Website designer for therapists: cost and what to check

A website designer for therapists costs about £800 to £3,000 in the UK and about $1,400 to $2,800 in the US when a freelancer builds a small private practice site. Agencies and group practices cost more. The price is the easy part. The parts worth checking are who owns the domain, where the contact form sends what a client types, and whether the site keeps advertising trackers away from people who are looking for help.

I'm Mohit Goyal, a freelance web developer in Gurugram, India, and I build websites for clients in the UK, the US and India. This post is for a counsellor, psychotherapist or psychologist in private practice, or the person who runs a small group practice, who wants a proper website and doesn't want to learn web design to get one. I'll use pounds for the UK and dollars for the US throughout, and I'll say where the rules differ between the two.

How much does a website designer for therapists cost in the UK and the US?

A website designer for therapists charges roughly £800 to £3,000 in the UK and $1,400 to $2,800 in the US as a freelancer for a solo practice site of four or five pages, and US agencies quote $3,500 to $6,500 for the same site. A group practice, written copy, branding or a secure intake form each push the figure up.

Almost every published price comes from a company that sells therapist websites, so treat these as rough guides. They still agree on the shape.

A few things move the price more than anything else.

Who writes the words. A therapy site is mostly words: who you help, how you work, what a first session is like, what it costs. If the designer writes them, you pay for it. The UK guide puts the jump from a basic freelance build to one with copywriting at £800 to £1,500 against £1,500 to £3,000. The US estimate for a writer plus a clinician's review is $300 to $800.

How many pages and people. A solo practice needs few pages. A group practice needs a profile for each clinician, and the US source counts 2 to 4 hours of work per clinician profile. Separate pages for each speciality (anxiety, couples, trauma, children) are quoted at $250 to $500 per page by US freelancers.

Secure intake. In the US, an intake form that collects health details and sits on hosting covered by the right agreement adds $600 to $1,400 with a freelancer or $1,400 to $3,200 with an agency. Most solo therapists don't need this on the website at all, and I'll explain why below.

Connecting your practice software. Linking the site to a booking or video system such as SimplePractice or TherapyNotes adds $300 to $800 with a freelancer.

One detail from the US source is useful when you compare quotes: it says therapy sites come out 15 to 20% cheaper than other professional service sites because they have fewer pages. If a quote for a five-page counselling site looks like a quote for a law firm, ask what's in it.

What does website design for therapists in the UK cost to run each year?

Website design for therapists in the UK has a small yearly running cost if the site is simple: roughly £60 to £215 a year for hosting and the domain, more if you pay for monthly care. US running costs are higher on paper because US sources add compliance-ready hosting, email and practice software.

Here is what the UK guide lists for a site a designer has built:

The last row isn't a website cost, but it comes up the moment you put a contact form online. The Information Commissioner's Office says organisations that use personal information must pay a data protection fee unless they are exempt, and that includes sole traders. The fee for the smallest tier rose from £40 to £52 in February 2025. Check your own position on the ICO site; I'm a web developer, not a data protection adviser.

For the US, one estimator lists monthly costs for a solo practice like this: hosting that can be covered by a compliance agreement at $35 to $70, a secure form service at $0 to $20, email on a Google Workspace tier that offers such an agreement at $14 to $30, and practice software such as SimplePractice or TherapyNotes at $39 to $69. Its total for a solo practice runs from $108 to $713 a month, but the top of that range includes up to $400 a month for local search marketing and up to $90 for maintenance, both of which are optional.

So the honest yearly picture is this. In the UK, a designer-built site that you look after yourself costs under £215 a year to keep online on those figures (that's my addition of the hosting and domain rows). In the US, the website itself is cheap to run, and the practice software and secure email cost more than the site does.

What is the best website builder for therapists in the UK and the US?

The best website builder for therapists in the UK is usually Squarespace or Wix if you want to build it yourself, and WordPress if you want a designer to build something you fully own. In the US the same three apply, plus therapist-only services such as Brighter Vision and the website add-on inside SimplePractice.

A website builder is a paid online tool where you pick a template and fill in your own text and photos, with no code. Here's how the main ones compare. The prices are US dollar prices from a review site that updates them often; UK prices in pounds differ a little, and the UK cost guide puts builder subscriptions at £12 to £30 a month.

