How Much Does a Website Cost for a UK Tradesman in 2026? An Honest Price Guide

Because you can buy very different things under the same word. A one-page site with your services, area, phone number and photos is a small job. A ten-page site with a quote form, a gallery and a booking calendar is bigger, and one that takes card payments is bigger again.

Who builds it matters too. UK guides put Manchester, Leeds and Bristol rates at around £50 to £80 an hour, against £100 to £150 or more in London. So where your builder is based changes the bill.

A site builder lets you drag and drop a site together yourself. Squarespace bundles hosting and the padlock (the SSL certificate) into its plans, so there’s less to set up.

• Squarespace lists its Basic plan at £14.40 a month on yearly billing, which is £172.80 a year, or £19.20 a month if you pay monthly. Those prices include VAT, from Squarespace’s own UK price list, checked on 26 October 2026. Annual plans include a free domain for the first year, and there’s a 14-day trial but no free plan.
• Wix has a free plan, but you need a paid plan to use your own domain. Most yearly plans include a free domain for a year, there’s a 14-day money-back guarantee, and Wix says its yearly prices exclude tax. The cheapest paid plan doesn’t list taking payments, the next one up does. I couldn’t confirm Wix’s prices in pounds on its own site today, so check its plans page before you decide.

If you only want a simple page that collects enquiries, there’s a cheaper start. GetResponse’s free plan lets you publish a landing page with basic features and add a form to collect leads, and it comes with a 14-day trial of the paid features. It isn’t a full website, and visits are capped, but it’s a fair way to test whether a page brings in calls. GetResponse (affiliate link).

The catch with DIY is time. You pick the template, write every page, find the photos and set up the domain and email. The result is only as good as your photos and your wording. If you’d rather be on the tools, put a price on your own evenings before you decide.

A freelance web designer builds the site for you. UK price guides give a wide range here: £500 to £3,000 is quoted by one agency’s guide, with £1,200 to £2,000 given as typical by another.

Ask who owns the domain, who owns the content, and who you ring when something breaks.

One UK guide quotes £1,000 to £1,500 for a three to five page brochure site from a small agency. Others put a construction firm’s site at £2,000 to £5,000 and a regional agency at £2,000 to £6,000. One UK agency lists a custom site of five to ten pages at £3,000 to £6,000 (reviewed June 2026).

Some firms sell the site as a subscription instead. On 25 October 2026, UK trade-site firms advertised plans at about £45 to £59 a month with nothing to pay up front. Hosting is often included. Read the small print: one of those plans has a 12-month minimum, so check what happens if you stop paying, and whether you can take your site and domain with you.

Neither route is wrong. A subscription spreads the cost. A one-off build costs more now.

The build is one cost. Keeping the site running is another. Here’s what to budget for each year:

• Domain name (yourbusiness.co.uk): the wholesale price for a .co.uk is £3.90 a year at Nominet. Shops charge about £10 to £20 a year. You need one, so make sure it’s registered in your name.
• Hosting: included in a site builder plan. Basic standalone hosting is about £10 to £20 a month in UK guides. You need it one way or another.
• Business email (you@yourbusiness.co.uk): about £3 to £10 a month per mailbox in UK guides. It’s worth having, because it looks more trustworthy than a free address.
• ICO data protection fee: £52 a year for the smallest tier, or £47 if you pay by direct debit. Many businesses that hold customer details need to pay it. The ICO has a self-assessment, so check it.
• Changes and care: £30 to £100 a month in UK guides, if someone looks after the site for you. It’s optional, and plenty of trades don’t need it.

The ICO’s smallest tier covers a turnover of up to £632,000 or ten or fewer staff. Separately, if your taxable turnover goes past £90,000, you have to register for VAT. That’s the GOV.UK threshold, and it’s worth knowing before you quote with or without it.

First year versus every year is the thing to ask for. Many builders give a free domain for year one, then it renews at the normal price. A good quote shows both numbers.

This is a made-up example to show how the costs add up. It isn’t a real customer.

Say a sparky in Heywood wants a simple site: home page, services, areas covered, a few photos and a contact form.

• DIY on a site builder: a builder plan (Squarespace’s Basic is £172.80 a year including VAT, for example), plus your own time and a few evenings.
• Freelancer: perhaps £1,200 to £2,000 once, plus a domain at £10 to £20 a year and hosting.
• Agency: £1,000 to £3,000 or more up front, with a monthly care plan if you want one.

• 1. What exactly do I get? Number of pages, a form, a map, photos, anything extra.
• 2. What do I pay in year two? Domain, hosting, email and any care plan.
• 3. Who owns the domain and the site? It should be you.
• 4. Can I leave and take it with me? If the answer is vague, treat that as the answer.
• 5. Is the price agreed in writing before work starts? Scope, price, timings and payment terms.

If you want to see how I work, there’s more on my websites page. I agree the scope and price in writing before any work starts. I also have pages for Rochdale, Middleton and Bury.

People also look for you on Google Maps, so my guide to setting up a Google Business Profile for a trade is a good next read, and a free quote template helps you reply once enquiries arrive. If you pay for leads on a platform, here’s what Checkatrade costs. For a full comparison of builders, see The AI Till’s guide to website builders, or its answer on whether AI can build a website.

Send me one problem and I’ll sort it free. It could be a website question, an email that won’t work, or a phone that’s playing up.

I’ll spend up to 30 minutes on it, remotely, and there’s nothing to buy. If you’d like someone to keep an eye on things afterwards, we can have a chat about that. No pressure either way.

Send me your one techy thing or give me a ring. If it’s a website job, start on the websites page.

Thanks,
James Gonzo