Straight pricing, no hidden fees. We charge a flat day rate of £450 per day (excluding VAT). Total project cost is the day rate multiplied by the days needed to build what you want — nothing more.
This page explains how much websites typically cost in 2026, what affects the price, and exactly what you get for your money. If you would rather skip ahead, send us a brief and we will come back with a fixed total within two working days.
How much does a website cost in 2026?
For a professional, custom-built website in the UK in 2026, expect to pay between £1,800 and £20,000+, depending on scope. Concrete numbers, all priced at our £450 day rate:
- Small business / brochure site — 3 to 5 pages, contact form, basic CMS — £1,800 to £3,600 (4–8 days)
- Multi-page business site — 10 to 25 pages, blog, light integrations — £4,500 to £9,000 (10–20 days)
- E-commerce store — wordpress/" class="rp-autolink">WooCommerce or similar, 50–500 products, payment + shipping — £8,000 to £18,000 (18–40 days)
- Custom build with integrations — bespoke functionality, third-party APIs, dashboards — £10,000+ (22+ days)
Cheaper providers exist, and so do more expensive ones. The section below explains why we sit where we do.
Our day rate: £450 per day
One number. £450 per day, excluding VAT. We do not sell fixed-price packages, we do not charge per page, and there are no setup fees, hosting markups or hidden extras.
A working day is 7.5 hours of design and build time on your project. That includes everything below.
What is included in a day
- Design or development time on your project
- Project management and brief refinement
- Internal testing and revisions
- Client communication, calls and emails relating to that day's work
- Source-controlled, version-tracked code — you keep full ownership
What is not included
- VAT — added at 20% on top of the day rate (£540 inclusive)
- Stock photography, paid plugins, premium fonts — passed on at cost with no markup
- Third-party fees — domain registration, premium hosting, SSL upgrades
- Ongoing hosting and support — quoted separately as a monthly retainer
Typical project sizes and timelines
Most websites fall into one of four patterns. Use these as a rough guide before we send a fixed quote.
Small business website — 4 to 8 days (£1,800–£3,600)
Up to about 5 pages, contact form, mobile-responsive, basic SEO setup, light CMS so you can edit copy and swap images. Suits sole traders, consultants, local services. Built on whatever stack fits — WordPress, Framer, Wix, or our own Claude CMS for AI-managed sites.
Multi-page business site — 10 to 20 days (£4,500–£9,000)
20+ pages, blog, light integrations like Mailchimp or HubSpot, more design polish, custom illustrations or animations, structured page templates. Suits established small-to-medium businesses with a marketing budget.
E-commerce store — 18 to 40 days (£8,100–£18,000)
WooCommerce, Magento or Wix Stores, depending on scale. Includes catalogue setup, payment processor integration, shipping rules (Royal Mail, Evri, DPD label printing), tax configuration, transactional email design, and order-management training. Larger catalogues and complex variations add days.
Custom build / web app — 22+ days (£10,000+)
Bespoke functionality: dashboards, calculators, member areas, third-party API integrations, AI Search Optimisation, Claude CMS dashboards, MCP integrations. Quoted day-by-day in stages with milestone sign-offs.
What affects the price
The single biggest driver of cost is scope — the number of distinct pages, sections, features and integrations. Common multipliers:
An online shop
An e-commerce area takes a website to a different level of complexity. Behind the scenes you need a configured payment processor, PCI-compliant hosting, transactional emails, product database, stock management, refund flow and admin training. Even with WooCommerce or Shopify handling the heavy lifting, expect 8–15 extra days versus a brochure site of equivalent page count.
Custom Design vs templates
A bespoke design done from scratch in Figma adds 3–6 days versus starting from a template. The benefit is a site that looks distinctively yours and is not sharing its layout with thousands of other businesses.
Integrations
Each third-party integration (CRM, ERP, accounting, marketplace feeds, AI assistants) adds 0.5–4 days depending on complexity. Royal Mail label printing, marketplace product sync, or accounting bridges are common requests.
Content production
If you supply finished copy and images, we move faster. If we are writing or sourcing for you, add 2–5 days for a small site, more for larger ones. We can also brief AI tools to draft on your behalf and then edit.
Animations and motion
A site with subtle scroll animations and transitions takes 1–2 days more than a static one. Heavy animation or interactive 3D pushes that further.
How we quote
The quoting process is short and free.
- Brief call or written brief — 30 minutes, free. We talk through what you need, what you are trying to achieve, and any reference sites you like.
- Written quote — a fixed number of days for the work, broken down by phase, sent within 2 working days. The day rate is fixed; we shoulder the risk if it takes longer than estimated.
- 50% deposit — work starts on receipt. Balance on launch.
- Stage sign-off — design, development, content, launch — each signed off before moving to the next.
Why a day rate, not fixed packages?
Other agencies advertise fixed prices like "£999 for a 5-page site" because it is easier to sell. The trade-off is that the cheap headline rate almost always comes with restrictions: a fixed template, a capped number of revisions, and a long upgrade list for anything outside the package.
We bill by the day because no two projects are the same. A simple-looking 5-page site for a regulated industry can take longer than a flashy 10-page site for a creative studio. By quoting based on actual work, you pay for what you need — not the average.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average web designer day rate in the UK in 2026?
UK web designer day rates in 2026 range from about £200 (junior freelancer) to £900+ (senior agency lead). Mid-market freelancers and small agencies typically charge £350–£550 per day. Our £450 rate sits in the middle of the professional bracket.
Do your prices include VAT?
No. £450 is excluding VAT. UK VAT is 20%, so the inclusive rate is £540 per day. VAT-registered businesses can typically reclaim it.
Will you give me a fixed total for my project?
Yes. Once we have understood the spec, we send a written quote with a fixed total — the day rate × estimated days. If we run over, that is our risk to absorb, not yours.
How long does a typical website take?
A small business site is usually 4–8 working days, spread across 3–5 calendar weeks. A medium site takes 10–20 working days over 6–10 weeks. E-commerce stores typically run 18–40 days over 8–16 weeks.
What if my project goes over the estimate?
If we estimated 10 days and it takes us 12, you still pay 10. We absorb the slip. The exception is mid-project scope changes — added pages, new features, redesigned sections after sign-off — which we re-quote before starting.
Do you offer payment plans?
We work to a 50% deposit, 50% on launch as standard. For longer projects (30+ days) we will split into three or four milestone payments tied to phase sign-off.
What about ongoing hosting and support?
Quoted separately as monthly retainers, starting at £45/month for hosting plus light updates, scaling to £400+/month for active development retainers. We are upfront about what is covered and what is not.
Can you work with my existing site?
Yes. We do redesigns, rebuilds, migrations and feature additions. If you have inherited a WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento or Wix site that needs work, we can quote against it directly.
Do you build with AI?
Yes. We use AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor) as part of our day-to-day. That is a productivity multiplier, not a discount: a day's output is faster and more polished than it would have been three years ago. You still get human-reviewed, properly tested code.
What payment methods do you accept?
UK bank transfer (BACS or Faster Payments). Card payments via Stripe on request, with a 1.5% surcharge to cover processing.
Get a quote
Send us a brief — even a one-liner — and we will come back with a written estimate within two working days. Email info@receptivemedia.co.uk.
