How much does a B2B website cost in the UK?

As someone with more than 15 years in marketing, most of it in B2B, including tough industries like construction, equipment hire and waste management, I’ve commissioned loads of websites, compared the quotes and managed the projects myself. Agency quotes for a properly planned B2B website usually land between £10,000 and £20,000. Independent specialists often charge less, or about the same as an agency, and a template site can be put together for £1,000 to £2,000. There are also pay monthly options, which tend to suit smaller sites. Larger or more complicated projects, such as a site covering several businesses or locations, or one with a client portal or a knowledge base of guides and resources, can sit at the top of that range or even above it, because there’s a lot more involved.

In short: a properly planned B2B website usually costs £10,000 to £20,000 from an agency, and often less, or about the same, from an independent specialist. A template site costs £1,000 to £2,000. Whatever you pay, check what each proposal includes, and budget separately for content, photography and running costs.

Note: there’s no independent data on what UK businesses actually pay for websites, and no one-size-fits-all price. Every published price range you’ll find online comes from agencies and specialists describing their own market, so the figures here come from the projects I’ve commissioned throughout my career, the quotes I’ve compared and kept over the years, and my own research into what UK suppliers publish.

Typical costs at a glance

Check whether each price includes VAT, because not every supplier is VAT-registered. What’s included varies a lot at every level, especially research and copywriting, so compare what you’re getting as well as the price.

Why is it so hard to find out what a website costs?

It’s hard to find out what a website costs because most suppliers, whether they’re agencies or independent specialists, won’t give you a figure until they’ve spoken to you. Believe me, I’ve been there. I’ve lost count of the calls where I described a project and asked for a rough figure, just so I could start a list of people I might work with, and was asked for my budget instead. If you give a number, you worry that’s what the quote will come back at. If you don’t, you can get a range so wide it tells you very little. With a ballpark of £10,000 to £20,000, for example, it’s impossible to know where the final figure will land.

Ballparks don’t always hold, either. One supplier suggested £15,000 to £20,000 on a call and made my final shortlist. Their proposal came in at around £24,000, based on the same information, which made it a non-starter.

Plenty of agency and specialist websites have an FAQ asking how much a website costs, answered with some version of “every project is different”, no number and an invitation to get in touch. I’ve always felt that’s a bit of a cop-out. It’s true, but it doesn’t help someone deciding whether to pick up the phone. A rough guide lets people rule a supplier in or out before anyone’s time is spent, which is why I think every agency and specialist should publish one.

What should a B2B website quote include?

A website proposal should cover everything needed to get the site live, and say clearly what isn’t included. When I’ve compared proposals, they’ve rarely been laid out the same way, which is fine, because every supplier works differently and every business needs something different. Most break the work into stages, but some are far more clearly defined than others. Creative work is never quite like for like, but you should be able to see what you’re paying for.

Check whether each proposal includes:

• Research and planning. Understanding your commercial goals, your business and your customers, and working out the structure of the site.
• Copywriting. Many suppliers expect you to supply the words.
• Design and build, including how the site works on a phone.
• Enquiry forms and analytics, set up so you can see what’s coming in.
• Moving from your old site, including redirects (more on that below).
• Photography and video. Usually extra.
• Training, so your team can update the site.
• Support after launch, and what it costs.

Why do quotes vary so much?

Website quotes vary partly because suppliers are pricing different amounts of work, and everyone works a little differently. The biggest difference is usually who does the thinking and the writing. On one project, I’d already planned the site structure, written the content and supplied the photos and video, so the quote of around £13,000 to £14,000 was mostly for design and build. If a supplier does all of that work as well, the price can be higher, so it’s worth knowing which you’re getting.

Some of the variation comes down to the brief: how good it is, and how carefully it’s been read. If a brief doesn’t give a supplier what they need, the quote won’t reflect the real job. I once sent a detailed brief for a website with several separate sections, product filters that sent an enquiry, a client portal and a knowledge base of guides and resources. The quote came back at £20,000 plus VAT. Once the work started, it became clear that not everything in the brief had made it into the quote. We sorted it out, but it’s the kind of thing that turns a fixed price into an uncomfortable conversation.

