On this page
If you’re planning a new website for your business, two questions come up straight away: how much should I budget, and will it pay for itself? We built two free calculators to help you answer both before you speak to anyone. This guide shows how to use them together, with a worked example for a plumber in Shrewsbury.
If you want the background first, our article on how much a small business website costs in the UK compares agencies, freelancers, DIY builders and template sites. This one is about turning that into a number for your own business.
Try the free tools: start with the website cost calculator for a build range and monthly cost, then put the result into the website ROI calculator to see how long it might take to recover. Both run in your browser and nothing is sent to us.
Step 1: Decide what the website needs to do
Before you open the calculator, write down three things:
- The pages you need. For most local service businesses that’s a homepage, a page for each main service, an about page and a contact page. Five to eight pages covers a lot of trades. Our website page planner helps if you’re not sure.
- Who will write the words. Be honest. Most owners plan to write their own copy and then don’t get round to it.
- What the site has to do beyond showing information. Online booking, taking payments or selling products all cost more to build.
Step 2: Use the website cost calculator
The calculator asks four questions:
- How many useful pages? Count pages with real content, not every possible page.
- Who will prepare the words? You have finished copy, you need editing and structure, or you need it written for you.
- Technical scope. A standard service website, one with booking, payments or integrations, or an online shop or membership site.
- After launch. You’ll manage it yourself, you want hosting and updates, or fully managed care and improvements.
It gives you an indicative build range and a rough monthly figure for looking after the site. The range is based on broad UK allowances for planning, design, writing, building each page and testing. It’s a planning estimate, not a quote.
Worked example: a Shrewsbury plumber
Say you’re a plumber in Shrewsbury. You want five pages: home, boiler repairs, bathrooms, emergency callouts and contact. You don’t have time to write them, you just need a normal service website, and you’d like someone else to handle hosting and updates.
Enter 5 pages, “We need it written for us”, “Standard service website” and “Hosting and updates”. The calculator suggests:
- £3,350 to £5,600 for the build
- about £55 a month for hosting and updates afterwards
Now change the copy answer to “We have finished copy” and the care answer to “We will manage it”. The range drops to £2,050 to £3,400, with about £15 a month to run it. That gap is mostly the cost of writing. It shows why one quote can be double another: one includes copywriting and one doesn’t.
What the calculator doesn’t include
Check these separately: photography, your domain name (a .co.uk is £8.01 a year with us), any paid plugins or booking software, and changes after launch if they’re billed by the hour. The cost article covers these in more detail.
Step 3: Work out your first-year cost
Quotes are usually given as a one-off build fee plus a monthly charge. To compare them fairly, add them up for the first year:
Build fee + (monthly cost × 12) = first-year cost
For our plumber, taking a build in the middle of the range at £4,000 and hosting and updates at £55 a month:
£4,000 + (£55 × 12) = £4,660 in the first year
Step 4: Check payback with the ROI calculator
The ROI calculator asks for five figures:
- expected visits to the website each month
- the percentage of visitors who get in touch
- the percentage of enquiries that become customers
- the average value of a customer, in pounds
- what you’re spending on the website
It multiplies those together to estimate monthly enquiries, customers and income, then shows roughly how many months it would take to recover the cost.
Use your own numbers where you can
If you already have a website, look at your visitor numbers in Google Analytics or your hosting control panel, and count how many enquiries came through it last month. If you’re starting from nothing, run a few versions with different guesses instead of trusting one.
Worked example: the plumber again
An expected month: 300 visits, 3% enquire, 40% of enquiries become jobs, £250 average job, £4,660 spent.
- 9 enquiries and 3.6 customers a month
- £900 potential monthly value
- about 5.2 months to recover the cost
A cautious month: 150 visits, 2% enquire, 30% become jobs, same £250 job and £4,660 spent.
- 3 enquiries and 0.9 customers a month
- £225 potential monthly value
- about 20.7 months to recover the cost
The difference between those two is the useful part. If the cautious version still looks acceptable, you can go ahead with some confidence. If it doesn’t, you might want a cheaper route.
Bear in mind the calculator works on income, not profit. It doesn’t take off materials, your time, tax or other marketing. Using your profit per job instead of the full job value gives a more cautious answer.
Step 5: Compare it with a monthly website
Now try the same sums with a pay-monthly website. Our managed website is £47 a month with £0 setup. That includes design, writing the words, hosting, SSL, backups, your domain name and 10 changes a month by email. The first-year cost is:
£47 × 12 = £564
Put £564 into the ROI calculator as the website spend, with the same plumber figures:
- expected month: about 0.6 months to recover
- cautious month: about 2.5 months to recover
There’s no long contract, so if it doesn’t work for you, you can cancel. You also own your domain and your content. See what’s included and our prices for the full list.
A bespoke build can still be the right choice, for example if you need a large online shop or a custom booking system. The calculators help you see what you’re paying for and whether it’s likely to come back.
A simple website budget checklist
- List your pages and decide who writes them.
- Run the cost calculator and note the build range and monthly cost.
- Add up the first-year cost for each quote you get.
- Run the ROI calculator with expected and cautious figures.
- Check what each quote leaves out: writing, photos, domain, changes after launch.
- Choose the option where the cautious figures still make sense.
Try the free tools: open the website cost calculator now, then the website ROI calculator. If you’d like us to look at your current site and tell you what’s worth spending on, ask for a free website review.
Website budget questions
How much should a small business spend on a website?
It depends on what the site needs to do. A standard five-page service website built by a freelancer or agency often comes out in the low thousands, plus hosting. A managed monthly website spreads the cost instead, for example £47 a month with us and no setup fee. Use the cost calculator to see a range for your own needs.
Is the cost calculator a quote?
No. It’s a planning estimate based on broad UK figures. Online shops, membership sites and custom integrations need proper scoping by whoever builds them.
What conversion rate should I use in the ROI calculator?
Use your own enquiry figures if you have them. If not, try a few, such as 1%, 2% and 3%, and see how much the answer changes. Don’t treat any single guess as fact.
Should I use revenue or profit per customer?
Revenue shows the effect on sales. Profit gives a more cautious payback time. If you’re deciding whether you can afford it, profit is the safer number.
Is a monthly website cheaper than paying up front?
In the first year it usually is. Over several years the totals get closer, so compare what each option includes, especially writing, changes and support after launch.