A few opinions of my own, since a table can't give you one.

For a UK counsellor starting out, Squarespace or Wix is enough. Most of the "best builder" articles are written for Americans and rank tools by HIPAA, a US health privacy law that doesn't apply to a counsellor in Leeds or Bristol. In the UK, the questions are different: where does the form data go, is it kept longer than needed, and does your privacy notice say so. Any mainstream builder can meet that if it's set up with care.

Monthly therapist-only services cost more than they look. Brighter Vision's entry plan at $99 a month plus a $100 setup fee is $1,288 in the first year and $1,188 every year after (my arithmetic). Over three years that's more than many freelance builds, and you can't take the site with you if you leave. What you're buying is convenience and support, which is a fair thing to buy if you know that's the deal.

The time cost of DIY is real. The UK guide says therapists it spoke to spent 20 to 40 hours building their own site, against 5 to 10 hours of briefing and reviews when a designer does it. Multiply those hours by your own session fee to see what they're worth to you.

WordPress is the one to pick if you plan to grow. It runs on hosting you choose, any developer can work on it, and it can take a blog, a group programme, online courses or more clinicians later without starting again.

Do you need a website designer or a website developer for therapists?

Most solo therapists need one person who can do both: a website designer decides how the site looks and reads, and a website developer for therapists builds it so that it works, loads fast and keeps data where it should be. You only need two separate people when the project is large.

In plain terms:

• A designer chooses the layout, colours, fonts and photos, and often the wording. The result is a picture of the site.
• A developer turns that picture into a working website: pages, forms, booking links, speed, security, search set-up.
• A builder template replaces most of both, which is why it's cheap.

For a five-page private practice site, a freelancer who works in a page builder on WordPress, or directly in Squarespace, covers both jobs. You need a developer in the stricter sense when the site has to do something: take payments for workshops, hold a members' area, connect to practice software, or carry a group of clinicians with their own pages and enquiry routes.

One of my own projects shows where that line sits. I built Easy Parenting Hub, a WordPress site on Elementor for a parenting coach. It isn't a therapy practice, and I'm not presenting it as one, but the shape is close: a site built around one practitioner. It needed more than a brochure, with a Community Hub, retreat videos and forms. That's the kind of site a template builder struggles with and a developer is for. If all you need is five pages and a way to get in touch, you don't need that much.

Whoever you hire, the look of a therapy site matters in a particular way. A visitor is often anxious, often on a phone, often reading late at night. Plain language, a real photo of you, easy-to-read text and one obvious way to make contact do more than any clever design.

What should a therapist website do with client information?

A therapist website should collect as little as possible: a name, an email or phone number, and nothing about why the person is seeking help. Anything more detailed belongs in your practice software, which is built for it, and never in an ordinary contact form that lands in your inbox.

This is the part most cost guides skip, and it's the part I'd check first.

In the US. HIPAA is the federal law on health information. A business associate agreement, or BAA, is the contract a supplier signs to say it will protect health information it handles for you. The trouble is that ordinary website forms aren't covered. Squarespace does not sign a BAA for its website hosting or built-in contact forms, and Hushmail quotes Squarespace's help centre as saying form blocks can't be used as part of a HIPAA-compliant solution. Wix is not HIPAA compliant by default either. The fix isn't to leave the builder. You keep the site and swap the built-in form for a secure form from a supplier that signs a BAA, or you link straight to your practice system's client portal. A good designer keeps the public form to name, email and phone only.

In the UK. HIPAA doesn't apply. UK GDPR does, and it treats health information as "special category" data, which needs more protection. The ICO says you must have a lawful basis under Article 6 and also meet one of the conditions in Article 9 to use it. In practice, the safest contact form for a UK counsellor is a short one, with a line telling people not to include sensitive details, a clear privacy notice, and form entries that aren't stored on the website for ever.

