It's the first question almost everyone asks us, and most web design companies dodge it. So here's a straight answer: what we charge, what pushes the price up or down, and what a website costs to run once it's live.
The short answer
For a professionally built small business website in Swindon, expect to pay from about £1,000 for a small site, from about £2,000 for a typical business site, and more for an online shop or anything custom. On top of that there's a monthly cost for hosting and looking after it.
Here's what that looks like with us:
| What you need | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Starter site | From £1,000, paid once | A brochure-style site of one to four pages: a home page with the key information, usually an about page and a contact page, and maybe one more. |
| Business site | From £2,000, paid once | Five to eight pages: services, about, reviews, contact. The typical Swindon business site. |
| Bespoke build | Quoted after a free call | Online shops, bookings, customer logins, or anything that links up with other systems. |
| Hosting and care | From £49 a month | UK hosting, monitoring, daily backups, security updates and support. |
Every project starts with an onboarding call, where we go through everything the site needs to do. It matters that we understand how your business works, so we can build the site around it: your website should be one of your main sales tools, not a burden. After the call you get a fixed quote, and the price you agree is the price you pay.
For a rough figure in two minutes, try our website cost calculator. No email needed.
What changes the price
Two websites can look alike and cost very different amounts. These are the things that make the difference:
- How many pages you need. A one-page site and a twenty-page site are different jobs. The best sites give every service its own page, which is also what Google rewards.
- Who writes the words and takes the photos. If your text and photos are ready, the build is quicker. If we need to write or tidy the content, that takes time.
- Selling online. An online shop needs product pages, a basket, card payments and order emails. Subscriptions and stock control add more.
- Bookings, logins and links to other systems. Anything that does work for you, like taking bookings or syncing with your accounts software, is website development: it needs building and testing.
- Moving from an old website. Doing a redesign properly means forwarding every old link to its new page, so you don't lose customers or the trust Google has built up in your site.
- Template or bespoke design. A template is cheaper to start with. A design made for your business fits what you sell and how your customers buy.
What it costs after launch
The build is a one-off. These are the costs that keep going:
- Your domain name (your web address). A small yearly cost, and we normally cover it for you, as long as it's a standard domain rather than a premium one.
- Hosting and care. Somewhere for the site to live (web hosting), plus someone keeping it backed up, secure and up to date. Ours starts at £49 a month and covers small changes too, like new wording or photos. See website maintenance for what's included.
- Platform fees. If your site runs on a website builder, you pay its monthly or yearly plan, often with extras bundled in that you don't need. If you sell online, check what you pay on each sale.
This is where the cheapest option can turn into the most expensive one. Asylum Coffee, a Swindon coffee roaster, was paying a yearly website builder bill plus bundled extras. We moved them to a site they own outright on a small monthly plan, and they now take seven times as many orders a week. Read how Asylum Coffee's new website brought in 7x the orders.
Website builder, freelancer or agency?
There are three common routes, and each suits a different business.
- Doing it yourself on a website builder. The cheapest way to start on paper. But you do all the work, and that can take tens or even hundreds of hours. Count what else you could do with that time to grow your business, and paying a specialist team often works out cheaper. You're also renting the site: stop paying and it goes.
- A freelancer. Often cheaper than an agency, and good ones are great value. The worry is the long term: who hosts the site, who fixes it when something breaks, and what happens if they move on. Handovers between freelancers can be tricky and leave ongoing problems, so we'd only really suggest this route if you already know your way around web hosting.
- An agency. Usually the most expensive up front. You're paying for a team that designs, builds, hosts and looks after the site, and is still there next year. What you get back is your time and peace of mind: when something needs changing, you tell them and it's handled.
What to watch out for
- Not owning your website. Ask who owns the site and its content. If you can't take it with you, you're renting it.
- "Free" websites with strings attached. Some companies offer a free site and hosting, then charge for extras like writing your content, or tie you into a long contract. Others push you into an aggressive cycle of upsells once you've signed. The cost is still there; it just turns up later.
- Extras that aren't in the quote. Hosting, security certificates, email and changes after launch. Ask what's included before you sign.
- No plan for your old website. If old links stop working, you lose visitors and some of your Google rankings with them.
- Slow, bloated sites. A site that takes ages to load on a phone loses customers before they've read a word.
WordPress or custom: does it change the price?
The platform matters less to the price than the size of the job. Our WordPress and custom websites both start from £1,000. What it changes is how the site is kept up to date and what it costs to keep running. For most businesses today, we strongly recommend a custom site over WordPress; we explain why in WordPress vs a custom website.
Is a cheap website a false economy?
Not always. If you need a simple site that tells people what you do and how to call you, a small budget can do the job well. Where it goes wrong is when a cheap site is slow, hard to buy from or impossible to change, and quietly costs you customers every week.
The better question is what a website will bring in. A site that turns more visitors into calls or orders pays for itself. One that doesn't is expensive at any price.
Get a real figure for your business
Atom Sites is a web design company in Swindon, and we'll tell you what your website should cost before you commit to anything. Get a rough figure from the website cost calculator, see the full pricing, or give us a call or send us an email to talk through what you need.
A good website should pay for itself. Think of it as an investment, not an expense.