"How much does a website cost?" is the first question nearly everyone asks, and the answer they usually get is "it depends". Which is true, and also useless.
So here's the honest version: what drives the price, what you get at different levels, and what we charge. No made-up industry averages, just how it works from our side of the table.
The short version
- The price of a brand and website is mostly the price of people's time: thinking, writing, designing, building and testing.
- The biggest cost drivers are how many pages you need, who writes the words, whether you need photography, and whether the site has to connect to a CRM or sell online.
- At Graft, a brand identity on its own starts from £1,500 and a 5-page website from £3,000. Launchpad (brand, website and your own CRM, set up and connected) starts from £4,950. Launchpad Pro, with copywriting, email and more pages, starts from £9,500.
- Cheap usually means template plus your own words. Expensive should mean more thinking, not just more pages.
- Ask for a fixed scope in writing. If a quote can't tell you what's in and what's out, it isn't a quote.
Why do website prices vary so much?
Because "a website" can mean anything from a single page on a builder you set up on a Sunday to a big custom build with bookings, payments and a members' area. They're different jobs, done by different people, taking very different amounts of time.
In the UK you'll typically find three kinds of supplier:
- DIY builders (Squarespace, Wix and the like). You pay a monthly fee and do the work yourself. Cheapest in cash, most expensive in your evenings.
- Freelancers and small studios. Typically where most small businesses land. You get a real person designing and building for you. Prices vary a lot depending on whether branding, copy and CRM set-up are included.
- Larger agencies. Typically more people on the job, more meetings, account managers and higher day rates. Worth it for big, complex projects. Often overkill for a business with a handful of services.
None of these is wrong. The mistake is paying agency money for a template job, or expecting agency thinking on a DIY budget.
What actually drives the cost?
How many pages
Every page needs a purpose, words, a layout and testing on a phone. A tight site with a home page, a few service pages, an about page and contact is a very different job from a site with a page per service, per sector and per location. More pages usually means more reach in search, but only if each page earns its place.
Who writes the words
This is the one people forget. If you write your own copy, the price drops, but the project often stalls while you stare at a blank page. If we write it, we interview you, write it in your voice and shape it for search and for AI tools. Good copy is often the difference between a site that looks nice and a site that gets enquiries.
Photography
Stock photos are cheap and everyone can tell. Real photos of your people, your premises and your work are worth more than any design trick. A photographer adds cost, but you'll use the pictures for years, on your site, social, proposals and print.
Brand first, or not
If you already have a logo, colours and a clear way of talking about yourself, the website can start straight away. If you don't, the brand should come first. Designing a site around a brand that doesn't exist yet is how you end up paying twice.
CRM and email
A site on its own collects enquiries in an inbox. A site connected to a CRM puts every enquiry in one place, tells you where it came from, and can send the first follow-up for you. It adds set-up time, and it's usually the bit that pays for itself fastest.
Selling online
E-commerce is its own job. Products, photos, descriptions, delivery rules, payments, stock, tax and legal pages all need setting up. A Shopify store is quick to get going, but a store that's properly organised and ready to trade takes real time. Subscriptions, wholesale pricing or multiple countries add more.
Bookings, memberships and custom features
Online booking, member logins, payments for events, calculators and dashboards all take extra build and testing. Worth it when they save you hours of admin every week. Not worth it as a nice-to-have.
What does Graft charge?
We put our prices on the site because hiding them is daft.
Brand on its own, from £1,500
A brand identity for a small business: a logo suite, colours, fonts and short brand guidelines, with two design routes and two rounds of changes. Naming, strategy and tone of voice add to it.
Website on its own, from £3,000
A 5-page website, designed from your brand, built, mobile-ready, with forms, basic on-page SEO, Google Analytics and Search Console. Up to 10 pages starts from £5,500. You supply the words, or add copywriting.
Launchpad, from £4,950
For new businesses and founders ready to open the doors. Brand identity (logo, colours, type), your proposition and positioning, a 5-page website on Astro and Netlify or Shopify, your own CRM set up for how you work, contact forms and lead capture, social accounts set up, and 30 days of support after launch. Typically live in 4 to 6 weeks.
Bought one at a time, the brand (£1,500), the website (£3,000) and your own CRM (£2,500) cost more than the package, before social set-up. Doing them together saves time on both sides, so the package costs less than the parts. After launch, hosting and care for your CRM is from £95 a month, with no per-seat licence fees.
Launchpad Pro, from £9,500
Everything in Launchpad, plus copywriting, a site of up to 10 pages, email set up in Mailchimp or Klaviyo, automated welcome and nurture emails, a content starter pack, templates for social and email, and 60 days of support. Naming is an add-on from £750. Up to 8 weeks.
Growth Retainer, from £2,000 a month
For after launch, or for businesses already trading. Realistically you get about 4 days a month of strategy, campaigns, content, email and reporting, done by Gav and Monika directly. That's a big discount on our £750 day rate. 3-month minimum, then rolling month to month.
Search Plan, from £600 a month
SEO and AI search, every month: tracking the questions your buyers ask in Google, ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews, technical and schema fixes, one page improved or one new article, and a plain-English report. If you'd rather look before you commit, our AI search visibility audit is £750, fixed, and the fee comes off the Search Plan if you start within 30 days.
Day rate, £750
For work that doesn't fit a package, we quote a fixed scope based on our day rate of 7.5 hours. Smaller jobs are charged at £100 an hour.
"From" means from. Bigger sites, e-commerce, bookings and photography add to it, and we'll tell you exactly how much before you commit. You get a fixed-scope proposal within 48 hours of our first call.
How do you pay for it?
Our terms are simple: jobs under £2,000 are paid 100% upfront. Anything bigger is 50% to start, 25% at 30 days and 25% at 60 days. That spreads the cost across the build, and it means nobody's chasing a big final invoice. Monthly plans are paid monthly in advance. All our prices are for businesses and exclude VAT, which we add at 20%.
What should you watch out for?
- Quotes with no scope. A price without a list of what's included is a guess.
- Hosting you don't control. Make sure your domain is in your name and you can take your site elsewhere.
- No handover. If nobody shows you how to change a page or read an enquiry, you'll be paying someone for every small edit.
- Design with no words. A beautiful mock-up full of placeholder text tells you nothing. Ask when the real copy arrives.
- Cheap now, rebuild later. A site that can't grow with you will need replacing, and that's the most expensive option of all.
So what should you budget?
Work backwards from what the site needs to do. If it just needs to exist and look credible, keep it small (with us, that's a 5-page site from £3,000) and spend the rest on good words and real photos. If it needs to bring in enquiries every week, budget for proper service pages, a CRM and someone looking after it after launch. If it needs to sell, budget for the store and the time it takes to set it up right.
Where to go from here
See what's included on our websites page and the full list on prices. If you want a straight answer on what your project would cost, Book a 20-minute call and we'll send a fixed-scope proposal within 48 hours.