How Much Does a Website Cost in 2026? A Real Breakdown by Project Type

A static brochure website and a multi-tenant SaaS platform are both 'websites.' Asking how much a website costs without specifying the type is like asking how much a vehicle costs — the answer depends entirely on whether you need a bicycle or a lorry.

The variables that move the price are: how much custom design work is required, how complex the back-end logic is, whether the site connects to external systems (payment gateways, CRMs, ERPs, APIs), how much content needs to be migrated or created, and what the ongoing maintenance model looks like after launch.

This guide breaks down pricing by the four project types that account for the vast majority of website builds: business/marketing websites, ecommerce storefronts, web applications, and custom platforms. For each type, the range reflects real market rates — not rack rates from large agencies, and not bottom-of-market rates from platforms with quality trade-offs.

A business website — company homepage, services pages, about, contact, maybe a blog — is the most common type of web project. The price range is wide because 'business website' covers everything from a five-page brochure to a large, content-rich corporate site with a headless CMS and multilingual support.

At the lower end (£2,000–£5,000): a professionally designed website built on WordPress or a site builder like Webflow, with a standard theme customised to match your brand. Good for small businesses that need a credible online presence without complex functionality. You'll have a CMS you can edit yourself, a contact form, and a mobile-responsive design. The trade-off is that the design is constrained by the theme, and technical differentiation is limited.

At the mid range (£5,000–£12,000): a custom-designed business website built to spec — not a theme adaptation. This includes original wireframes and visual design, a properly structured CMS, SEO-ready page architecture, performance optimisation, and a design system your team can extend. This is the right level for businesses where the website is a primary sales tool, not just a digital business card.

At the upper end (£12,000–£18,000): a content-heavy corporate site with multiple page templates, CMS-driven content areas, multilingual or multi-region support, integration with CRM or marketing automation, and ongoing support agreements. Often appropriate for professional services firms, B2B businesses, or companies with large content teams.

The factors that push you toward the upper end: multiple languages, integration with third-party systems, a large existing content library that needs migration, complex navigation or filtering, or a requirement for custom interactive elements.

Ecommerce websites vary enormously in cost because the back-end complexity varies enormously. A single-brand direct-to-consumer store on Shopify is a fundamentally different build from a multi-vendor marketplace or a B2B portal with account-level pricing.

Shopify standard (£8,000–£20,000): a custom theme build on Shopify or Shopify Plus, designed from scratch rather than adapted from a purchased theme. Includes product and collection setup, payment gateway configuration, shipping logic, basic discount and promotion rules, and launch support. This is appropriate for most DTC brands launching or relaunching their primary storefront.

Shopify Plus with custom functionality (£20,000–£40,000): as above, plus custom checkout logic (Checkout Extensibility), subscription or bundling integrations, international market configuration with Shopify Markets, complex product configuration (custom engraving, sizing tools, colour selectors), or migration from another platform with redirect mapping and data transfer.

Headless ecommerce (£40,000–£100,000+): a custom storefront built on a React framework (Next.js, Remix) connected to a commerce API (Shopify Storefront API, Commerce Layer), often with a headless CMS for editorial content. Justified when the roadmap includes content and commerce in a unified design system, app-like product experiences, or performance requirements that exceed what a Shopify theme can achieve.

The factors that move ecommerce cost: catalog size (SKU count and attribute complexity), number of third-party integrations (loyalty, reviews, subscription), custom checkout requirements, international configuration, and the extent of design work required.

A web application is a website with significant business logic — user authentication, data storage, workflows, and interactions that go beyond content display. Customer portals, booking systems, project management tools, quoting engines, and internal dashboards all fall into this category.

Simple web apps (£15,000–£35,000): a single core workflow, user authentication, a database, and a clean interface. Examples: a client portal that lets customers track their project status and upload documents; a booking system for a service business; a quoting tool that collects inputs and outputs a calculated estimate. These typically involve a React or Next.js front-end and a Laravel or Node back-end.

Mid-complexity web apps (£35,000–£70,000): multiple interconnected workflows, role-based permissions, third-party API integrations, real-time features, and a more substantial data model. Examples: a property management portal with landlord, tenant, and agent roles; an operations dashboard pulling from multiple data sources; a B2B ordering platform with account-level pricing and approval chains.

Complex platforms (£70,000–£150,000+): multi-tenant architecture, sophisticated business logic, high concurrency requirements, compliance considerations (GDPR, data residency, audit logging), and extensive integration surface area. This tier includes SaaS platforms, ERP modules, and custom POS systems for regulated-retail environments.

The single biggest variable in web application cost is the complexity of the data model and the business rules that operate on it. A clean data model with well-defined rules is significantly cheaper to build and maintain than a complex one — and defining it properly in discovery, before build begins, is where the real leverage is.

Custom design costs more than template adaptation — but usually pays back in conversion rate and brand differentiation. Back-end complexity is the biggest cost driver on web applications. Integrations add cost in proportion to the API quality of the third-party system. Content migration costs are often underestimated.

What doesn't drive cost as much as people expect: the number of pages on a content site (templates do the heavy lifting once designed), mobile responsiveness (it's standard practice, not an add-on), basic SEO setup (on-page SEO is baked into a well-structured build).

A note on offshore vs local rates: a web development agency based in Pakistan building for UK or UAE clients can offer rates that are 30–50% lower than UK-based agencies for the same quality output. The cost saving is structural — engineering salaries in Pakistan are significantly lower than in the UK — not a quality trade-off. Cortexley's work has shipped for clients in the UK, UAE, and USA at price points that reflect Pakistan-based costs with output quality benchmarked against UK standards.

Before you ask an agency or freelancer for a price, get clear on three things: what the website needs to do (functionality, not features), who will use it and how (the user journey), and what success looks like 12 months after launch (traffic targets, lead volume, conversion rate, revenue).

Agencies price what they understand. A vague brief produces a wide range with large contingency built in. A specific brief — here are the pages, here is the user journey, here are the integrations, here is the CMS requirement — produces a tighter, more accurate quote.

Ask the agency to break down their estimate by phase: discovery, design, build, QA, and launch. Ask what post-launch support looks like and whether it's included or billed separately. Ask for a timeline with milestones. Ask who will actually write the code — not just who manages the project.

The cheapest quote is rarely the best value. A build that takes twice as long as estimated, or that requires significant rework because the spec wasn't properly defined, will cost more than a slightly higher quote from an agency that invests in proper discovery.