Part of our guide: Why is my website not getting enquiries?.
Written by Dan Sagar, FoundationsAI. Updated October 2026.
A website for a UK trades business costs from about £10 a month if you build it yourself, £500 to £3,000 from a freelancer, or £3,000 to £12,000 or more from an agency. Then there are running costs every year. What matters more than the price is whether the site gets found and brings in enquiries.
What the options cost
Prices checked on 25 October 2026.
| Option | Typical cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Build it yourself with Wix or Squarespace | Wix £9 to £25 a month. Squarespace £14.40 to £20.40 a month including VAT, paid yearly | Templates and hosting. You write every page, and finding the time is the hard part |
| Freelancer | About £500 to £1,500 for a basic 5-page site, or £1,000 to £3,000 for 5 to 10 pages | Varies a lot. Ask who hosts it and who updates it afterwards |
| Agency | About £3,000 to £12,000 for a brochure site, more in London | Design, writing and project management, often plus a monthly care plan |
| FoundationsAI Website plan, build it yourself | £99 + VAT a month, 14-day free trial | Our website builder, a 5-hour setup session and our 40-lesson course on building a site that gets found, plus our CRM, one inbox and a booking calendar |
| FoundationsAI Website plan, we build it | £995 + VAT one-off for up to 12 pages, then £99 + VAT a month starting 30 days later | Built for you: a page for each service and area, a prices page, Google Search Console and Bing set up, and tested in AI search before launch and again after |
Wix and Squarespace prices are from their UK pricing pages. Freelancer and agency figures are typical UK ranges from 2026 pricing guides.
The running costs every year
- Your domain name (.co.uk): about £10 to £30 a year.
- Hosting: about £5 to £20 a month for a small site, or included in a website builder or our plan.
- Updates and care: about £25 to £50 a month for a basic plan from a freelancer or agency, more if they write new content.
- Your time: if you build or update it yourself, count the hours.
What pushes the price up
- More pages. A page for each service and each town you cover costs more to write, but it's what gets you found.
- Someone writing the words for you.
- Photos of your real work, especially if someone has to take them.
- Online booking or payments.
- Moving an old site across without losing the pages Google already shows.
- Anything custom, like a quote calculator.
Why a cheap website can cost you more
A cheap site is usually a small site: a home page, a services page, an about page and a contact page. It can look great and still bring in nothing, because there's nothing for Google or ChatGPT to show when someone searches for your service in their town. One plumbing and heating site we looked at had 8 pages. A competitor a few miles away had 99.
So before you compare prices, compare what you get: how many pages, who writes them, and whether anyone checks the site gets found.
Questions to ask before you pay anyone
- How many pages do I get, and is there one for each service and town?
- Who writes the words?
- Who hosts it, and what does that cost each year?
- Who updates it, and what does that cost?
- Is the domain in my name?
- Will you set up Google Search Console and Bing?
- If I leave, what happens to my website?
Our Website plan is £99 + VAT a month to build it yourself, or £995 + VAT for us to build it for you. See the Website plan, or get a free AI search check to see how you show up now.
Common questions
How much does a basic website cost in the UK?
About £9 to £25 a month if you build it yourself with Wix or Squarespace, or about £500 to £1,500 from a freelancer for a basic 5-page site. Add a domain name at about £10 to £30 a year.
How much does a website cost each month?
Website builders cost about £9 to £25 a month. If someone else built your site, hosting and a basic care plan usually add about £30 to £60 a month. Our Website plan is £99 + VAT a month, including hosting, our CRM and the course.
Is a cheap website worth it?
It can be, if you'll keep adding pages. A small site that never grows rarely gets found, whatever it cost.
How long does it take to build a trades website?
You can put up a simple DIY site in a weekend. A freelancer or agency usually takes a few weeks. On our we-build option, your monthly plan starts 30 days after you sign up, while we build your site.