How much does a small business website cost in the UK and Ireland in 2026?

As of 11 October 2026. The figures below come from published guides and official pages on that date. They are not our prices and not an offer. Where a source says whether its prices include VAT, we say so too.

The short answer

There is no official price list for websites in either country. What exists are price guides, mostly written by web design firms and comparison sites. For a standard small business site with five to ten pages, the 2026 guides cluster around £1,500–£5,000 in the UK and €1,500–€5,000 in Ireland. Simple template sites come in below that. Online shops and custom builds go well above it.

Those ranges are useful for one thing: spotting a quote that is far outside the market. They won’t tell you what your site should cost. The rest of this guide explains why.

What the published guides say

United Kingdom

Source	Date	Website type	Range	How the figures were produced
Price guide by a UK firm that sells websites	15 Mar 2026	template or DIY	under £1,000	not stated; the publisher sells website packages
		brochure site, bespoke design	£1,500–£3,000
		most small businesses	£1,500–£5,000
		larger shops, custom work	£7,000–£15,000+
ExpertSure	verified Aug 2026	freelancer, 3–5 page brochure	£500–£1,500	not described in detail; the site may earn commission from featured providers
		freelancer, 5–10 page business site	£1,500–£3,000
		regional agency	£3,000–£8,000
		London full-service agency	£8,000–£30,000+

Ireland

Source	Date	Website type	Range	How the figures were produced
Price guide by an Irish web design agency	23 Dec 2025	basic brochure site	€300–€1,500	not stated; the publisher is a web design agency
		small business site	€1,500–€7,000
		online shop	€2,500–€20,000+
Price guide by an Irish low-cost website provider	31 Mar 2026	5–10 pages, contact form	€1,500–€5,000	cites an older .IE registry guide; the publisher sells a low-cost website plan
		online shop	€2,500–€6,000+

Three things to keep in mind when you read these tables:

• None of these is an independent survey. Every publisher sells websites or earns from referrals. That doesn’t make the numbers wrong, but it is worth knowing.
• Scope varies. One guide’s “brochure site” includes copywriting and SEO set-up, another’s doesn’t. Two identical-looking ranges can describe different work.
• VAT is often unclear. The low-cost provider states its prices exclude VAT. The others don’t say. Always ask.

We don’t name or link to the web design firms behind these guides, because they are our competitors. ExpertSure is named because it is a comparison site and doesn’t build websites itself.

What actually drives the price

Distinct layouts, not page count

Ten service pages built from one template take less work than five pages that each look different. Ask how many unique page designs a quote includes. It is a better measure than the number of pages.

Template or custom design

A good template with your logo and colours is cheaper and quicker. A design made from scratch fits your brand and content more closely. Both can work well. The quote should say clearly which one you are getting.

Copy, photos and translations

This is the line most often left out. If a quote assumes “content supplied by client” and you don’t have it, the project stalls at the mock-up stage. The Irish guide above puts professional copywriting at €50–€150 per page and a photo shoot at €300–€1,500. Decide early who writes and who shoots.

Bookings, payments and integrations

A contact form is standard. Online booking, payments, a link to your CRM, accounting software or an existing booking system all add work. How much depends on whether the system already has a ready-made connection.

Moving an existing site

If your current site brings in search traffic, the new one has to take over its addresses with redirects. Without them, visitors hit error pages and rankings can drop. Check that the quote covers it.

Legal requirements

Any site with a contact form collects personal data and needs a privacy notice. In Ireland, as an EU country, the European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 to many services sold to consumers online, including online shops. Microenterprises providing services are exempt. In the UK the Act does not apply, but the Equality Act 2010 still expects reasonable adjustments, and EU rules may apply if you sell to EU customers. This is general information, not legal advice.

Deadline

A rush job means the builder moves other work. Expect to pay more or to launch with a smaller first version.

Running costs after launch

The build is a one-off. These costs come back every year.

Cost	UK (guides above)	Ireland (guides above)
Domain renewal	£8–£15 a year	€15–€30 a year for .ie
Hosting	£5–£50+ a month	€50–€500+ a year
Maintenance and updates	£50–£150 a month	€35–€200+ a month

A few things the ranges hide:

• Domain promotions. A cheap first year often renews at a much higher price. Check the renewal price before you register.

