"How much does a website cost?" is the first question almost every client asks us, and the honest answer is: it depends. That is frustrating to hear, so this guide gives you real price ranges, explains what actually drives the cost, and shows you how to set a sensible budget for your business.
The figures below are typical ranges we see in the UK market in 2026. They are a guide, not a quote. Every project is different, and anyone who gives you a firm price before understanding your business is guessing. If you are comparing web design companies in Birmingham or the Jewellery Quarter, see how we quote custom builds.
The short answer
- DIY website builders (Wix, Squarespace and similar): roughly £10–£50 a month, plus your own time.
- Template or theme-based sites from a freelancer: typically £500–£2,000.
- Custom-designed and custom-coded small business websites: typically £2,000–£8,000.
- Larger custom sites, e-commerce, booking systems or integrations: typically £8,000–£30,000+.
- Web applications and SaaS platforms: usually priced as software projects, from the low thousands for a focused tool to tens of thousands for a full product.
At Curious House, custom websites start from £2,000. Here is why prices vary so much, and how to work out where your project sits.
What drives the cost of a website?
1. Custom design versus a template
A template gives you someone else's layout with your logo on it. It is cheaper, but you are fitting your business to the template instead of the other way round. Custom design starts with your customers and your goals, which takes more time but usually converts better.
2. How it is built
Page builders and themes are quick to set up but often come with heavy code, lots of plugins and slower load times. A custom-coded site (we use Next.js and React) takes longer to build but is faster, more secure and easier to scale. Speed affects Google rankings through Core Web Vitals and how many visitors stick around.
3. Number of pages and amount of content
A five-page brochure site is a very different job from a 40-page site with service pages, location pages and a blog. More pages means more design, more build time and more content to write or migrate.
4. Functionality
Features change the price the most: online booking, e-commerce, customer logins, CRM or accounting integrations, and custom calculators or quote builders. Each one adds design, development and testing time.
5. Content, SEO and branding
Good copy sells; bad copy quietly loses you enquiries. Technical SEO basics should be part of any professional build. Ongoing SEO to grow traffic is usually a separate monthly service. If you need a logo and visual identity first, branding projects start from £750.
Ongoing costs people forget
- Domain name: usually a few pounds to around £20 a year for a .co.uk or .com.
- Hosting: from free tiers for small static sites to £20–£100+ a month for busy or complex ones.
- Email: Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, typically priced per user per month.
- Maintenance and support: security updates, fixes and small changes, either ad hoc or on a monthly retainer.
- Plugins and licences: a hidden cost on many WordPress sites, with annual fees for premium plugins and themes.
One big advantage of a custom-coded site is fewer moving parts: no pile of plugin subscriptions and far fewer emergency security patches.
Cheap websites can be the expensive option
A £300 website can look like a bargain until it is slow, it does not show up on Google, and it does not bring in a single enquiry. When you compare quotes, ask whether the design is custom, whether you own the code, whether SEO foundations are included, and what happens after launch if something breaks.
How much does a website cost in Birmingham?
Birmingham web design prices broadly follow the UK ranges above. Working with a local studio makes it easy to meet face to face during discovery and design. If you are in Birmingham or the West Midlands, you are welcome to visit our studio in the Jewellery Quarter.
What you get with a Curious House website
- Custom design signed off before we build
- Custom code: fast, secure and mobile-first
- SEO foundations built in from day one
- A CMS so you can update content yourself
- Full ownership of the code and design files
Websites start from £2,000, with a fixed quote before we start. See our web design service, or read our honest comparison of custom websites vs WordPress.
Tell us what you need and we will give you a straight answer on cost and timeline within 24 hours, with no hard sell. Start your project.
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