How much does a website cost?

 

Last year, we ran a webinar on briefing for a new website in the arts, culture and heritage sector. The question of budget came up several times, and a typical answer, “how long is a piece of string?”, didn’t feel particularly helpful. So when we ran a similar session this month, I wanted to be fully prepared.

I started by comparing the cost of a website to the cost of buying a house. We all know you can buy a small flat for relatively little, while billionaires can pay untold sums for mansion-scale properties. The difference with houses, though, is that there’s plenty of public data. You can see what a neighbour paid or what homes on a particular street actually cost. With websites, you can’t, at least not yet. So I tried a different approach.

We had just under 100 arts marketers and practitioners in the webinar, so I asked them to share any website budgets they’d heard of or worked with. Within seconds, the chat filled up with figures like:

• £10–15k
• £40k–£80k
• £160k

One person even wrote: “As a sole trader, I’m hoping to self-publish my website.”

Website pricing isn’t a scale where higher simply means “more”. It’s a spectrum where different budgets buy fundamentally different kinds of websites.

Ahead of the webinar, I’d also looked back at all the website RFPs and enquiries that had come our way in 2025. The range was just as wide. One organisation came to us with a £5k budget, a library had £115k, and a museum was working with a figure closer to £550k. The most common number, though, sat around £50k.

I then did a bit of external sense-checking using ChatGPT, which pulled together published RFPs from the UK, Europe and the US. Again, budgets started around £5k and went all the way up to around $1.5 million for a large Californian project.

None of this is very scientific. But looking back at live audience responses and real briefs, and having two decades of website delivery experience, helps to identify some patterns.

 

 

Under £10k

This is typically where you’ll work with:

• an independent website builder
• or self-build using tools like Wix, Squarespace or WordPress templates
• sometimes with the help of AI-assisted tools

These can work well for:

• simple sites
• limited content
• no integrations
• minimal customisation

They’re often the right choice for small organisations, start-ups or sole traders who need to be live quickly and affordably.

 

£15k–£20k

This is often the entry point for agencies. At this level, you might expect:

• a more distinctive look and feel
• designs aligned to your brand
• custom layouts rather than templates

But the site will usually still be:

• relatively simple in structure
• mostly static
• limited in functionality and integrations

 

£20k–£30k

This is where user experience starts to shape the project. You’ll often see:

• early user experience thinking
• basic user journeys
• light workshops
• a small number of system integrations

The site turns from being a set of pages into a digital tool that is based on, and supports, user behaviour.

 

£30k–£50k

Here, strategy and structure start to matter as much as design. You may expect:

• audience workshops
• user testing
• defined audience types
• more considered information architecture
• more robust integrations
• consultation with stakeholders

A website in this range will help as a tool for your service delivery, rather than just your communications.

 

£50k+

This was the most common budget band we saw in incoming briefs last year. At this level you would usually expect:

• multiple integrations (ticketing, CRM, donations, e-commerce)
• multiple user journeys
• and long-term thinking

From around £60k upwards, agencies are often providing strategic leadership rather than simply delivering on a brief.

 

£100k+

Budgets at this level are rarely just “a website”. They usually involve:

• complex technical ecosystems
• higher level involvement from multiple stakeholders groups
• phased delivery
• long-term digital roadmaps

The website can act as a vehicle for, or a reflection of, wider organisational change.

 

 

All of this affects the time and expertise required, and therefore the cost.

So when someone asks us, “How much should a website cost?” we try to reply with a different question: what are you trying to change?

Once that’s clear, your budget might become much easier to understand.

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If you’re thinking about getting a new website but don’t know how to start, take a look at our blog on how to write a website brief – complete with our briefing template and checklist.

Or, send us an email to start the conversation and see how we can help.