This is the question we get asked more than any other, and it’s usually asked before someone’s even told us what they actually need. So let’s answer it properly, with real numbers, rather than the usual “it depends” that everyone in this industry loves to hide behind.
The honest answer changes depending on what you’re building, but two things really drive it: how complex the website needs to be, and whether you need eCommerce. Once you know those two answers, the price becomes a lot easier to predict.
We work in two main ways, and both are built on WordPress, so the real difference between them isn’t the platform, it’s how much of the site we’re building from scratch.
At a glance
| Website | From | Typical timeframe |
| WordPress theme website | £1,500 | 2-3 weeks |
| Custom WordPress website | £7,500 | 2-4 months |
| Custom eCommerce website | £10,000 | 2-4+ months |
These are starting prices rather than fixed quotes. The final cost depends on what the website needs to do, how much content it has and how much custom work is involved.
Pre-built theme websites, from £1,500
We take a solid, well-built WordPress theme and shape it around your business, your content and what you actually need it to do. It’s not a copy-and-paste job, we customise it properly so it fits your business, but we’re starting from something that already exists rather than building everything from a blank page.
The advantages:
It’s faster to launch, which matters if you need a website live in weeks rather than months. It’s also considerably cheaper, making it a good option if you’re just starting out or your website doesn’t need to do anything unusual.
A good theme has already been through plenty of testing too, so there’s less fundamental development work involved and less for us to build from scratch.
The disadvantages:
You’re working within the bones of someone else’s design, so there’s a ceiling on how far you can push it before it stops making sense. Themes can also come with a lot of code and functionality you’ll never use, which means they often need some extra work to achieve a really good page speed.
And because plenty of other businesses may be using the same theme, there’s always a small chance your site ends up looking a bit like someone else’s. For many businesses, though, that’s a perfectly reasonable trade-off, and you still get a professional, responsive WordPress website without the cost of designing and developing everything from scratch.
Pre-built theme example:
Plum Architects
Custom-built websites, from £7,500
This is where we start from a blank canvas and build the website around your business, still using WordPress, but without being constrained by a pre-made theme. We plan it, wireframe it, design it and develop it around your business specifically, so every part of the website earns its place.
The advantages:
The design and functionality can be tailored to exactly what you need. That could mean a completely bespoke visual style, a specific customer journey, unusual functionality or a website that needs to integrate with other systems.
Because we’re building the site specifically for the project, we can also keep the code lean and avoid loading lots of functionality that isn’t being used. And because the website has been designed specifically for you, it’s much harder for someone else to end up with something that looks the same.
The disadvantages:
It costs more, and it takes longer, because you’re paying for the planning, thinking, design and development as well as the finished website. It’s not the right call if your budget or timeline is tight, or if your needs are simple enough that a good theme would do the job just as well.
Custom-built example:
GoSkydive
What actually pushes the price up?
Within either option, the same handful of things tend to move the number. A larger site with more page templates costs more than a small one with five pages doing the same job twice over, although it’s not necessarily the number of pages that matters most.
A website might have 30 pages but use the same template throughout. Another might have only 15 pages but need separate designs for case studies, team members, services, resources and landing pages, so the amount of design and development involved can be much greater.
Content and imagery
If you’ve already got well-written copy, professional photography and your brand assets ready to go, that makes the process much more straightforward. If we need to write or rewrite content, source imagery, or create graphics, illustrations or icons, that adds time to the project.
Good content is also one of the things that can make the biggest difference to the finished website, so it’s not an area worth rushing.
Design and animation
Simple, well-considered design doesn’t have to cost more, but bespoke animation, interactive elements and more ambitious layouts can. If something needs to behave differently across desktop, tablet and mobile, there’s also more development and testing involved.
Integrations
Connecting your website to another system can add considerably to the cost. That could be a CRM, booking system, email marketing platform, stock management system, accounting software or something more bespoke.
The more systems a website needs to talk to, the more planning, development and testing is involved.
eCommerce
eCommerce websites can vary enormously in complexity. A simple shop selling 15 products is a very different project to one selling 1,500 products, while product variations, customer accounts, subscriptions, delivery rules, discounts, stock management and integrations with other systems can all add to the work involved.
That’s why our custom eCommerce websites start from £10,000, rather than simply adding a small amount to the cost of a standard website.
