Planning Your Website
A UK web designer costs £30 to £80 an hour, £350 to £800 a day, or £500 to £5,000 fixed. What sits behind each rate and how to compare quotes properly.
A web designer in the UK costs roughly £30 to £80 an hour as a freelancer, £350 to £800 a day through a studio or agency, or a fixed project price that usually lands between £500 and £5,000 for a small business site.
Those three numbers describe the same work billed three ways, which is exactly why comparing quotes feels impossible. This is what sits behind each one, and how to work out which you are actually being offered. Our guide to reading and comparing a website design quote shows what to check on each one.
| Who | Typical rate | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer, newer | £20 to £35 an hour | Keen, cheaper, usually learning on your job |
| Freelancer, experienced | £40 to £80 an hour | One person who does the lot. Fast, until they are busy or ill |
| Small studio | £350 to £600 a day | A few people, so cover when someone is away |
| Larger agency | £600 to £1,200 a day | Specialists per discipline, more process, more overhead |
| Fixed project price | £500 to £5,000 typically | One number for the whole job, whoever does it |
Day rates are the most misleading figure on that table, because nobody buys a day. You buy an outcome, and a £400 day rate over twelve days costs more than a £700 day rate over five.
We see the quotes clients have collected, and the gap is almost never greed. It is scope.
Ask every quote the same question: what is not included? That answer explains the gap faster than the line items.
| Strongest when | The real risk | |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | You know what you want and can brief it clearly | One person. If they get busy, ill, or take a job, you wait |
| Small studio | You want it handled but still want to speak to a human | Costs more than a freelancer |
| Agency | The project is large or has several specialisms | You may be a small account, and overhead is in the price |
We are a small studio, so read that row with appropriate suspicion. The honest version is that the freelancer risk is real and frequently underestimated. One business owner came to us because his original web company had gone quiet: he had lost their phone number, his emails went unanswered, and they were still taking his hosting payment every month. He was not looking for a better design. He wanted out.
Another asked us directly what happens if we stop trading in six months and he is left without support. It is the right question. The answer that matters is not reassurance, it is whether you hold your own domain and can get your site handed over.
Design hours are a minority of a web design invoice. The rest is usually:
The full list of questions is in how to choose a web designer.
Not reliably. Rate mostly tracks speed and confidence rather than quality of outcome, and plenty of excellent designers charge modestly because they work from home in a cheap part of the country.
What does track badly is a price so low that corners have to be cut somewhere. If a five page written site is quoted at £200, the words are coming from you, the design is a template, and nobody is setting it up to be found. That can still be the right purchase. Just buy it knowing what it is.
The rates are our own bands, from what we quote, from what clients show us they were quoted elsewhere, and from UK designers who publish rates publicly. They are ranges rather than survey data.
The section on what goes wrong is from taking over sites other people built and from conversations with owners trying to leave a previous provider. We have not named anyone, because none of them was asked.
Expect £30 to £80 an hour from a freelancer, £350 to £800 a day from a studio, or a fixed project price of £500 to £5,000 for most small business sites. Ignore the day rate and compare what is included, especially who writes the words. Keep the domain in your own name, and ask what leaving looks like before you start.
For the full cost picture including running costs, see how much a website costs in the UK, and for the build side specifically, website development cost. If you would rather just have a number for your own project, tell us about it and we will come back the same working day with one fixed price.
Roughly £30 to £80 an hour for a freelancer, £350 to £800 a day through a small studio, and £600 to £1,200 a day at a larger agency. Most small business projects are quoted as a fixed price instead, usually between £500 and £5,000.
Newer freelancers charge about £20 to £35 an hour and experienced ones £40 to £80. Hourly rates are a poor way to compare, because a lower rate over more days can easily cost more than a higher rate over fewer.
Because the quotes are usually for different work. The biggest difference is whether the words are written for you or expected from you. Others are template versus custom design, whether search setup is included, what happens after launch, and how many rounds of revisions you get.
Usually yes on price. The trade is cover. One person can get busy, ill, or take a job, and then you wait. The risk worth asking about is what happens to your site and domain if they stop trading, and whether you hold your own logins.
Not reliably. Rates track speed, confidence and location as much as quality. What does matter is scope. If a price looks unusually low, normally the words are coming from you, the design is a template, and nobody is setting the site up to be found.
Who writes the words, what year two costs, whose name the domain and hosting are in, what happens if you want to leave, and whether you can edit the site yourself. Ask to see two sites they built that are still live, and open them on your phone.
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