What a Website Actually Costs
Everything a website costs to build and to run, laid out plainly — so you can judge any quote against something real.
Initial Build Cost
Ask three different people to build you a website and you'll get three very different quotes — and very little explanation of why. It usually comes down to what's actually included, not just who's cheapest.
Here's roughly what you're looking at, and what tends to separate one price from another:
Ongoing Costs
A website isn't a one-off cost — a few small things keep it running behind the scenes, whoever builds it for you. None of them are hidden or unexpected once you know what they're for, so here's exactly what they are and why each one matters.
Below I break these costs down for you and explain why each is important — essentials, that are non-negotiable, optional but good to have and further considerations, should you want to automate certain processes on your site.
Essential Costs
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Domain Name
£1 per month (£12 paid annually)
This is your web address — yourname.com — and you don't own it outright, you rent it year by year. It's a small cost, but let it lapse and your website disappears, and someone else could register it instead.
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Website Hosting
£20 per month (£240 paid annually)
This is the ongoing fee that keeps your website actually live on the internet — think of it as rent for the space your site sits in, plus the behind-the-scenes work that keeps it fast, secure, and working properly. Without it, your website simply stops existing.
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ICO Registration
£4.30 per month (£52 paid annually)
If your website collects any personal information at all — even just a name and email through a contact form — you're legally required to register with the Information Commissioner's Office and pay a small annual fee (usually £52). It's easy to assume this doesn't apply to a small business, but it applies to almost everyone. It's a legal requirement, not an optional extra, and it also shows your customers you take their information seriously.
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Email
£7 per month (paid monthly)
A proper email address that matches your website — 'you@yourwebsite.com' rather than a free Gmail or Hotmail one — costs a little each month, but it's one of the quickest ways to look established rather than thrown together. People notice the difference, even if they couldn't tell you why.
Essentials Summary |
Average Monthly Cost |
|
|---|---|---|
| Domain name (your ‘www.businessname.com’) | £1* | |
| Website hosting (where your site ‘lives’) | £20* | |
| ICO registration fee (legal obligation for data) | £4 | |
| Professional Email (you@yourwebsite.com) | £7 | |
| Essentials Total | £32 /month |
*Every website I build includes a domain name free for the first year, plus a reduction of up to 20% on annual website hosting costs, thanks to my status as a certified platform partner.
Optional, but recommended
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Updates & Maintenance
Every website needs a bit of looking after — software that needs updating, security that needs checking, the odd broken link or out-of-date detail. Left alone, small things go unnoticed until they become bigger ones. This is what my Care Plans cover: someone keeping an eye on things and making the odd fix, so you don't have to think about it.
It's optional, but it's the difference between a website that quietly keeps working and one that quietly stops.
See my Care Plans
For more advanced operations
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Automation tools
Some businesses like their website to talk automatically to the other tools they use — adding every new enquiry straight into a spreadsheet, say, or adding someone to a mailing list the moment they get in touch. Tools like Zapier or Kit make that possible for a small monthly fee. Most businesses don't need this starting out, but it's worth knowing about once copying details over by hand starts to feel like a chore.
As always, I can advise you on which of these may be useful for you and of course, set them up as part of any website I build, should we decide to use them.