How much does a website really cost in 2026?

If you've ever asked an agency how much a website costs, you've probably received one of two responses: a vague 'it depends' with no follow-up, or a quote so wildly different from the next agency that you've given up trying to compare them. Both are frustrating — and both are avoidable. Here's an honest breakdown of what actually drives website costs in 2026, what you should expect at each budget level, and how to make sure you're getting value for whatever you spend.

The factors that actually drive cost

Before any numbers make sense, you need to understand the variables agencies are pricing on. Some are obvious. Some aren't. All of them matter.

Design: custom vs template

A genuinely custom design — built from scratch by someone who's thought carefully about your brand, your users, and your goals — costs more than a template. That's not a luxury markup: good design solves problems. It loads faster because it has no unnecessary code. It converts better because it was designed for your specific audience. It reflects your brand accurately because it wasn't designed for everyone.

Template builds can look polished, but they come with hidden costs: slower performance from bloated plugin dependencies, layouts that don't quite fit your content, and a maintenance overhead that compounds over time. Budget at least 2–3× more for a genuinely custom design and development. It's usually worth it.

Functionality and features

This is the biggest single driver of cost. A brochure site with a contact form is fundamentally different from a site with member accounts, online booking, payment processing, API integrations, or real-time features. Every feature is a unit of work — design, implementation, testing, security considerations, and documentation. The more complex the feature, the more exponential the cost, because complexity interacts. An online booking system with authentication and Stripe payments isn't three features: it's ten, because they have to work together correctly and securely.

Content management

If your team needs to edit content without a developer — updating menus, writing blog posts, changing team photos — you need a CMS. Platforms like Sanity, Contentful, or a properly configured WordPress back-end all require setup, schema design, custom field configuration, and training. A well-built CMS setup costs between £800–£2,500 depending on complexity. Skip it and you'll be paying a developer every time you want to change a price.

Performance and security

A fast, secure website isn't free. Performance work — image optimisation, code splitting, caching strategies, Core Web Vitals optimisation — takes real time. Security hardening — proper authentication, OWASP compliance, secure headers, environment variable management — takes more. These aren't optional: Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal, and poor security is a business liability. Agencies that don't mention these aren't giving you the full picture.

What to expect at different price points

Here's an honest breakdown based on the UK market in 2026.

• ✦£1,500–£3,500 — A clean marketing site, template or semi-custom design, minimal or no CMS. Suitable for new businesses establishing an initial web presence. Good for testing a market before investing heavily.
• ✦£3,500–£8,000 — A properly designed business website with Sanity or similar CMS, performance optimisation, and a design that genuinely represents your brand. This is the minimum budget for a professional result from a serious agency.
• ✦£8,000–£20,000 — Custom web application territory: user accounts, dashboards, booking systems, payment processing, third-party API integrations. Price reflects both feature complexity and the security requirements that come with handling user data.
• ✦£20,000–£50,000+ — Full-scale web applications, complex e-commerce platforms, mobile apps, or multi-system integrations. Usually involves a team of specialists working over multiple months.

Red flags to watch for

Not all agencies charge fairly, and not all cheap quotes represent bad work. But these are consistent warning signs:

• ✦Vague proposals — A proper proposal lists every deliverable explicitly. If an agency can't tell you exactly what they're building, they don't know themselves. You'll pay for that ambiguity later.
• ✦No discovery process — Good agencies ask a lot of questions before quoting. If you have a price within the first ten minutes of a conversation, it's a guess.
• ✦Unrealistically low prices — A £500 website isn't a bargain. It's a template that wasn't properly configured by someone who won't be reachable when it breaks.
• ✦No mention of performance or security — Any agency that doesn't bring up load times and security isn't thinking seriously about your project.
• ✦No post-launch support clarity — What happens when something breaks after launch? Get this in writing before you sign anything.

How to get an accurate quote

The single best way to get a precise quote is to be specific. The more detail you give an agency, the more accurate their proposal will be. Before approaching anyone, write down:

1. 01Every feature you need — no matter how small or obvious
2. 02Who will manage content and how frequently
3. 03Any third-party integrations (booking systems, CRMs, payment providers, analytics)
4. 04Sites you admire — this communicates design expectations more efficiently than any brief document
5. 05Your timeline, including any fixed deadlines

A serious agency will take this information, ask follow-up questions, and return a proposal that explains exactly what's included and what isn't. Use our project estimator to get a calibrated ballpark in under two minutes — it's designed to give you a real number, not a range so wide it's meaningless.

The cheapest website you can buy is one that doesn't need to be rebuilt in 18 months.