SEO, what’s included?
SEO can be a huge subject, and it can also become a significant ongoing marketing activity. But there are some basic things that every new website should have in place from day one, and these are included as standard in both of our website packages.
We’ll make sure the site has properly structured page titles and meta descriptions, sensible headings and alt tags on images. We’ll also set up Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and submit the new website to Google so it can be crawled and indexed.
For theme-based websites, we also pay particular attention to page speed. Pre-built themes can include a lot of functionality and code that isn’t actually required, so some extra optimisation is usually needed to get the best performance possible.
That’s the foundation. If you need more in-depth SEO work, such as keyword research, competitor analysis, content strategy, technical SEO, link building or an ongoing SEO campaign, we’d recommend working with a specialist SEO agency.
For that, we recommend Koozai, who we work with when a project needs more than the SEO basics we provide as part of the website build.
How long does each one take?
A pre-built theme website usually takes around two to three weeks from start to finish, which makes it the right choice if you’re working to a tight deadline. A custom build takes longer, generally two to four months, because that time covers the planning and wireframing stage as well as the design and development itself.
Neither timeline is fixed. A more complex theme site can take longer, while a relatively simple custom website can move faster, and the amount and speed of content supplied by the client can also have a big impact on the overall timeframe.
What does the price actually include?
Our starting prices are designed to give you a realistic idea of what a project will cost, rather than simply being an attractive number to get you through the door. A typical website project includes the WordPress setup, responsive design and development, the agreed page templates, contact forms, basic SEO, Google Search Console and Google Analytics setup, testing and getting the finished website live.
What isn’t included will depend on the project. Extensive copywriting, professional photography, large amounts of content entry, complex integrations, bespoke functionality and ongoing SEO can all need extra budget, and we’ll always explain those costs before the project starts rather than adding surprises at the end.
What does it cost to keep a website running?
The build price isn’t the last cost you’ll see, so it’s worth knowing what comes afterwards. Every website needs hosting and a domain, and most will need an SSL certificate to keep things secure.
If you’re running eCommerce, you’ll also have payment gateway fees on top, along with any plugin subscriptions your site relies on. Beyond that, it’s worth budgeting for things like backups, security monitoring and ongoing WordPress and plugin updates, as well as some support for new pages, content changes or small improvements.
A website needs a bit of attention after it goes live, whether that’s keeping everything updated, adding new content or making changes as the business develops.
Where does AI fit into all of this?
We don’t hand a project over to AI and call it a website, and we never will, because that’s not what our clients are paying for. What we do use it for is speeding up specific parts of the process, whether that’s exploring early ideas, generating rough wireframe concepts, creating a first draft of copy that we then rewrite properly, or testing how a layout might work before we commit real design time to it.
It sits alongside the process at a few useful points rather than running the whole thing. The important bit is still the same: understanding your business, your customers and what the website actually needs to achieve.
What about Squarespace, Wix and the DIY builders?
If your budget is genuinely small and your needs are basic, platforms like Squarespace or Wix are a fair shout. They’re cheap, quick to get going and perfectly capable of handling a simple website with straightforward requirements.
It’s just not something we get involved with, because once a business needs a website that actually works hard for it, those platforms can become more of a limitation than a help. The honest bit is that going cheap now doesn’t always stay cheap.
A lot of businesses grow into their DIY website and find it can’t keep up, whether that’s the design, functionality, SEO or simply how it’s built underneath. They then end up paying for a full rebuild a year or two down the line anyway.
Sometimes that trade-off is absolutely the right one to make. It just helps to go in with your eyes open.
So, what should you actually pick?
If you need something live quickly, have a tighter budget and your website doesn’t need to do anything out of the ordinary, a well-built WordPress theme is the sensible choice. If your website needs to carry more weight, whether that’s a specific customer journey, a more ambitious design, bespoke functionality or eCommerce that needs to perform, a custom website is where you’ll get more value from your investment.
And if you’re somewhere in between, that’s fine too. There isn’t a magic number of pages or features that suddenly means you need a custom build, so the best approach is to work out what the website actually needs to achieve first and then choose the right approach for the job.
Still not sure which option is right for you?
Tell us what you’re trying to achieve, what you’ve already got and roughly what you’d like to spend. We’ll give you an honest recommendation about the best way forward, even if that means you don’t need us.