Cheap web design in London is a crowded search because the prices people are shown vary by a factor of ten for what looks, in the advert, like the same thing. Some of those prices are honest starter sites. Some are deposits. The useful question is not “how low can the number go”. It is “what do I own on the day it goes live, and can a customer call me from it”.
A corner shop, a tradesperson, or a small clinic does not need an agency process. It does need a site that names the service, works on a phone, and does not become more expensive every month just to stay online. That is the version of cheap worth buying.
What cheap is allowed to mean
Cheap can mean a small scope. Up to five pages, your real services, a contact form, and a layout that does not fight a phone. Cheap cannot mean a page of placeholder text, a logo that is not yours, or a promise that you will outrank every other firm in the borough. Those are not discounts. They are a different product.
It also cannot mean you never see the files. If the designer disappears, you should still have the domain and a way to edit the phone number. Read how to compare cheap web designers before you pay a deposit to a name you found only in an advert.
What still has to be in the price
HTTPS, a mobile layout, and a working form are not upgrades. A title and description for each page are not upgrades. A link from the homepage to each service is not an upgrade. Guidance on the Google profile, so the website field is not empty, belongs in a local build. Our starter price of £150 includes the first year of domain, hosting, and SSL. Year two is typically about £60, paid to those providers.
If a quote excludes those and then adds them back, add the extras before you compare it with a fixed price. The cost article shows the same bands: £150, £295, and £495. Cheap, in our list, is the starter band used for a short site, not a secret cheaper tier with the contact page removed.
The false economy
The expensive cheap site is the one you replace within a year. Common causes: you cannot edit it, the pages are one template with the town name swapped, the photos are generic, or the only contact method is a form that lands in a spam folder. Another cause is a shop bolted on later when the first quote pretended you did not need one. If you sell online, start from ecommerce so the price matches the job.
Speed is part of the same trap. A page builder stuffed with unused scripts can look inexpensive and then fail the basic loading checks. We keep the pages plain on purpose. Plain is faster to load and faster to change.
How to compare two low quotes
Put both quotes on one page. Count pages, not “unlimited”. Ask who owns the domain. Ask what happens in year two. Ask whether the phone number is a link. Ask for one example of a finished small-business site, and open it on your phone. If the example is a demo with Latin text, it is not an example.
Ask what is not included. Accessibility basics, redirects from an old site, and a blog are the usual surprises. A redesign of an existing address is a different job from a first site, because the old URLs have to be respected. That is redesign work, and it should be priced as such.
What we publish
We publish the three bands so a London business can see the ceiling before the call. We do not add a setup fee for SSL. We do not require a monthly design retainer. Optional care exists if you want edits done for you. Send the page list and we will say which band it is, including when the honest answer is that five pages are not enough.
Frequently asked questions
Is the cheapest website always the starter package?
For up to five pages, yes: £150 including the first year of domain, hosting, and SSL. A shop or a long service list is a higher band.
Can a cheap site include my old pages?
Important old addresses should redirect. That is part of a redesign, and it should be agreed before launch.
Do you lock the site to a monthly fee?
No. Renewal is the hosting and domain, typically about £60 a year. Care is optional.
