You have decided your business needs a website. The next question is how to get one. Broadly you have two options: build it yourself with a website builder, or pay a web designer to build it for you. Both are perfectly sensible choices. They just suit different situations.
This guide sets out what each one actually costs, how long it takes, and which one tends to work better for a small business or trade. No sales pitch, just the honest trade-offs.
The short answer
If you need a straightforward site to show what you do, where you work and how to contact you, a website builder will do the job for a fraction of the cost. If you need something complex, custom, or you genuinely have no time to spare, a designer earns their fee.
Most small businesses and tradespeople fall into the first camp and do not realise it.
Option one: build it yourself
Cost: from around £6.99 a month, plus roughly £7.99 a year for the domain name.
Time: a weekend for a simple site, spread over a few evenings if you prefer.
Modern website builders are drag and drop. You pick a template, swap in your own words and photos, and publish. There is no coding, and hosting, security and mobile layouts are handled for you.
What is good about it: it is cheap, it is fast, and you can change things whenever you like. Got new photos from a job on Tuesday? They can be live on Tuesday evening, without emailing anyone or waiting for a quote.
What is harder: it is your time, and your judgement. You have to decide what goes on the page and write the words. Most people find the building easy and the writing the slow part.
Option two: hire a web designer
Cost: typically £500 to £3,000 for a small business site in the UK, sometimes more, plus ongoing hosting and maintenance.
Time: usually two to eight weeks, depending on how quickly you supply content.
What is good about it: you get a professional eye on the design, someone else does the work, and a good designer will ask questions you had not thought about. For a bespoke booking system, an online shop with hundreds of products, or a brand where the design really matters, this is money well spent.
What is harder: the cost, obviously. But the bigger issue people run into is the after. Small changes often mean going back to the designer and paying an hourly rate, and if they are busy or move on, you can end up stuck with a site you cannot edit yourself.
The question that actually decides it
Forget budget for a second and ask this: how often will your website need to change?
If the answer is rarely, a designer-built site is fine. If the answer is regularly, new photos, new services, new areas covered, seasonal offers, then being able to edit it yourself is worth more than a slicker design. A site you can update in ten minutes will beat a beautiful site you are afraid to touch.
Things people forget to budget for
Whichever route you take, these come as extras and catch people out:
- Domain name: around £7.99 a year, and it should be registered in your name, not your designer’s
- Hosting: from a few pounds a month, sometimes bundled with a builder
- SSL certificate: the padlock that stops browsers warning visitors away, should be included free
- Business email: from £3.99 a month for an address that matches your domain
- Ongoing updates: either your time, or a maintenance fee
We have broken these numbers down properly in our guide on how much a small business website costs in the UK.
One thing to check before you hire anyone
If you do go with a designer, ask one question before you pay: will the domain and hosting be in my name, with my logins? Some setups leave the domain registered to the designer, which becomes a real headache if you ever want to move. It is an easy thing to agree at the start and an awkward one to unpick later.
A middle path
There is a third option people overlook. Use a builder for the site itself, but get help with the parts you find hardest, usually the words and the initial setup. You keep control and the low running cost, without staring at a blank page.
That is roughly how we work. You get the builder, domain, hosting and business email in one place on one bill, with real UK support when you get stuck, so you are never left staring at a help article at nine on a Sunday night.
Not sure which route suits you? Have a look at our small business website FAQs, or get in touch and we will tell you straight, even if the answer is that you need a designer.