, RWD's exclude it, and some pages don't say. The standard UK VAT rate is 20%, so, as Redefine Web's example shows, a £15,000 build becomes £18,000 for a buyer who can't reclaim VAT. If your business isn't VAT registered, compare every quote with VAT added.
For a shop, add payment fees. Stripe charges 1.5% plus 20p for standard UK cards, and more for premium and non-UK cards. ProfileTree's guide suggests budgeting £20 to £100 a month for apps and plugins once the store is live.
What does a website cost each year after launch?
Expect £500 to £2,000 or more a year to keep a small business website running, according to Whito. That covers hosting, the domain, software updates, backups and small content changes.
The same research found that the median entry-level care plan across 18 UK price lists was £50 a month, and plans that include one hour of changes a month cost £49 to £170. ExpertSure puts freelancer maintenance retainers at £50 to £150 a month and agency retainers at £100 to £500 a month. A retainer is a fixed monthly fee for a set amount of upkeep.
Cheap packages can cost more over time. ProfileTree compares a £500 starter build with a £1,500 growth build over three years and arrives at £1,690 to £2,880 for the cheaper site against £1,800 to £2,100 for the dearer one, once hosting, security, paid plugins, maintenance and an early redesign are counted. That is one agency's estimate, and agencies have a reason to favour the bigger build. The logic is still sound: ask what years two and three will cost before you choose on the build price.
I've written separately about what WordPress maintenance costs in the UK if you want the detail on care plans.
Related guide: Website hosting and maintenance packages: what to compare
Which web design packages for small business owners make sense?
For most small businesses in the UK, the right package is the smallest tier that covers what the site has to do in its first year. Buy for the job, not for the page count.
Here is how I'd match web design packages for small business needs:
- You're a sole trader or just starting out. A starter package, or a website builder you run yourself. ExpertSure lists Wix from £9 a month and Squarespace from £12 a month, and suggests DIY for budgets under £1,000. A builder is fine if you have the time and your site is mostly a digital business card.
- You're a local service business that wants enquiries. A growth package. You need separate pages for each service and area, a proper enquiry form and analytics, so you can see what is working.
- You sell a small range of products. A starter shop package, or Shopify. ProfileTree suggests Shopify for catalogues under 20 products, with WooCommerce paying off as the catalogue grows.
- You take bookings or deposits. A growth package with a booking feature priced as an extra. This is where off-the-shelf tiers stop fitting, because how a venue, a clinic and a restaurant take bookings is different.
- You already have a site that underperforms. You may not need a package at all. A redesign of key pages or a speed fix can cost less than starting again.
One rule I'd apply to all of them: don't pay for pages you can't fill. A tidy 6-page site with good words and real photos beats a 15-page site padded with stock images.
Why do web design prices in the UK vary so much for the same site?
Web design prices in the UK vary because of who does the work, where they're based, and how much is designed from scratch. Page count matters less than people expect.
Who builds it. Whito's ranges put a 5-page brochure site at £1,500 to £3,000 from a freelancer and £3,000 to £5,000 from an agency. An agency carries a project manager, a designer, a developer and an office. A freelancer is one person, which is cheaper and usually quicker to talk to, but leaves you exposed if that person disappears.
Where they are. Redefine Web prices a 12-page growth build at £14,000 to £22,000 from a London agency, £9,500 to £16,000 in Manchester and £7,500 to £13,000 from a remote UK team. Whito says a freelancer outside London will typically charge 20 to 30% less for the same work. Some UK firms go further and hire outside the UK, which trades a lower price for less overlap in working hours.
Template or custom. A template is a ready-made layout. Adapting one takes days. Designing a site from a blank page, then building it to match, takes weeks. Most of the jump from the starter tier to the growth tier is this.
What it has to do. A shop, a booking system, a members' area or a link to your CRM each adds build and testing time. Two 10-page sites can sit thousands of pounds apart if one of them sells online and the other only describes a service.
The Whitfield Service Station site I built in Dover shows this. It is a WooCommerce online ordering site with a custom delivery radius plugin and cloud receipt printing. Neither of those is a page, so a package described only by its page count would not cover that job. Features like these have to be listed in the scope.
How long does each web design package take to build?
A starter package takes about three to five weeks, a growth package six to eight weeks and an e-commerce package ten to fourteen weeks, going by ProfileTree's timelines. Agency projects run longer: Redefine Web gives 4 to 8 weeks for its starter tier and 8 to 14 weeks for its growth tier.
