What is the cost of building a website?
Completely transparent web design prices
Web design costs can vary enormously, and it’s almost impossible to say without guessing.
Cheap websites can sound appealing on the surface, but they're not such a great deal if corners are cut.
Our fixed price web design packages offer great value, or we can build fully customised bespoke websites
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Getting the most out of your website budget
We all want good value, and that includes getting the maximum return out of the budget you allocate to your website.
- But how much should you spend on a website?
- Why do some web designers quote rock bottom prices? Are they cutting corners?
- Why do some web designers quote much higher prices? Are they ripping you off?
- When I pay for a website, is that it? Do I need anything else?
Let's explore why web design costs in the UK are so varied...
Great value professional web design
When you ask How much does a website cost?
and start being attracted to the cheapest quotes, be sure that you know what you'll be getting, and be aware that there may be many corners being cut in order to build you that cheap website!
Building cheap websites would mean that corners would have to be cut. It might save you money initially, but it could cost you in other ways which may include:
- professionalism
- reputation
- credibility
- reliability
- poor customer experience
- loss of business
- your website not being found in search engine results
The importance of having a good professional website will vary from industry to industry, and also how you position your own business within your industry.
If your customers tend look for the cheapest and you want to be the cheapest in order to compete, then maybe a cheap website is perfect for your needs. But if the brand, professionalism and reputation of your business is important, it's worth giving a little more thought to what you want your website to do for you, and who you want to design, build and manage it.
A cheap website could cost you in other ways
Ultimately the choice is yours, but more than 27 years experience of building and maintaining websites has shown that cutting corners with a poorly designed website which is slow, doesn't work well on mobiles, and doesn't show up amongst its competitors in search engines can leave many businesses regretting their decision to go cheap.
What is being referred to here is SEO
(or search engine optimisation
) but even if you're thinking that you just want the website and you might consider thinking about SEO and website management at some point in the future, you really ought to make sure that the website you're having built will be capable of being optimised for SEO without any major structural changes being needed.
Targa will ALWAYS consider future-proofing a website for this reason.
What does the web design process involve?
It is important to remember that having your website built is just the beginning, but what does the whole process actually involve? The web design process needs to be as flexible as you want it to be, because everyone has different goals, needs and other demands on their time.
Everyone has different goals, needs and commitments
To understand why some web designers charge more than others, it would help to get an idea of what designing and building a website actually involves. There has to be some structure, certain steps to follow and checkpoints to be reached, otherwise even the simplest of websites could take far longer than any of us would consider reasonable.
Experience has shown, time and time again, that having a website built to rock bottom prices can lead to disappointment, frustration, and potentially a loss of business for numerous reasons.
Here is a general overview of the design process we follow... 
Think beyond the website
In many cases your website will need to effectively represent your brand, showcase your services, and help to generate leads and sales. To achieve this there is some very important work to be done besides actually building your website.
After your website has gone live, it might need to be managed. This doesn't necessarily mean having an expensive ongoing maintenance contract in place, but being found on search engines for the search terms you want to show up for does not happen overnight. It usually requires some effort, competitor research, frequent testing, analysis and tweaking of keywords, content, image optimisation, etc., and repeating the process periodically.
These are all things which can be discussed, and whether the decision is to factor website management and SEO into the deal or park it for consideration at another time, at least you'll be aware of the reasons and costs.
So how much does a website cost?
One fairly reliable way that the price of a website can be given without any prior consultation, and that is to predict the amount of work based on a predefined web design package. That way you will know, even before speaking with us, what we can provide by way of design, build, features and support for a fixed price.
Whilst our fixed price website packages provide a convenient way of getting you online at a pre-defined cost, you can use our web design cost calculator to help you work out what your website could cost based on the number of pages you want, and other features, requirements and services.
Fixed price web design packages
Although the steps outlined above describe our recommended approach to developing a website, it takes time and sometimes a little more commitment than some people or small business owners are able to accommodate.
However, you are the customer, and if you believe that a quick and simple website is all you need to get online, we have fixed price websites starting at just £295 for a single page website.
One page websites from just £295!
To provide you with a larger platform to promote your business and increase your chances of success in search engine results, our 4 page website packages start at just £445
4 page websites from just £445!
Learn more about the benefits of our introductory fixed price web design packages, and don't forget that we can develop your website further whenever you want, as well as provide a range of additional services to make sure your online presence is successful.
Bespoke websites and other services
Customised websites and other web services
We can of course build bespoke websites, and also offer additional services including search engine optimisation, Google Analytics and user testing.
What do you need? Let's talk!
Due to the highly customised nature of bespoke websites, it is simply not possible to provide a guide price without prior discussion about your business and the intended purpose, size and structure of your website.
However, you can be confident that all of our services are provided at reasonable prices and are supported by more than 27 years of experience.
Quotations can be provided on request, so let's talk!
Your payment and pricing questions answered
How much does a website cost to build and maintain? ⇨
How much does a website cost to build and maintain?
Because all websites differ, and the requirements for each business differ, it's not possible to come up with an accurate cost without prior discussion. The number of factors which go into building, optimising and managing a website is huge, and the importance of many of these factors to different businesses will vary.
