Website design cost uk 2023

If you are reading this article it is because you are planning to create a FREE website in the UK and you want to know website design costs in the UK or because you have received quotes with such a difference in price that you don’t really know how much a website costs in 2023.

How is it possible that a web designer can ask you for £200 and another one for £1.200? Very simple, as a general rule, the £400 design will lack many aspects necessary to be a minimally acceptable website and the agency or freelance that charges that price may be a person of this type:

• This is a web designer who is just starting out and has no choice but to reduce the price (little experience).
• The website you want to hire is going to be designed on free platforms such as Blogger, WordPress.com, Jimdo or Wix.
• The design will be on WordPress.org (currently the best option) but they will not bother to host it on a quality server.
• It may be a designer who just does the web design without the slightest consideration for usability and conversion.
• It is a web designer who is not going to implement a minimum of SEO so you will not be able to put your website on Google.
• They will demand monthly maintenance because they are going to design the website in pure and simple HTML, tying you down for life.
• It will not take into account the loading speed, subscriber acquisition and other Digital Marketing strategies.
• etc…

Paying £200 brings negative consequences in 99% of the cases, but if you have found a freelance web designer for little money who does not fulfil any of the previous points, you will have won the lottery because I assure you that nobody is willing to work many hours of work at such a low price.

The reason is that a website requires a lot of work on the part of the professional. It is not only the design of the website but much more is also needed and this has a cost.

If you want your website to attract customers and get sales, you need to hire a professional freelance web designer UK with guarantees that touches different branches of Online Marketing, otherwise, your website will be a project with no future.

I am a Freelance web designer expert in WordPress and WooCommerce and I assure you that a website is not just a nice design, nowadays if you want a website to convert and make money you need to use many Digital Marketing strategies and apply them.

In this article, you will see a breakdown of how much you should pay for a web design to avoid unpleasant surprises when you realise after a year that your website is worthless (I assure you that there are many websites for individuals and companies that are in this situation)

Website Design Cost Uk – How much costs a website design?

If there’s one thing you hear a lot about in digital marketing, it’s “it depends” and it does.

Hiring a web designer is not an easy task. If you do not know where to start and the online world is unknown to you, it is important that you not only separate the budgets of those who offer services at low cost, but you must also know with which platform to make your website.

Nowadays the best option is to choose to make a website in WooCommerce.

WordPress occupies more than 40% of the world’s websites and the growth is astonishing.

Don’t be fooled by free platforms and much less with WIX-type ads that paint the idea of designing a website as something simple and professional. Simple it is, but not professional at all.

If you have doubts about how much to pay for a website, start by selecting those professionals like me who offer to do your project with WordPress.

FUNCTIONALITIES OF A WOOCOMMERCE WEBSITE

There are many options and functionalities that a client may need and each website will require work that will vary substantially in cost. This platform offers the possibility of doing everything the client needs but like everything in life, it requires hours of work to achieve the results the client wants.

The customer may need any of these options:

• Corporate website: a corporate website is a simple website, with the typical sections Home, about us, Services, and Creation of a Blog or Contact. This type of website is ideal for professionals or individuals who do not need subscription forms, payment gateways, logistics, etc…
• E-commerce with payment gateways like PayPal & Stripe: if you need an online shop, this requires a lot of work. An online shop created with WordPress and WooCommerce will need to enter all the products and set up all the internal pages.
• Subscription forms: the use of email marketing is a good technique to build user loyalty in order to sell. The integration of the different email marketing providers requires hours of work on the part of the web designer.
• Private areas website: there are clients who need a private area where users have access to courses, subscriptions, bookings, etc… The design of these functionalities always has an extra cost.
• Multi-language website: Creating a website in several languages is almost like making the website two or three times depending on the number of languages to be implemented.
• Real estate agencies, membership platforms, and quotation forms…: this type of quotation will logically be more expensive due to the functionalities it requires.