Here is how that looks at two registrars for each ending, as listed on 11 October 2026. This is not a ranking or a recommendation, just an illustration of first-year versus renewal pricing:

Domain	Registrar	First year	Renewal or regular price, per year
.co.uk	IONOS	£1 excl. VAT	£10 excl. VAT (regular price shown)
.co.uk	Blacknight	€9.99	€9.99
.ie	Blacknight	€5.99 (offer, regular €36.99)	€36.99
.ie	LetsHost	€3.49 excl. VAT (offer, first year only)	not listed separately; a 2-year registration costs €51.49

The cheapest first year is rarely the cheapest over three or five years.

• Who owns the domain. It should be registered to your business, not to your web designer.
• What “maintenance” means. Updates, backups, security monitoring and small content changes are four different things. Ask which ones are included and how quickly changes are made.
• Licences. Paid themes, plugins and third-party services such as booking tools usually renew yearly. Find out whose name they are in.

VAT: compare like with like

The standard VAT rate is 20% in the UK and 23% in Ireland. In the UK, a business only has to register for VAT once its taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in 12 months. A freelancer below that threshold may not charge VAT, while an agency will.

For a VAT-registered business that can reclaim VAT, the difference often washes out. For a business that can’t, it is real money. Put every quote on the same basis before comparing.

Ireland: the Grow Digital Voucher

The Trading Online Voucher no longer exists. In September 2024 the Department of Enterprise announced that the Grow Digital Voucher replaces it. The scheme is run by the Local Enterprise Offices. As of 12 October 2026, their scheme page gives these terms:

• 50% of eligible costs, from €500 up to €5,000 per application;
• small businesses with 1 to 50 paid employees, trading for at least six months, with tax clearance from Revenue;
• a Digital for Business project completed with your Local Enterprise Office in the previous two years;
• the application goes in before you order, sign or pay for anything in the project.

The voucher does not cover bespoke website development. Eligible costs are new off-the-shelf software subscriptions for up to one year, such as website, e-commerce or online booking software, plus training or setup for that software, capped at half of the project cost. In our reading, it can help with a subscription platform and its setup, not with a custom-built site. Ask your Local Enterprise Office what your project qualifies for before you commit or pay a deposit.

The .IE registry also publishes a free e-book, “Website costs – how much should you pay?”, with a tender template. It dates from 2021, so treat any prices in it as out of date, but the questions still hold.

Builder or professional?

A website builder on a monthly plan is a reasonable start if you have time, a simple offer and no integrations. ExpertSure puts an all-in year on a builder, with plan, domain and email, at roughly £100–£350.

Before you choose one, check:

• whether you can move the site to another provider, or only export the content;
• what the plan costs after the introductory period;
• whether the plan lets you use your own domain and a form that reaches your inbox.

A professional build makes sense when the site has to take bookings, sell, or connect to your systems. It also makes sense when your time is simply worth more than the difference in price.

How to compare two quotes

Ask every supplier the same questions:

1. How many distinct page layouts are included?
2. Who provides copy, photos and translations?
3. Which integrations are included?
4. Is the price fixed? If not, what changes it?
5. Whose name will the domain, hosting and licences be in?
6. How long is the fix period after launch, and what does it cover?
7. What is the payment schedule?
8. What happens to the old site and its addresses?
9. Does the price include VAT?

Two quotes with identical answers can be compared on price. If the answers differ, you are comparing two different projects. Our short checklist for a website quote helps you prepare.

How we quote at MEZA

We don’t publish “from” prices, because no two projects are the same. Our pricing page explains what affects the price and how we set it.

In practice:

• you describe the project in a few sentences, and within 24 hours, weekends and public holidays included, you get the scope, timeline and a fixed price;
• before you sign, we show you a free concept, such as a mock-up of 1–2 screens;
• you pay in stages, with the schedule matched to the project, and every payment comes with a VAT invoice;
• the project code is yours once paid for, and the domain and all logins are in your name;
• for 30 days after launch, fixes are free.

We work remotely with clients in the United Kingdom and Ireland. See how we build business websites, or what’s involved in website maintenance after launch.