In both countries: advertising trackers. A tracker, or pixel, is a small piece of code from Facebook, Google or another ad company that reports what visitors do on your site. On a therapy site that can mean telling an ad company that a named person looked at your page on eating disorders. In 2023 the US Federal Trade Commission announced a proposed order requiring the online counselling company BetterHelp to pay $7.8 million after it shared email addresses, IP addresses and health questionnaire information with Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo and Pinterest for advertising. You're not BetterHelp, but the lesson scales down. One US guide for therapists puts it well: every tracker on a health site should be a choice, not a template setting.

I'm not a lawyer, and nothing here is legal advice. Ask your professional body, your insurer or a data protection adviser about your own practice. What a developer can do is build the site so the risky things never happen by accident.

What pages does a therapy website need to win enquiries?

A therapy website needs five things: a home page that says who you help and where, an about page with your photo and qualifications, a page on how you work and what you charge, a contact page, and a privacy notice. Everything else is optional until those five are good.

Here's what I'd put on each.

• Home. In the first screen: who you work with, where (town, or online across the UK or your US state), and one button to get in touch. A parent looking for a child therapist in Manchester should know in five seconds if you're the right fit.
• About. A real photo, your training, your registration (BACP, UKCP, HCPC or NCPS in the UK; your state licence in the US) and a few lines in your own voice. Your credentials should appear exactly as your licence shows them.
• How I work, and fees. What a first session involves, how long sessions last, what they cost, and how cancellation works. US practices should also say which states they can see clients in by telehealth, based on where they hold a licence, and which insurance they take, if any.
• Speciality pages. One page per main issue you work with. These are the pages that show up when someone searches "anxiety counselling in Brighton" or "couples therapist Austin".
• Contact. A short form, a phone number, your working hours, and what happens after someone writes (for example, "I reply within two working days").
• Privacy notice. Plain words on what you collect and why.

Two things to leave off or handle with care.

Client testimonials. A restaurant can post reviews. A therapist often can't, or shouldn't. In the US, the psychologists' ethics code is cited for the rule that psychologists don't solicit testimonials from current therapy clients. Rules differ by profession and country, so check with your own professional body before a designer adds a "what clients say" section.

Crisis information. If you don't offer crisis support, say so clearly and point to the services that do. It's a kindness to the visitor and it protects you.

Then there's accessibility, which means the site works for people who use a screen reader, a keyboard or large text. It matters more on a therapy site than most. A good designer tests with a keyboard and a screen reader, not only an automated scanner. If you already have a site, you can paste a page into my free Accessibility Checker to see the obvious problems.

Do you still need a website if you're on Psychology Today or Counselling Directory?

Yes, in most cases. A directory listing is rented space next to hundreds of other therapists, and a website is the place people go to check you before they get in touch. The two work together.

Directories aren't expensive. Psychology Today costs $29.95 a month in the US, which is about $359 a year by my arithmetic. In the UK, Counselling Directory advertises membership from £19.50 a month; check the current price on its join page. Other US directories cost more: Zencare is listed at $59 to $98 a month plus $130 upfront.

What a directory can't do is tell your story at length, rank for your town and speciality under your own name, or stay with you if the directory changes its prices or its ranking rules. A survey of over 2,000 US consumers found that 23.5% found their therapist through online search, second only to a doctor's referral at 32.5%, with friends and family at 15.8%. The same survey found 5.6% used AI tools such as ChatGPT. Search engines and AI assistants both read websites. If you only exist as a directory profile, there's less of you for them to read.

My advice for a new practice with little money: take one directory listing and a simple site, link each to the other, and add to the site as the practice fills.

What should you check before you hire a website designer for therapists?

Before you hire a website designer for therapists, check four things in writing: you own the domain and the accounts, the quote lists what's included, the designer can explain what happens to form data, and there's a date for each stage. Price comes after those.

1. 1

   Ask who owns the domain

   The domain should be registered in your name, on your own account. The hosting or builder account should be yours too, with the designer added as a user.

2. 2

   Ask where form entries go

   A good answer names the tool, says what fields the form has, and says whether entries are stored on the site. A vague answer is a warning.

3. 3

   Ask what's in the price

   Number of pages, who writes the text, photos, search set-up, accessibility testing, redirects from an old site, and how many rounds of changes.

4. 4

   Ask to see a similar site

   Ideally a site for a clinician or a one-person practice. Read a page. Does it sound like a person, or like filler?

