Ask five companies for a website quote and you may get five figures that barely seem related: £300, £900, £2,500, £6,000 and “it depends”. None of them is necessarily wrong. They are describing different amounts of work, and the hard part for a buyer is seeing which.
This guide sets out the web design prices Manchester businesses are typically quoted, what sits behind each level, and how to arrive at a budget that fits what you need.
What you can expect to pay
These are rough bands based on quotes we see locally and our own pricing. Treat them as a map, not a price list.
| Route | Typical cost | What you usually get |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself on a website builder | £10–£30 a month, plus your time | A template you fill in yourself. Fine for a simple start if you have the hours. |
| Fixed-price package from a small studio | £300–£1,000 | A professionally built site of five to ten pages on an adapted design, with set revisions. |
| Tailored small business website | £1,500–£5,000 | More planning, original design work, help with wording and more pages. |
| Online shop | £800–£10,000 and beyond | Depends heavily on the number of products, payment and delivery rules, and stock systems. |
| Agency project with custom features | £5,000 upwards | Research, bespoke design, custom development, and a team with a project manager. |
Our own website packages sit in the second row, at £299 for up to five pages and £499 for five to seven. Our Online Shop Launch package is £999. The full breakdown is on our website packages page.
Why quotes for the same website differ so much
Price follows time, and these are the things that add hours.
- Who writes the words. Supplying your own text keeps the price down. Having it written for you can add as much as the build itself.
- How original the design is. Adapting a proven layout is quick. Designing every page from a blank sheet is not.
- The number of pages. Not just the count, but how different they are from one another.
- What the site has to do. Bookings, payments, customer logins and links to other systems are development work, priced separately from design.
- Photography and branding. If you need a logo or a photo shoot first, that is a separate job.
- Who you are paying. A city-centre agency with account managers and an office carries costs a two-person studio does not. You may or may not need what those costs buy.
Location inside Greater Manchester makes far less difference than scope. A studio in Salford and one in Stockport will price the same brief similarly. Two different briefs will not cost the same anywhere.
What a proper quote should spell out
A single figure with “website design” next to it is not a quote you can compare. Ask for these in writing:
- the number of pages and what each one is
- whether the design is custom or adapted from a template
- who provides text and images
- how many rounds of changes are included
- what happens, and what it costs, if you need more
- the timescale, and what you must supply to keep to it
- who owns the domain and the finished website
- every cost after launch
If you are still deciding who to ask, our guide to choosing a web designer in Manchester covers the questions worth putting to each one.
The costs that come after launch
The build is a one-off. Hosting, the domain name, any software licences and upkeep come round every year, and a low build price paired with a high monthly fee can cost more over three years than the dearer quote. Always compare the three-year total. We have set out the running costs of a website line by line elsewhere.
Is cheap a false economy?
Not automatically. A fixed package is cheaper because the scope is fixed: a set number of pages, a known process and a design approach that has worked before. For a tradesperson, a café or a new consultancy, that is often exactly enough.
Low prices become a problem when they are achieved by leaving things out without saying so. Typical examples are a site that does not work properly on phones, a domain registered in the supplier’s name, or a contract that charges for every small edit. There is more on where it is safe to save on a website if your budget is tight.
How to set your budget
- Start from what one new customer is worth. If a single job brings in £400, a £500 website pays for itself with two enquiries. If a client is worth £5,000 a year, a larger investment is easy to justify.
- List what the site must do on day one. Everything else can be added later. Sites are easier to grow than people expect.
- Decide what you will do yourself. Writing your own text and gathering your own photos saves real money.
- Add the yearly costs. Then judge the total, not the headline.
Give the same short brief to each supplier so the figures are comparable. If you would like one of those figures to come from us, our website design service is priced before any work begins, whether you are in Manchester or anywhere else in the UK.