CUSTOMISATION

There are 3 ways to do website design:

• Design based on pre-designed demos ( Using a professional WooCommerce theme ): A good option if your website needs something simple and it is one of the parts that I accept and understand that people pay little money for a web design as the work involved for the professional is going to be much less than a custom web design.

In my case, I know that many professionals need just that and have their website working perfectly designed and optimised for Google, but they haven’t had to put in the hours of a custom web design that would probably go to 3 times the time of work.

Template-based web design is a good way to pay for a design without extras and is perfectly valid for a lower price.

• Design on a bespoke basis: As soon as a design needs more customisation, you cannot expect to pay less than £700 for it. First, because although it may not seem like that much work to you, the truth is that it requires many hours of work; and second because if you find a professional who offers that price for a website from scratch, it is very likely that the result will be disastrous.

Even if the result of the website is visually beautiful, it can be a real disaster and be worthless.

SIZE OF THE WEBSITE

A corporate website with 5 or 6 pages is not the same as a website with many sections, menus, categories or subcategories. All this is design work that requires manual and creative work.

The installation, configuration and implementation of each page require more creative effort and manual work.

WOOCOMMERCE SEO

Not all web designers are SEOS. By this, I mean that if you are going to pay to make a website that needs to get traffic and sell, you need to hire a professional who has a minimum knowledge of SEO and will deliver a website ready for Google to like.

Why do you want a website if nobody is going to see it?

Example: Imagine you have a pet shop: I ask you, how much would you pay for premises in a busy pedestrian street in the centre of London? A lot, right?

And how much would you pay for your pet shop to appear in the first results on Google when someone searches for the term “pet shop in London”?

This is achieved with SEO and is something that makes the difference between a normal web design and one with SEO Friendly Web Design.

WEB DOMAIN AND HOSTING UK

If you opt-in for another eCommerce platform like WooCommerce then YES you will need to get a hosting plan for your store.

You have to know that when you are going to ask for a budget for a website an important part is to know how much you are going to have to pay for the domain and the hosting where to host your website.

The best option is not to host it on your own professional servers (even if it is included in the price) but on your own in quality hosting providers such as Speed2Host.Com ( Located in the USA but with 5 Datacenters including in the UK ). I host this website on their servers and as you can see in the next images they have powerful web hosting dedicated to WordPress and WooCommerce.

A quality server costs a little more than the rest, but don’t make the mistake of saving a few euros a year or you won’t sleep easy thinking that your website may have problems from time to time.

If the designer is a quality one, he/she will help you in contracting this type of service (it is very simple).

Website Design Cost UK & Maintenance

Maintaining a website costs money, but it does not have to be an obligation on the part of the client if he can make small changes himself and thus save money each month.

Imagine a website where when the professional delivers it to you, you don’t have to pay a monthly maintenance fee and you can only change texts, upload new photos or make small changes.

Some time ago this was unfeasible, you needed to pay obligatorily because the templates were handmade with code by web developers.

Unfortunately, there are still professionals who believe that making a website in HTML is the best option (for very large projects it can be) and this is a mistake because:

• Delays in delivering the website to the client
• The result may not be as good as the one achieved with platforms as good as WordPress.
• The client will be tied for life to make simple changes and if he decides to change the professional you will want to throw the web to have a design created to the taste of the professional.

Now you understand that:

• Not all websites require the same work and effort on the part of the professional.
• You should not go for the first cheap web design quote.
• You have to choose WordPress as the ideal platform.
• You have to avoid (unless you need something very personalised and big) websites created from scratch in HTML, PHP or made from the ground.

Let’s see how much a website costs in the UK by showing estimated figures.

FIGURES: How much does it cost to create a professional website in the UK?

The prices per website and work hour are approximate and depend on many factors such as the geographic area or whether it is an agency or a freelance professional, but they will serve to establish an average of how much a professional charge for a quality website in the UK.