Before you sign, turn your brief into a simple checklist and tick off each item against the proposal.

How long does a B2B website project take?

The B2B website projects I’ve commissioned were usually planned to take around three months from start to launch, and some ran over. Simpler sites and some suppliers can be quicker, but doing it properly takes time. The supplier has to understand the business, talk to the right people, and gather the content and photos. Delays can come from either side.

On the client side, content, photos and sign-off are what usually slow a project down. I’ve seen people sign off copy without reading it, then ask for changes two weeks later. Often it’s because nobody has explained what sign-off means: once something’s signed off, the work moves on, and changing it later can cost time or money. Agree that at the start, and have content, photos and decisions ready on time.

On the supplier side, the good ones keep you closely involved, with regular catch-ups where they show you what they’ve done and talk through your notes. Where projects slip, it’s usually down to communication: a snag nobody mentioned until late, or work that went ahead without an answer from you and then had to be changed. I’ve rarely been given a shared timetable, so I’ve always set up regular check-ins myself. Everyone’s busy, but regular contact keeps a project on track.

Plan for longer than the proposal says, ask for a timetable everyone can see, and agree who’s responsible for what before the work starts.

What are the hidden costs of a website?

The hidden costs of a website are mostly the things around it rather than the website itself. When I was responsible for a website budget, the last thing I ever wanted was to go back to the MD or the finance director for more money. Once a budget’s signed off, it’s hard to reopen, so I listed everything at the start and kept a small contingency for what I couldn’t foresee, and made sure everyone signing it off knew it was there.

The things most often missed:

• Content. Someone has to write the words, and if your supplier isn’t doing it, that’s usually someone on your team. The alternative is bringing in a copywriter, which is an extra cost. It’s also worth asking whether your supplier will help you pull content and photos together.
• Photography and video. Your own photos and video will always work better than stock images, which rarely show what a B2B business actually does. It’s an extra cost, but it’s worth investing in, because without it, it’s very hard to build a website that shows who you really are.
• Moving from your old site. If your current site ranks in search, any page addresses that change, and any pages you remove, need redirecting so you keep those rankings. A rebuild usually changes at least some of them. It’s rarely raised in proposals, and I’ve usually ended up handling it myself, so ask who’s doing it.
• Recurring costs. Hosting, the domain name and any software subscriptions renew every year, and some are sold with a low first-year price that rises at renewal. Expect a few hundred pounds a year for the basics, and more with a support plan. Most website platforms and many add-on tools charge a monthly or yearly subscription, so ask for every one to be listed in the proposal. List every renewal with its date, and put a reminder in your calendar to review them. If any are paid by card, update them when the card is replaced, because an expired card is an easy way for a domain or hosting account to lapse.
• Updates. Someone needs to be responsible for keeping the website up to date. On some platforms most of this is done for you, and on others the site and its add-ons need updating regularly, so ask which you’re getting. The National Cyber Security Centre’s guidance is to “update by default”, and to apply updates to internet-facing software within five days.
• Privacy and cookies. Your site needs a privacy notice and the right cookie set-up. Guidance from the ICO, the UK’s data protection regulator, now includes five exceptions to cookie consent, but the one for analytics is narrow and doesn’t cover advertising, so it needs setting up properly and checking from time to time.
• Accessibility. Under the Equality Act 2010, which covers England, Scotland and Wales, businesses that provide services have to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, and that includes making sure information is provided in an accessible format. Build it in from the start and check it properly.

When is a cheap or template website the right answer?

A cheap or template website is the right answer when the budget isn’t there, or when you or someone in your team has the skills to make it work. It makes sense if you’re just starting out, or if you don’t yet have the time or money to plan a bigger project properly. If that’s you, getting advice from someone experienced before you start can save a lot of trial and error.

Pay monthly website services can also work well for many small businesses. Check what you’ll own if you want to leave, though. With some services you keep the domain but not the website itself, so you can’t take it with you.

For an established B2B business, the bar is higher. Buyers are judging whether you can handle their work, and a site that looks and reads like a template makes that harder. In my experience, a cheap website is usually cheap because the supplier hasn’t spent time understanding your business, and it shows in what the site says. Buy it cheap, buy it twice, as the saying goes.

