How much does a new website cost in 2022?

One thing we notice when we talk to business owners and marketing professionals across Surrey is a lack of clarity about how much building a bespoke website can cost. The rise in popularity of tools like Wix and Squarespace has added to the confusion, since they offer a wide range of low-cost themes and plugins. This means it might be hard to understand exactly what you’re paying for if you use a professional web designer.

Companies like Wix and Squarespace keep costs down with economies of scale, but there are downsides to this, including limited functionality, a fiddly interface and lack of true brand consistency. Not that we’re against it as a tool, it just has limitations. We build most of our bespoke websites using WordPress, and for more technical and data-driven sites, we use Laravel. We do sometimes use Elementor, but generally a bespoke build will ensure your website is on-brand, looks beautiful, is fast and fit for purpose – both today and in the future.

Professional web designers bring a whole host of skills and knowledge and any worth their salt will have a team with years of website design, build and technical expertise, as well as branding, content, photography, video, marketing automation and lead generation experience. They have access to knowledge and tools that mean the difference between primitive and performance.

If we say a website could cost anything from £2,000 to £50,000, it’s tempting to think ‘I’ll have the £2,000 one please!’ But that won’t necessarily serve you or your business in the long-term. Generally speaking, the bigger and more complex the company, the more money you need to invest in creating a slick website that allows you to precisely target your audience, generate leads and maximise conversions.

What are the main types of website and how much do they cost?

Lead generation website

These websites focus on content, SEO and calls to action. They aim to generate as many leads and enquiries as possible for a particular product or service. Lead generation sites contain a large amount of high quality content, advice, downloads and videos; all with the purpose of positioning the company as a product, service and industry-leading expert. These sites often have dedicated landing pages on specific products or services to direct targeted traffic to via PPC, Facebook or LinkedIn adverts. Alongside marketing automation tools, like SharpSpring, businesses can collect email addresses legitimately and nurture prospects through a sales funnel. Budgets vary, depending on requirements, but range from £5k to £30k. We have created very successful lead generation websites for Paradigm Norton, Klowt, JBM, Oktra, Numeritas Purified Air and DJCA .

Brochure website or awareness campaign

This kind of website acts as an information site and validation tool, describing a product range, service or cause. As people move towards more interactive, lead generation-focused websites, we’ve seen brochure sites phasing out in recent years, unless they have a great blog on them and regularly updated, valuable content to keep them near the top of the search rankings. This type of website costs from £2k to £8k, depending on how flash we want to make it or how much animation is added. We built this brochure site for start-up, Form Plants and the company achieved 70% of annual turnover target in the first 45 days. This kind of website is also great for promoting a cause or raising awareness, like this site we created for the NHS’s Epic Minds campaign.

eCommerce website

If you sell products online – from shoes, bags and mobile phone chargers to make-up or car parts – you’ll need some form of eCommerce functionality. In this case, you have a few options from Shopify (self hosted, pay monthly); to large systems like Magento, for thousands of products with extensive API feeds, finance system integrations, multiple payment gateways and personalisation. Lower budget solutions, like Shopify Advanced cost around £225 per month, but limit the buying experience to ‘out of the box’ standards. We recommend WooCommerce for companies with budgets between £10k to 40k. Here’s an example of an eCommerce website we have designed and built: Servero

Portfolio website

These are ideal for the creative sector as they are a great way of featuring highly visual projects that showcase talent and expertise. Interior designers, office fit-out companies, illustrators, animators or photographers will benefit from this kind of website. These are relatively simple and cost between £8k and £30k. We designed this website for Hunters Contracts, which is a great portfolio website and sales tool.

Web apps

They are accessed through a web browser and don’t need to be downloaded or installed, but are responsive and function just like a native mobile app. We build web apps with a Laravel back-end and a React JS or Vue front-end. They cost between £50k to £150k. Progressive web apps (PWAs) are the next wave of internet development for serving app experiences to users.

Membership website

Whether it’s paid or free membership, these websites are ideal for organisations that need people to sign-up to their business or website in exchange for valuable content. They are wide ranging: from gyms, online course providers, personal or professional communities, to large companies who have hundreds of employees that need access to shared files, documents and templates. They cost between £20k to £50k and can house a huge amount of information, like this membership website we built for GSA.

One-page website or holding page website

If you’re in the process of building a site or getting a website ready to do an initial promotion or database, then a one-page or holding page website is ideal. Here’s an example of one we built for Cornerstone and Greenspan Advisory. If you want to direct people via a marketing automation tool or online advertising campaign, then you’ll need a well thought-out landing page. These can range from £1k to £2k.

We hope this Insight article has given an indication of how much different types of bespoke websites can cost. Obviously, every website project we work on in and around Surrey requires a different solution, which affects pricing. If you have a brief in mind and would like to get a steer on costs, please get in touch on 01252 820022

If you’d like to know more, you may also be interested in our articles about our website design process and advice about how to brief a website design agency.