The build itself is rarely the slow part. Waiting is: for the words, for photos, for feedback on a design, for a decision between two options. If you want a package delivered on time, have your content ready before the start date and name one person on your side who can approve things.
What should you ask before you buy a web design package?
Ask for the scope in writing, the total cost over three years, and proof that you'll own the result. These questions sort a good package from a risky one quickly.
- 1
Get the scope as a list
Ask for the number of pages, the features, how many rounds of design changes you get, and what counts as an extra. Ask what one more page costs after launch.
- 2
Ask about ownership
The domain name should be registered in your name. Confirm you get admin logins and can move the site to another host or developer.
- 3
Ask who provides the content
Find out whether words and photos are included. If they aren't, get a price for them or plan the time to do them yourself.
- 4
Ask for the three-year cost
Add the build, hosting, domain, paid plugin licences, maintenance and VAT. Compare packages on that number, not the headline.
- 5
Ask what happens after launch
Cloudswitched, for example, includes thirty days of post-launch support. Check how long fixes are free and what support costs after that.
- 6
Ask to see live sites
Look at two or three sites the seller built at your tier. Open them on your phone. Slow, cramped pages there will be slow, cramped pages for you.
A written scope protects both sides. If you don't have one yet, my free Project Scope Generator turns a two-line description of your site into a list of pages and features you can send to any seller for a like-for-like quote.
What are the red flags in a web design package?
The biggest red flags are a price that looks too low for the work, a long contract with no exit, and vague answers about ownership.
- A very low quote. ProfileTree calls a £200 quote a warning sign, not a bargain. Redefine Web says quotes under £1,800 can cost 30 to 50% more within 12 months once the gaps are filled. That second claim comes from an agency selling dearer packages, so weigh it accordingly, but check what a cheap quote leaves out.
- A long minimum term. Thirty-six months is a long time for a small business. Ask what you owe if you close, sell up or want to leave early.
- The seller registers your domain in their name. Then they control your web address and often your email. Getting a site back from a seller who has gone quiet is slow work, and I've written a guide on taking back a WordPress site if you're already there.
- "Unlimited" anything. Unlimited pages, unlimited changes and unlimited support always have a limit in the terms. Find it.
- "SEO included" with no detail. Basic SEO in a package means the site is set up so Google can read it. It doesn't mean ongoing work to climb the rankings. Ask which one you're buying.
- No named platform. If the seller won't say whether the site is on WordPress, Shopify, Wix or their own system, you can't judge how easy it will be to move later. A site on a seller's own private system usually can't be moved at all.
- No examples at your tier. A portfolio of large custom projects tells you nothing about what the £900 package looks like.
How can I help with a web design package for your UK business?
I build the kind of sites these packages describe, for UK businesses, working remotely from Gurugram, India. I don't publish fixed tiers. Tell me what the site has to do and I'll quote for that scope, so you aren't paying for fifteen pages when you need seven.
What I can honestly offer:
- WordPress business sites. I build on Bricks Builder, Elementor or a custom theme, from your design or one made by my design partners. Details are on my WordPress website service page. You get a site your team can edit without a developer.
- Shops and ordering. I build WooCommerce stores with Stripe payments, delivery rules and currency switching. See my WooCommerce service.
- UK experience. Through a London agency I delivered sites for UK hospitality and retail brands, including the Ravens Ait venue website with 20+ event pages, Stripe bookings and HubSpot forms.
- Ownership. My view is that your domain, hosting account and site files should sit in your name, and that is how I prefer to set projects up.
What you should weigh up: I'm one developer, not an agency, and I'm in India, so calls happen in the overlap between UK and Indian working hours. When a project needs design, a mobile app or Shopify, I bring in partners I trust and stay your single point of contact. If you want a local team you can visit in person, a UK agency will suit you better.
I can also give a second opinion. If you already have two or three package quotes, send them over and I'll tell you what each one leaves out.
What should you do next?
Write down what the website has to do in its first year: the pages, whether it takes payments or bookings, and who will write the words. Then get three quotes against that same list and compare them on three-year cost, including VAT.
If you'd like one of those quotes from me, or a plain-English read of the ones you already have, get in touch through my contact page. Tell me what your business does and what you need the site to achieve, and I'll reply with a scope and a quote.
