A small business website package can cost anything from a few pounds a month for a do-it-yourself builder to several thousand pounds upfront for a bespoke agency build. The number on the quote matters less than what sits behind it: who builds the site, who looks after it, and what happens when you need a change in month seven. At No Worry Websites, custom packages start at £34.99 per month with no upfront cost, and this guide shows you how to compare that with the other ways of paying.
TL;DR
- Website cost comes in three shapes: a large one-off build fee, a cheap builder subscription you run yourself, or a monthly package where someone else builds and maintains the site.
- Our pay monthly packages run from £34.99 per month for 8 pages to £99.99 per month for 35 pages, with a free domain name, SSL certificate and monthly changes done for you.
- The costs that catch people out are the ones after launch: hosting, email accounts, edits, extra pages and legal housekeeping such as cookie consent.
- Work out the total over 24 or 36 months, not the headline price, before you compare any two options.
Table of Contents
- The three ways small businesses pay for a website
- What a small business website package should include
- What our packages cost
- Worked example: the real cost over two to three years
- The costs that arrive after launch
- How to judge whether a package is good value
- Our perspective
- Ready to see what your site would cost?
- Choosing the right package size
- FAQ
- Sources
The three ways small businesses pay for a website
Every quote you receive will fit one of three models. Knowing which one you are looking at makes the comparison much fairer.
1. Pay a large fee upfront. A web designer or agency builds a site to your brief and invoices you for the build, often in stages. Hosting, maintenance and later edits are usually separate. You own a finished asset, but you have also tied up a lump of cash before the site has won you a single enquiry.
2. Build it yourself on a website builder. The monthly subscription looks small. The real cost is your time: choosing a template, writing the pages, setting up forms, fixing mobile layouts and keeping everything updated. For a time-poor owner, the hours are the expensive part. We cover that trade-off in more detail in DIY vs professional websites.
3. Pay monthly for a managed, custom site. A team builds the site, hosts it and makes your changes, and you pay a flat monthly fee. There is no big cheque at the start, and the cost stays predictable. This is the model we work in.
None of these is right for everyone. A business with a large budget and a complex booking or e-commerce system may well want a one-off bespoke build. A hobbyist who enjoys tinkering may be happy with a builder. For most start-ups, sole traders and local firms, who want a professional site live quickly and without handling the technical side, a managed monthly package is the lowest-friction route.
What a small business website package should include
When you compare packages, line the contents up first. Two prices only mean something if they buy the same things.
- Design and build. Is it a custom design for your business, or a template with your logo dropped in?
- Number of pages. Home, About, Services, Contact and a handful of service pages cover most small firms. Larger firms with many services or locations need more.
- Domain name. Some providers charge for this every year, others include it.
- SSL certificate. This is the padlock in the browser bar. Without it, browsers warn visitors that the site is not secure. It should never be an optional extra.
- Hosting. Where the site lives, and how fast and reliable that is.
- Business email. An address at your own domain looks more credible than a free webmail account. Check how many mailboxes are included.
- Changes after launch. Who does them, how many are allowed, and how long they take.
- Support. Can you speak to the person who manages your site, or do you raise a ticket with a queue?
A package that leaves out half of this list is not cheap. It has simply moved the cost somewhere you have not looked yet. Our article on hidden website costs goes through the usual culprits.
What our packages cost
Our prices are published, so you can see exactly what you would pay before you speak to anyone. Every website plan below is billed monthly, with no upfront build fee.
| Plan | Price per month |
|---|---|
| 8 Page Website | £34.99 |
| 12 Page Website | £49.99 |
| 20 Page Website | £69.99 |
| 25 Page Website | £79.99 |
| 30 Page Website | £89.99 |
| 35 Page Website | £99.99 |
The packages include a free domain name, an SSL certificate, green hosting as standard and personal guidance. All your changes are done for you each month, so you are not left learning a content management system on a Sunday evening. You can see the full list on our website packages page.
If you already have a site and only need it looked after, there are two ad hoc plans: £29.99 per month for one hour of work, or £39.99 per month for two hours. Hosting and maintenance on its own is £10 per month for 1 to 9 pages and £15 per month for 10 to 19 pages.
Extras and add-ons
A few things sit outside the main plans, and we list them openly:
- Extra email accounts: £5 per month
- An extra page: from £5.99 to £9.99 per month
- 360 video filmed: £69.99 one-off
- AI logo creation: £39.99 one-off
For a start-up, a simple way to read the table is by stage. Eight pages at £34.99 per month suits a sole trader or a new business with a handful of services. Ten pages at £49.99 per month gives room for a few service pages or a gallery. The larger plans suit firms with many services, several locations or lots of content.
Worked example: the real cost over two to three years
Headline prices hide the truth because they cover different periods. Convert everything to a total over a fixed time. Here is how that looks for our smaller plans, using the published monthly prices:
| Plan | Monthly price | Over 12 months | Over 24 months | Over 36 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Page Website | £34.99 | £419.88 | £839.76 | £1,259.64 |
| 12 Page Website | £49.99 | £599.88 | £1,199.76 | £1,799.64 |
| 20 Page Website | £69.99 | £839.88 | £1,679.76 | £2,519.64 |
These are simple multiplications of the monthly price. Check the current terms on the packages page for anything that applies to your plan.
Now apply the same test to any other quote. If someone quotes you a build fee, add the yearly hosting, the domain renewal, any maintenance retainer and a realistic number of paid edits, then divide by the months you expect to use the site. Often the comparison is closer than the headline suggests, and sometimes the monthly route is clearly cheaper because the changes are already covered. The point is to compare like with like. The opposite can also hold: if you plan to keep one unchanged site for ten years, a one-off build may come out cheaper in the long run. We would rather you knew that than found out later.
