“How much does a website cost?” is the first question almost everyone asks, and the honest answer is that it depends — on what the site needs to do, who builds it and what it costs to keep running. This guide explains what actually drives the price, so you can set a sensible budget and compare quotes on a like-for-like basis.
We build websites ourselves, so we've included our own published prices at the end. Everything before that applies whoever you choose.
In this guide
- What drives the cost of a website
- The main ways to get a website built
- Ongoing costs to budget for
- How to compare website quotes
- What a website costs with MJ Hub
What drives the cost of a website
A website's price is mostly a measure of time: how long it takes to plan, design, build, fill with content and test. These are the things that change that time the most.
Number of pages
A one-page site or a handful of pages is quick to design and build. A site with a page for every service, location or product takes longer, especially if each page needs its own layout or written content. More pages isn't automatically better — the right number is however many your customers need to find what they're looking for.
Features and functionality
A contact form is simple. Online booking, quote calculators, member logins, search, filtering or anything that stores information is real software, and is priced accordingly. Features are usually the biggest single factor in the jump from a brochure site to a larger project.
Design
Adapting a ready-made template is quicker than designing a site from scratch around your brand and customers. A bespoke design costs more up front, but it's built around what your visitors need to do rather than what the template happens to offer.
Content
Someone has to write the words and provide the photos. If you supply finished text and images, the build goes faster. If you need help writing copy, sourcing photography or organising a lot of existing material, budget for that time too. Content is the most common reason projects run late.
E-commerce
Selling online adds product pages, a basket, a secure checkout, payments, delivery options, stock, order emails and the legal pages that go with them. The number of products, variations (sizes, colours) and delivery rules all affect the work involved.
Integrations
Connecting the site to other systems — a booking platform, a CRM, an email marketing tool, accounting or stock software — takes extra time to set up and test, particularly when information needs to flow both ways.
The main ways to get a website built
There's no single right route. Each of these suits some businesses well and others less so.
Do it yourself with a website builder
Builder platforms let you pick a template and edit it in your browser, usually for a monthly subscription. They're the cheapest way to get started, and a good choice if you have more time than budget and fairly simple needs. The trade-offs are your own time, the ongoing monthly fees (which often rise as you add features), and some limits on design, speed and moving your site elsewhere later. Our guide to bespoke websites versus website builders goes into this in detail.
A freelancer
An independent designer or developer can be very good value and you deal with one person throughout. Quality and range vary widely, so look at their previous work and ask who will host and maintain the site after launch — and what happens if they're unavailable.
An agency
A larger agency brings a team — strategy, design, development, copywriting, marketing — which suits bigger or more complex projects. You'll generally pay for that breadth, and you may deal with an account manager rather than the people doing the work.
A small bespoke studio
Somewhere in between: a small team that designs and builds sites from scratch, often with the people you talk to doing the work themselves. This is where MJ Hub sits. It suits businesses that want a site built around them without agency overheads.
Ongoing costs to budget for
The build is only part of the cost. Make sure you know what you'll pay each year to keep the site running.
- Domain name. Your web address is renewed every year or every few years through a domain registrar.
- Hosting. The servers your site lives on. Sometimes bundled with a builder subscription or included by the developer; sometimes a separate bill.
- Email. A business email address on your own domain usually comes from a separate email provider.
- Maintenance and security. Sites built on plugin-heavy platforms need regular updates. Ask who does this and whether it's included.
- Changes. New pages, updated prices, seasonal offers. Find out how changes are charged — per hour, per job or as part of a retainer.
- Extras. Paid plugins, premium themes, booking or payment services and e-commerce transaction fees can all add up.
How to compare website quotes
Two quotes for “a website” can describe very different things. To compare them fairly, check:
- Exactly what's included. Number of pages, features, design rounds, content writing, images, SEO setup and testing.
- Whether the price is fixed. A fixed written quote protects you; an estimate can grow.
- When you pay. How much is due upfront, and at what stages.
- Who owns the site. Can you take your domain, content and site elsewhere if you want to?
- What happens after launch. Hosting, security updates, support and the cost of changes.
- Timeline. When it will be ready, and what you need to provide (and when) to keep it on track.
If you're still at the early stages, our website planning checklist will help you write a clear brief, which makes any quote more accurate.
What a website costs with MJ Hub
We publish our starting prices so you know where you stand before you ask. Every project gets a fixed written quote before work starts, nothing is due upfront, and hosting is included.
| Project | Typical timeline | From |
|---|---|---|
| Information website | 1–2 weeks | £300 |
| Business website | 3–5 weeks | £1,500 |
| E-commerce website | 6–10 weeks | £3,000 |
| Web application | 10–16 weeks | £10,000 |
Optional add-ons include SEO setup (+£100), content management so you can edit the site yourself (+£1,000), analytics integration (+£250) and user accounts (+£750). After launch, changes cost £50 an hour for jobs that take an hour or less and £30 an hour for anything longer.
See the full breakdown on our pricing page, or read more about our bespoke websites and e-commerce websites.