PRICE OF A SIMPLE E-COMMERCE WEBSITE

I have already explained above that a demo-based design is a good option if you are looking for the cheapest price as long as the templates you are offered are your own and are optimised.

If the corporate web demos with 5 or 6 pages are designed and optimised by the professional and you as the client have the texts and images you can choose this option.

It is a quality website based on specific templates that require less work for the designer and it is a very good option as long as it fits the client’s needs.

Price: Between £500 € and £2800 ( Standard WooCommerce website )

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO CREATE A WOOCOMMERCE CUSTOMISED WEBSITE

If the client needs a corporate website with x pages, with its own interactive design created from scratch after a briefing to define the tastes and needs of the business, the cost of the website will be considerably higher.

Price: Between £1000 € and £3000 ( Customized WooCommerce website )

Talking to the client beforehand or carrying out a questionnaire is a good way to get to know the client’s tastes very well and to find out the needs of the project.

From that moment on, a line of work is established where the designer will have the freedom to do his work but maintain contact with the client at all times until the result is as expected (I consider continuous contact with the client to be fundamental).

Customised WordPress Website price: Not less than £1500

PRICE WEBSITE WITH ONLINE SHOP ( WooCommerce based )

Making an online retail website takes a lot of work. To give you an idea, it is about building a simple website but adapting it and setting up the configuration of the online shop with all the options and implementations of the payment gateway, logistics, stock etc…

Each new product upload increases the price due to the manual work and optimisation of each product page or category.

Price: Not less than £1500 (for a website of approximately 20 products).

MULTI-LANGUAGE WEBSITE

Creating a website in several languages is almost like setting up the website two or three times.

If the website is created with languages based on Google Translate (Google translate) the website would be a little bit more expensive than the simple web design, but we are talking about a quality website with perfect translations and optimised for search engines. You cannot or should not use this option if you want your website to be seen well by search engines.

Price for making a multilingual website with WordPress: Not less than £700 + 60% or 70% for each language added.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO MAKE A WEBSITE WITH REAL ESTATE, MARKETPLACE, MEMBERSHIP

From here the price can get as expensive as you want. With WordPress, you can do almost anything you can think of, but in the same way, the professional’s head also has to work to implement everything you want.

The price of add-ons can vary a lot as you may need a marketplace, an internal social networking tool on your website, a membership to sell courses, private areas, etc…

You can find prices that will make basic web design from £500, £600, and £1000. £2000, £3000 or even £5000 or £10000 if you want. The limit is set by the needs of the client.

eCommerce Website Cost UK

It depends. If your website is a local business or a small shop or you are an individual who wants to digitise your project or business, a simple web design may be more than enough.

What I do recommend is that you don’t make the mistake of going for a cheap web design in the UK, look carefully and don’t neglect SEO and what will happen once you have the website.

If the professional has done a good job, the website will go on its own in terms of positioning, but that doesn’t mean you should abandon it.

Example: If you have a physical shop in London, wouldn’t you take care to clean it, put new products in the shop window, advertise so that people come to it, and take care of the customers who come in with kindness?

In case you are going to start an online project you have to know that you have to do the same but on the internet and that there are many online marketing strategies and many ways to attract traffic.

For this reason, and so that you know how much a website is really worth, you have to consider hiring professionals who do not just give you a nice design that is rotten on the inside.

I hope that by now you have understood the reason for the diversity of prices and the importance of not getting carried away by bargain-basement offers.

Conclusion

Every client and every web designer is different and not everyone needs and does the same thing. A good web designer like me will tell you what your project or business really needs and should be fair in charging you for the time it will take to make the website.

Never forget that the goal is that your website sells and that does not mean wanting to implement everything and go for the lowest price, sometimes less is more.

A website is not a hobby, it can and should be an exceptional way to get visibility, get traffic, sell and make money, but to do so, you have to know that cheap sometimes comes at a high price.