The costs that arrive after launch
The build is only the first bill. These are the ongoing items a small business should budget for, whichever route it takes.
Hosting
Hosting keeps your site online and fast. Prices vary with how much traffic you expect and how much support comes with it. On our packages, green hosting is standard. If you only need hosting for an existing site, it starts at £10 per month, and you can read more on our green hosting page or the hosting and email page.
Domain name
You pay to register a domain and then to renew it, normally every year or every two years. A .co.uk address signals a UK business to local customers, while a .com has a wider feel. Whichever you choose, make sure the domain is registered in your name or your business name, so that you can always take it with you. Ask any provider this directly before you sign.
A professional address such as hello@yourbusiness.co.uk is a small cost with a large credibility benefit. Ask how many mailboxes the package includes. We charge £5 per month for each extra email account, which is easy to budget for.
Changes and updates
This is where the three models differ most. With a one-off build, each change is often quoted or billed by the hour. With a builder, each change is your own time. With our packages, changes are done for you each month as part of the plan, and you have direct access to the person managing your site. Our page on efficient website management explains how that works day to day.
Legal housekeeping
If your site uses analytics or marketing cookies, UK rules expect you to tell visitors clearly and, where non-essential cookies are used, give them a real choice. The government’s own guidance says that cookie banners under UK GDPR and PECR should give clear information and let users accept or reject non-essential cookies. Ask any provider whether a compliant cookie banner and privacy page are part of the build or an extra. If the answer is vague, treat it as a cost you will pay later. For specific questions about your own obligations, speak to a solicitor or the Information Commissioner’s Office.
How to judge whether a package is good value
Use these questions on every quote, including ours.
- What exactly is included? Get the list in writing: pages, domain, SSL, hosting, email, changes.
- What is the total over 24 or 36 months? Add every recurring item.
- Who makes the changes, and how fast? A cheap site that takes three weeks to update costs you customers.
- Who owns what? Ask about your content, your images and your domain.
- Can you reach a real person? Direct contact with whoever manages your site saves hours of chasing.
- What does it cost to leave? Ask about notice periods and what you can take with you.
- Is it built for your kind of business? A site designed around how local customers search and call is worth more than a generic template.
A package that scores well on all seven is usually good value, even when it is not the cheapest line on the page.
Our perspective
We built No Worry Websites around one observation: most small business owners do not want to think about their website at all. They want it to look professional, work on a phone, and be updated when something changes, such as new opening hours, a new service or a seasonal offer. They do not want a large invoice before they have taken a single enquiry.
That is why we charge monthly, include the domain, SSL certificate and green hosting, and do the changes for you. You get a person to talk to, not a help centre. We think the biggest cost in a website is rarely the build. It is the months of neglect afterwards, when the site goes out of date because nobody has the time or knowledge to touch it. A flat monthly price with maintenance built in removes that risk.
We also think pricing should be readable. That is why our plans, extras and add-ons are published openly, so you can do the arithmetic yourself before you talk to us.
— Mark Jones
Ready to see what your site would cost?
If you would like a custom website with no upfront cost, a free domain name and SSL certificate, and your monthly changes handled for you, start with our pay monthly website packages. Pick the page count that fits your business today. Adding pages later is straightforward.
If you want to automate the busy work around your site, our Automated Sales System at £99 per month plus VAT replies to and follows up your enquiries, and includes AI chat on your website. We also offer an AI receptionist to answer calls from £49.99 per month plus VAT, and a digital business card at £2.49 per month plus VAT. Many small firms add one of these once the site is live. You will also find local pricing detail for Milton Keynes if you are based there.
Choosing the right package size
Buying more pages than you need is a quiet way to overspend. Buying too few leaves your best services without a page of their own. A practical rule is one page for each thing a customer might search for.
- Sole trader or new start-up, one or two services: Home, About, Services, Contact, plus a few supporting pages. The 8 Page Website at £34.99 per month is usually enough.
- Established local firm with several services: Give each main service its own page, add a gallery or testimonials page, and perhaps a short FAQ. The 12 or 20 Page Website fits.
- Multi-service or multi-location business: Separate pages for each service and area help people find the right one. Look at the 25, 30 or 35 Page Website.
If your needs change, you can add a page for £5.99 to £9.99 per month rather than rebuilding. That flexibility is one reason monthly packages suit growing businesses. For more detail on the different routes, our guide to small business website costs sets them side by side, and our page on website developers for small business explains how our no upfront cost approach works.
FAQ
How much should a small business budget for a website?
It depends on whether you pay upfront or monthly, and on how many pages you need. Our monthly packages start at £34.99 per month for 8 pages and go up to £99.99 per month for 35 pages. Whatever route you choose, add hosting, domain renewal, email and the cost of changes to get the true total.
Is paying monthly for a website a good idea?
For most start-ups and small firms, yes, because it spreads the cost and keeps cash free for other things. It also bundles maintenance, so the site does not go out of date. If you expect to keep a single unchanged site for many years, run the totals for both options first.
Do I pay extra for a domain name and SSL certificate?
Not on our website packages: a free domain name and an SSL certificate are included. With other providers, these are sometimes separate lines, so ask. Extra email accounts with us are £5 per month each.
What if I already have a website?
You do not need to start again. Our ad hoc plans cover an existing site: £29.99 per month for one hour of work, or £39.99 per month for two hours. Hosting and maintenance alone is £10 per month for 1 to 9 pages.
Can I add pages later?
Yes. An extra page costs from £5.99 to £9.99 per month, or you can move up to a larger package as your business grows.