Website builders and AI tools have made it much easier to put a site up. They haven’t made it any easier to work out what it should say, who it’s for and how it brings in enquiries. That still takes time and experience, whoever does it.

How do you work out whether a website is worth the money?

One way to work out whether a website is worth the money is to estimate what it could bring in, as well as what it costs. Few suppliers have ever had that conversation with me, and it’s the one a decision-maker needs before signing off the budget, whether that’s the MD, the finance director or the owner.

It matters because more buyers want to do their research without a salesperson. In Gartner research published in 2025, 61% of B2B buyers said they’d prefer a buying experience without a sales rep, and 69% reported inconsistencies between what a supplier’s website said and what its salespeople told them. With 78% of UK businesses now having a website, up from 68% two years earlier, your competitors’ sites are what yours is being compared with.

When I needed approval for a website rebuild at one business I worked in, I built the case like this:

1. Look at what customers search for and where you rank. When I started there, we weren’t even on page five for the searches that mattered. We were around page 15, and our main competitors were on page one.
2. Estimate what that position is costing you. Using search tools, we could see how much more traffic our competitors were getting than we were. We also knew what share of our enquiries became sales and what a typical sale was worth, so we worked out a very conservative estimate of what moving up could bring in. Even the conservative figure was a big jump. If you can, base it on profit rather than revenue, because that’s the figure a finance director will look at.
3. Compare that with the cost. Against that figure, the website was easy to justify.

None of that is a guarantee, and it shouldn’t be presented as one. But it gives a website budget a commercial target, and it shows the business what you’re aiming for.

A website also doesn’t work on its own. It’s part of how you find customers, answer their questions and get their enquiries to the right people, whether that’s your sales team or your account managers. Judge it on that as well as on how it looks.

How do you choose a web designer?

Choosing someone to design and build your website can be tricky, especially if you haven’t done it before, you’ve been burned in the past or you’re not sure what you’re looking for.

When I’ve commissioned websites, I started wide and narrowed down. I looked at suppliers within travelling distance, because I wanted to meet them at least once and I was happy to travel to do it. I also searched Google for who was ranking well and checked review sites, wherever the suppliers were based, so don’t limit yourself to local ones. I opened their websites and the sites they’d built, and asked myself honestly whether the work looked like it came from a template, whether it answered what customers needed to know, and whether it had done a good job for the client.

From that, I made a longlist and got in touch with each one to find out roughly what they charged, what they built sites with and how they supported clients after launch. Then I narrowed it down to about three, gave them a proper brief and asked for detailed proposals, so the final choice was between proposals I could actually compare.

In the end, you’re choosing people you trust and get on with, who understand your business, keep in touch and deliver what they’ve promised. These questions help:

• What do you think our website needs to achieve? A good answer talks about enquiries and sales, as well as how it will look.
• What have you noticed about our business that we might not have? You know your business better than anyone, but you’re bringing in a specialist for what you can’t do yourself. The best suppliers tell you something you didn’t know, and tell you when they think you’re wrong. Someone who agrees with everything can’t really help you.
• Who will we deal with, and how often will we hear from you?
• What exactly is included, and what’s extra? Make sure the extras are clear in the proposal, so you know what else to budget for.
• What will we pay each year once the site is live?
• Who will own the website, the domain and the accounts?
• What will you need from us, and by when?
• What happens if we don’t like the first design?

Ultimately, a website’s job is to help you hit your commercial goals. The best B2B websites are designed around what the business wants to achieve and what its customers need to know. Sometimes that results in a fairly plain-looking site, and a plain-looking site built that way can bring in a lot of business.

Sources

• Gartner: Gartner Sales Survey Finds 61% of B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Buying Experience (June 2025)
• Department for Science, Innovation and Technology: UK Business Data Survey 2026
• National Cyber Security Centre: Vulnerability management: update by default
• Information Commissioner’s Office: What are the exceptions?
• legislation.gov.uk: Equality Act 2010, section 20: Duty to make adjustments