Are those who charge more ripping you off, or are those who produce cheap websites not very good?
It would be reasonable to expect that a website containing 5 pages would cost more than a website containing 3 pages, and less than a website containing 10 pages, but there is much more to consider when having a website built. For example, if you're approaching this with a budget of £300-£400, you can certainly get a website built, but you might find that it will be built by a part time web designer with limited skills and knowledge, or maybe you'll be using a web designer based in the far east.
A cheap web designer is likely to cut corners which could result in your website being slow, poorly displayed on mobiles, difficult to find in search engine results, and if it goes wrong you might need to hire someone with experience to fix it. That might cost you more than your cheap website cost you in the first place, and in the mean time you might be stuck with a website which doesn't work.
Read more about web design costs before you commit. You might be glad you did!
Are cheap websites good value? ⇨
Are cheap websites good value?
Consider what opting for the cheapest could mean...
The web designer might be doing it for a hobby, and is therefore likely to be limited in their technical and design skills. That could, of course, be perfect for you if you’re on a very tight budget and your business isn’t dependant on your website generating enquiries, leads and sales.
Cheap websites are likely to have been built very quickly out of necessity. That could mean little attention to detail, and a That will have to do
attitude to getting the job done in the time available.
That could mean a higher chance of there being problems, technical issues and design flaws... maybe it looks okay on a laptop but doesn’t work properly on mobile, or maybe some of the most important elements which help websites get found in search results have not been included or set up correctly.
If anything goes wrong, how willing is the web designer likely to be to spend the time to investigate and implement a fix, and thoroughly test it afterwards to make sure that the fix hasn’t led to another problem. Problem solving, testing and monitoring takes time, patience and experience, which are rarely top of the list for those web designers out there who can only attract business by being the cheapest.
Unless the web designer continually produces lots of cheap websites with a quick turnaround, so they can move onto the next, and the next, and the next, they might not be able to stay in business for very long, and then what will happen to your website?
Why are some web designers more expensive than others? ⇨
Why are some web designers more expensive than others?
Let’s start by saying that Targa always seeks to provide great value... always!
But to be the cheapest would mean that corners would have to be cut.
If you think that you'll be happy with a web designer:
- who needs to rush through the design a build process so they can quickly move on to the next cheap website on their list, and hope that you don't call because something is wrong;
- who doesn’t pay full attention to how the website looks and behaves on all screen sizes;
- who doesn’t consider all ingredients needed to be effective in search engine results;
- who doesn't optimise images and code to make the website load quickly, etc...
... then there are plenty of cheap web designers out there who will put a quick website together for you.
But if I’m building a website and feel that some tweaks are needs to make something look or work better, I’ll do it. If those tweaks take 2 minutes, 2 hours or 2 days, so be it.
My objective would be to make your website the best it can be, and not to add to the cost of your website. The cheapest web designers won’t do that. But at least you have the choice to use them if you want to.
Unless the web designer continually produces lots of cheap websites with a quick turnaround, so they can move onto the next, and the next, and the next, they might not be able to stay in business for very long, and then what will happen to your website?
What payment methods do you accept for building websites? ⇨
What payment methods do you accept for building websites?
The preferred method of payment is direct bank transfer. Details will be provided when an invoice is raised.
Alternatively you can pay by PayPal.
Unless the web designer continually produces lots of cheap websites with a quick turnaround, so they can move onto the next, and the next, and the next, they might not be able to stay in business for very long, and then what will happen to your website?
What are your terms of payment for building a website? ⇨
What are your terms of payment for building a website?
When embarking on a web design project for new clients which is less than £1000, we ask for 25% up front, and the balance on completion.
For larger projects in excess of £1000, we ask for 25% up front, 40% on completion, and the balance payable one month later.
For monthly website management and SEO agreements, these can be paid on the first Monday of each calendar month for the duration of the agreement.
Unless the web designer continually produces lots of cheap websites with a quick turnaround, so they can move onto the next, and the next, and the next, they might not be able to stay in business for very long, and then what will happen to your website?
What does minimum viable product or MVP mean? ⇨
What does minimum viable product or MVP mean?
MVP stands for minimum viable product. In website terms this could apply to a large project which will take a long time to build, but the company cannot wait that long before every requirement has been implemented and all fine tuning has been done.
Some of functionality, styling, sections, integration with other systems, etc., may all be required on completion, but those may take time and would not be ready for the target launch date.
So you get the project live sooner, discussions can be had to determine which features of the website are launch critical
and therefore MUST be in place before the first version of the website can go live.
Other features can therefore be assessed and prioritised, and the project can be broken into phases. These phases may or may not have critical dates to go live, but the MVP is the version of the website containing the features essential for the initial launch.
Budget management may also be a reason to split a web development project into phases, as this could not only spread the cost, but it could allow the first version of the website to start generating income whilst the overall project development continues.
Unless the web designer continually produces lots of cheap websites with a quick turnaround, so they can move onto the next, and the next, and the next, they might not be able to stay in business for very long, and then what will happen to your website?
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