How much does a one-page website cost in the UK?

In 2026: £300 to £1,500 from a freelancer, £10 to £30 a month plus 40 or more hours of your own time on a self-build tool, or £40 a month done for you with nothing upfront. The quote should say who writes the words and who makes changes afterwards; on our £40 plan both are included.

Is a pay-monthly website worth it?

If you want someone else to build it, write it, host it and change it, yes — the monthly replaces an upfront bill, the hourly changes and the evenings. Compare three-year totals with your own time counted at your day rate, not the first invoice. On that measure, done for you at £40 a month is the cheapest road that doesn't cost you a month of evenings, and you see the site before you pay.

What are the hidden costs of a website?

Changes billed by the hour, a domain renewal that jumps after year one, a hosting plan nobody renews, and premium templates or plugins that stop working. Ask any quote three things: who makes changes and what do they cost, who owns the domain, and what happens if I stop paying.

Do I need a website if I'm on Checkatrade or Facebook?

Keep them while they earn. A website is for the moment after: someone sees you there, Googles your name, and either finds something that's yours or finds nothing. We've written a separate guide on Checkatrade versus your own site.

How long does a website take?

Building it yourself takes as long as your evenings allow — often it never finishes. A freelancer, two to six weeks. An agency, six to twelve. We send a finished preview within three working days of your yes, and it's live within three working days of your first payment.

How much does a website cost for a tradesperson in the UK? (2026)

The short answer, by route

Route	Upfront	Ongoing	Your effort	Who does the changes?
A web agency	£2,500 and up, often much more	A retainer, or changes billed by the hour	Medium: meetings, approvals, a long wait	The agency, at agency rates
A freelancer	£300 to £1,500 for a simple site	Hosting and domain, £5 to £20 a month; changes by the hour	Medium to high: you brief, chase, check, and renew the hosting yourself	The freelancer, if they're still around
Building it yourself on a self-build tool	£0 to a few hundred in templates and photos, plus 40 or more hours of your evenings (about £1,600 at £40 an hour)	£10 to £30 a month plus the domain, and every change in your own time	Very high: evenings and weekends for a month or two, and most never finish	You, on a Sunday
Done for you, pay-monthly (us)	£0	£40 to £150 a month, everything in	Very low: one short form, a thumbs-up	The service, included

Those are the ranges we see across the UK in 2026 — a plumber in Lincolnshire and an electrician in Reading get quoted much the same. The spread inside each route is about how many pages you need, whether anyone writes the words for you, and who keeps the site alive after launch. The column most quotes leave out is effort: a site you build and maintain yourself is paid for in evenings, and evenings are hours you could have charged for.

What you're actually paying for

A website is five things, and every quote bundles them differently. Knowing the five makes any quote easy to read.

The design and build — the look, the pages, the photos laid out. The big upfront cost on a freelancer or agency job; spread into the monthly on a pay-monthly service; your own evenings on a self-build tool.
The words — someone has to write what you do, where, and why you. Agencies charge for copywriting separately; self-build tools leave it to you; it's part of the job on a pay-monthly service.
The web address (domain) — £10 to £20 a year for a .co.uk or .com. Watch the renewal price, not the first-year offer. Whoever registers it should register it in your name.
Hosting — keeping the site online. £5 to £20 a month on its own, or included. The cheap part, and the one that quietly stops working when nobody is looking after it.
Changes — new prices, a new van photo, Christmas hours. The cost nobody prices at the start and everybody pays. Agencies and freelancers bill by the hour; self-build costs you an evening each time; pay-monthly includes them.

The three-year number

Upfront prices make an agency look expensive and building it yourself look like the bargain. Add three years of running it, and count your own hours at the rate you charge, and the picture changes. Here's a one-page site with a handful of changes a year, rounded.

Route	Upfront	3 years of running it	3 years of changes	Your hours	Three-year total
Agency	£3,000	£700	£1,500 (retainer or hourly)	Meetings and approvals	About £5,200
Freelancer	£800	£500 (hosting, domain)	£600 (10 hours at £60)	Briefing, chasing, renewing	About £1,900, plus your time
Building it yourself	£100 (templates, photos)	£900 (tools, domain)	Every change, in your evenings	40 or more hours to build, about £1,600 at £40 an hour, then every change	About £2,600 once your time is counted, and it's never quite finished
Done for you, our £40 plan	£0	£1,440 (everything in)	£0 (included)	One short form, a thumbs-up	£1,440
Done for you, our £80 plan	£0	£2,880 (everything in)	£0 (included)	One short form, a thumbs-up	£2,880

What a plumber, electrician or salon actually needs

Most trades overbuy. A local business site has one job: when someone finds you, make them ring or book. That takes a surprisingly short list.

Plumbers and heating engineers: your number a thumb away, Gas Safe number and badge, the jobs you do, the areas you cover, reviews, and a way to send you a photo of the leak. One page does it; a page per service when you want the EV-charger or boiler searches.
Electricians: the same, with NICEIC or NAPIT, and a page each for the searches that bring their own customers — EV chargers, EICR certificates, fuse boards.
Builders and landscapers: your finished jobs in photos, before and after, your memberships and insurance, and a quote form that takes pictures and a rough size so you quote fewer dead ends.
Cleaners and gardeners: insured and checked on the first screen, what you do and where, before-and-after photos, and a form that asks the questions you'd ask on the phone.
Barbers and salons: prices, hours, your work, and either a Book button or a big button to the booking app you already use. Nothing else sells a chair.

What none of them need: a blog, a shop, a members' area, an app, or anything that costs money to keep. If a quote includes those, ask what they do for a plumber.

What we charge, so you can compare

Three flat plans, nothing upfront, every change included, cancel any time: Get Online at £40 a month (a proper one-page site on your own web address, your Google profile set up with you), Get Leads at £80 (a page for each service, a quote form with photos, your reviews on the site), Get Booked at £150 (online booking built in). Yearly is ten months' price for twelve. We build the site first and you see it before you pay a penny.

What we'd do in your boots

A bigger site, with someone in-house to run it and a few thousand pounds to spend now: an agency, and budget for the retainer.
A good simple site this month, nothing upfront, and your evenings kept: our £40 plan, a one-page site on your own web address with your Google profile set up with you.
The EV-charger, boiler or EICR searches, and a form that takes the job with a photo while you work: our £80 plan, with a page per service, your reviews on the site, and the profile kept in step by us.
A chair or a treatment room to fill: our £150 plan adds online booking, set up and looked after by us.

How much does a website cost for a tradesperson in the UK?