5. 5

   Ask what happens after launch

   Who updates the site, what it costs per month, and how you get your logins and files if you part ways.

On ownership, I'll be blunt, because I've written a whole guide for people who got this wrong: Developer disappeared? Take back your WordPress site. Problems with ownership usually surface when you want to leave, so settle them before you sign. The same US guide suggests having these in writing: the domain in your name, the hosting or builder account in your name, your content and design files, owner access to your Google Business Profile and Search Console, and exit terms that hand over logins and files within a set time.

On quotes: two quotes are only comparable when they cover the same work. Write a one-page brief first (pages, who writes, what the form does, booking link or not) and send the same brief to each person. If you'd like help with that, my free Project Scope Generator turns a couple of lines into a structured list you can send out.

US therapists sometimes ask whether the web designer must sign a BAA. Only if the designer will create, receive, maintain or transmit protected health information for you. A designer who builds pages and never sees client data usually doesn't. One who manages your form inbox or your scheduler might.

What are the red flags when hiring a website developer for therapists?

The clearest red flags are a designer who registers your domain in their own name, promises a place on Google, or calls the site "HIPAA compliant" or "GDPR compliant" without saying what that means.

• "We guarantee page one." Nobody can. Google's own guidance, quoted in the US hiring guide, says no one can guarantee a number one ranking.
• "HIPAA compliant website" as a label. Compliance depends on which tools handle client data and how they're set up. A website on its own isn't compliant or non-compliant.
• Ad pixels installed by default. Ask for a list of every tracker on the site and what each one is for.
• No admin access for you. If you can't log in to your own site and domain, you don't own them in any way that counts.
• Copy written without questions. If nobody asked about your training, your approach or who you work with, the words will be generic and may describe things you don't offer.
• A very low monthly price with a long contract. Add up the full term before you sign.
• Stock photos of people crying. A small thing, and a matter of taste, but it tells you how much thought went in.

How long does it take to build a therapist website?

A solo therapist website takes about two to four weeks, and a group practice site takes about six to ten weeks. Those are one US estimator's figures: 2 to 4 weeks for a solo 5-page site and 6 to 10 weeks for a 14-page group site with secure intake.

In my experience of small business sites generally, the build is rarely what takes the time. The wait is for words and photos. If you can give your designer your about text, your fees, a decent photo and your registration details in week one, the rest moves quickly. If you can't, book a photographer and block out an afternoon to write before the project starts.

Your own time matters too. The UK guide estimates 5 to 10 hours of your time for briefing and reviews when a designer builds the site. Plan for those hours in a week when your diary is lighter.

How can I help with a therapist website?

I build small, fast, easy-to-edit websites for one-person and small-team businesses, and a private practice site is that kind of job. Here's what I'd do, and where I'd stop.

What I do. I build WordPress websites on Bricks or Elementor that you can update yourself, set up on a domain and hosting account in your name. If you need the look designed first, I work with design partners who create the pages in Figma and then I build them. I set up the search basics (page titles, local business details, a sitemap), keep the contact form short, and leave ad trackers off unless you ask for one and know what it does. If you'd like someone to keep the site updated and backed up afterwards, I run monthly maintenance retainers.

Where I'm honest about limits. My published case studies don't include a therapy practice, so I won't claim to be a therapist-only specialist. I'm also not a compliance adviser. I can build the site so client details go to your practice software instead of a website inbox, but the decision about which tools meet HIPAA or UK GDPR for your practice is yours, with advice from the right professional. And I'm based in Gurugram, India, so we'd work by video call and email.

When I'm not the right choice. If you want a site this week for the lowest possible cost, use Squarespace or Wix and a good template; you don't need me. If you want everything bundled with your practice software and you're in the US, the SimplePractice website add-on may suit you better. I'm a better fit when you want a site that's yours, built around how you work, that can grow into a group practice, workshops or a blog without a rebuild.

What should you do next?

Write down three things: the pages you need, who will write the words, and what should happen when someone fills in your contact form. That one page will get you clearer quotes from anyone you speak to.

If you'd like me to look at it, send it through my contact page, along with your current site if you have one. I'll tell you what I'd build, what I'd leave out, and whether a builder would do the job without me.