The honest answer is that it depends on who builds it and what you need. In this guide we break down the real costs of each route, from DIY builders to agencies, so you can decide what makes sense for your business.
What you are actually paying for
A website is not one thing. It is a bundle of things: your domain name (the web address people type in), the design and build of the pages themselves, the words and photos on them, somewhere for the site to live (hosting), and the ongoing work of keeping it secure, updated and visible on Google. Every quote you will ever see is really a combination of those, so it helps to know which parts you are paying for and which are being left out.
The DIY route: website builders
Tools like Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy let you build a website yourself. As a rough guide, expect to pay somewhere around £10 to £40 a month once you move past the free plan, plus roughly £10 to £20 a year for your domain name. The free plans come with the builder's branding and an address like yourbusiness.wix.com, which looks less trustworthy to customers.
The real cost of DIY is your time. Building a decent website yourself usually means many evenings and weekends spent learning the tool, writing the text, and fixing things that look fine on your laptop but fall apart on a phone. If your time is worth more than a few hundred pounds to your business, DIY is not always the bargain it first appears.
Freelancers
A freelance web designer typically charges from a few hundred pounds for a simple site to around £2,000 for something larger or more bespoke. What you are paying for is their experience: a site that looks professional, works properly on phones, and is set up in a way Google can understand.
The price moves with the number of pages, whether you need features like booking systems or payment buttons, how much text needs writing, and whether search engine setup is included. Always ask what is included, what costs extra, and who owns the finished website.
Agencies
A full agency often charges several thousand pounds, sometimes much more. That usually buys you a team: designers, developers, copywriters and marketing specialists, plus project management and longer timelines. For a large business with complex needs, that can be money well spent.
For a local business that needs a handful of well-made pages and steady local visibility, an agency budget is usually more than the job requires. You are paying for a team you mostly will not need.
What a small business actually needs
For most local businesses, the honest answer is: not that much. A handful of pages that clearly say what you do and where, an easy way to contact you, real photos, a Google Business Profile, and a steady flow of Google reviews. That combination wins most local customers. Everything beyond it is optional until your business outgrows it.
If someone is quoting you thousands for anything more complicated than that, it is worth asking exactly what each part is for. If you want to know whether a website makes sense for you at all, our website design service explains what we include as standard.
How we keep it simple
Domain Attraction charges £149 to get started, then £20 a month for Monthly Management, which covers secure hosting, updates, security checks, small changes whenever you need them, Google Business Profile posts and local SEO. There are no hidden extras, and you see your website in a free preview before you pay anything. If you would like to see the full picture, our pricing page has the details.