Key takeaways
- Most UK sole traders and small firms end up spending £800–£2,500 on a build that is fit for purpose.
- Ongoing costs – hosting, domain, maintenance and content – typically run £15–£100 a month before any marketing.
- A build with no ongoing search work behind it rarely produces meaningful enquiries, regardless of what it cost.
- Beware of quotes with no page count, no content plan and no mention of who writes the copy.
- Owning your domain and hosting account outright is non-negotiable, whoever builds the site.
Quotes for a trade website in the UK range from about £400 to well over £10,000 for what looks, to the buyer, like the same thing. That spread is not arbitrary, but it is rarely explained – so this page sets out what sits behind each price band and what you should insist on getting for your money.
It also covers the ongoing costs that quotes tend to omit, which is where most trade businesses get caught out twelve months in.
The four price bands, and what each really buys
Website pricing looks opaque from the outside, but it resolves into four fairly consistent tiers in the UK trade market. The main variable is not visual design – it is how much of the thinking, writing and structuring is done for you.
| Tier | Cost | What you get | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder | £15–£30/mo | Template, hosting, drag-and-drop editing | You write everything; structure is usually wrong for search |
| Budget freelance | £400–£900 | Five-page template site, your text and photos | No service or area pages, no ongoing work |
| Proper freelance build | £900–£2,500 | 10–20 pages, copywriting, photo optimisation, search setup | Needs someone to keep it updated after launch |
| Agency build | £2,500–£8,000+ | Custom design, full content, tracking, integrations | Overkill for a one-van operation |
The ongoing costs nobody puts in the quote
The build is a one-off. Running the site is not, and this is where budgeting goes wrong. Even a completely static site has a floor of around £15 a month once hosting, the domain and a security certificate are counted.
Anything beyond that – updates, new service pages, fresh photographs, review collection, search work – is either your own time or someone else's invoice. Decide which before you commission the build, because a site nobody touches for two years reliably slides down the results.
- →Domain: £10–£20 a year
- →Hosting: £5–£30 a month depending on platform
- →Maintenance and updates: £0 if you do it, £30–£80 a month if not
- →Ongoing SEO and content: from around £300 a month for trade-focused work
What actually drives the price up
Two quotes for the same trade can differ fourfold, and it is almost never the design. It is scope: how many pages, who writes them, whether photography is included, and whether search work is bundled in.
A five-page brochure is a couple of days of work. A twenty-page site with a written page for each service and target town, optimised photography and a technical search setup is several weeks. Both are 'a website'. Only one of them tends to produce enquiries.
- →Number of pages, and whether each has bespoke written content
- →Who writes the copy – you, or the person building it
- →Whether professional or optimised job photography is included
- →Search setup: structured data, Search Console, sitemap, speed work
- →Integrations: booking, quoting tools, CRM, payment
How to judge whether a quote is fair
Ask three questions of any quote: how many pages, who writes them, and what happens in month two. A supplier who cannot answer the third is selling a brochure, and a brochure alone rarely repays even £900.
Set the cost against a job. If your average job is worth £2,000 and the site produces one extra job a month, a £2,500 build is repaid within weeks. If your average job is £120, the maths changes entirely and a lean build plus a well-run Google Business Profile is the sensible route.
Frequently asked questions
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