Most UK tradespeople pay somewhere between a few hundred pounds a year for a do-it-yourself builder and several thousand pounds for an agency. What you pay depends on how many pages you need, whether the design is made for you, and whether you rent the site monthly or own it outright. A fixed-price, hand-coded site from a solo builder usually sits between the two. Prices vary widely, so get two or three quotes.
Four ways to get a trade website, compared
These are typical UK ranges, not quotes. Your own price will depend on your needs.
| Option | Typical cost | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY website builder | Roughly £10 to £30 a month, plus your own time | A very small budget and you are happy to build it yourself. | Templates look like everyone else’s, pages can be slow, and you rent it: stop paying and it goes. |
| Freelance designer (often WordPress) | Commonly £500 to £3,000 one-off, plus hosting | A custom look for a modest spend. | Plugins need updating, hosting and renewals add up, and quality varies a lot between people. |
| Web agency | Often £3,000 to £10,000 or more | Larger firms with bigger, more complex needs. | High cost, and some agencies tie you to a monthly retainer. |
| Fixed-price, hand-coded build | From £750 for a landing page, £2,500 for a five-page site with a dashboard | A fast, custom site you own outright, for a price agreed before work starts. | Built to a fixed scope, so it suits most trade sites but not shops or sites with dozens of pages. |
Weighing up a builder? See Wix, Squarespace or hand-coded. Paying a directory for leads? See Checkatrade or your own website.
What actually changes the price
- Number of pages. A single landing page costs far less than a site with separate pages for every service and area.
- Custom design or a template. A design made for your firm takes more work than a template with your logo on it, and looks different for it.
- Features. A gallery, a quote form, WhatsApp and call buttons, booking or a customer dashboard each add scope.
- Who writes the words and takes the photos. If you supply good photos and clear notes, it is cheaper and quicker than commissioning them.
- Speed. Sites built quickly, and built lightly, tend to load faster too, which matters for customers searching on a phone.
Costs people forget
The build price is rarely the whole bill. Ask about all of these before you agree anything:
- Your domain name, which is usually an annual renewal.
- Hosting, and whether it is included or billed separately.
- Email addresses that match your domain.
- Updates and security maintenance, especially for plugin-based sites.
- Monthly plans, and what happens to your site if you stop paying.
- Photography, if you do not have good pictures of your own work.
Questions to ask before you pay anyone
- Do I own the site and the domain outright when it is finished?
- Is the price fixed, and what could make it change?
- What is included after launch, and for how long?
- How fast will it load on a phone? Can you show me a speed test?
- Can I see examples of what you have built, and be told honestly which are for real clients?
- What happens if I want a change in six months?
Is a website worth paying for?
A simple test: if a good website brings you one extra job you would not otherwise have had, and that job is worth more than the site cost, it has paid for itself. For most trades a single decent job does that, so the real question is less “can I afford one” and more “will it be fast and clear enough to win the customer once they find me”.
How Scalar Digital prices it
I build hand-coded sites for UK trades at a fixed price agreed before any work starts. A single landing page is £750. The full build is £2,500: five pages plus a private dashboard for enquiries, quotes, jobs and invoices, hosted free for your first 12 months, then an optional £39 a month. You own the code and the domain outright either way.