Web design cost breakdown: what you’re paying for

20 August 2026

The market in one list

• Basic site: £2,000–£8,000 — 5–10 pages, template or light custom, simple form.
• Professional site: £8,000–£20,000 — custom design, 15–20 pages or a serious funnel, CMS, SEO foundation.
• E-commerce: £15,000–£50,000 — catalogue, payments, integrations, content at scale.

Our published starting points are £3,500, £8,500 and £15,000. That is not the cheapest in London and not the dearest. It is the band where quality and delivery still coexist. See current packages on the homepage and design service.

Line items inside a professional fee

1. Discovery: competitors, keywords, sitemap, success metrics.
2. UX and UI: mobile-first layouts, components, one revision round.
3. Content support: structure, FAQs, or full writing.
4. Engineering: HTML/CSS/JS/PHP or WordPress/Shopify, forms, schema, sitemaps.
5. QA: accessibility, speed, devices, redirects.
6. Launch: DNS, Search Console, analytics, training.
7. Risk: the studio’s calendar, insurance, and the fact we answer the phone.

What is usually extra

Photography shoots, video, custom illustration, CRM builds, multilingual, and ongoing SEO retainers. Domain (£10–£20/year) and hosting (often £0–£30/month) are separate. Copywriting for ten long pages is a real job — budget hundreds, not “we’ll just put lorem ipsum live”.

Why £499 quotes exist

They sell a theme, limited pages, and an upsell ladder. Fine for a stall. Poor for competitive terms or anything you will still want in three years. The hidden cost is rebuilds. Read DIY vs professional and how to choose a designer.

Want a number for your brief? Send the form — we quote fixed, with VAT stated, and no surprise plugin licences.