The Best Cheap Website Builders for UK Small Businesses
Quick answer
For UK small businesses, the cheapest realistic options are self-hosted WordPress (from about £3/month plus a domain), Hostinger, Wix and Squarespace (typically £10–£25/month once you add a domain and remove adverts). DIY builders are genuinely fine if you have more time than money — but a one-off £150 professional build is often cheaper within the first year and you own it outright.
How we judged "cheap"
Advertised prices are meaningless here — every builder shouts "from £3 a month" and every real bill ends up higher. So we priced each option the way a small business actually experiences it: the plan you realistically need (custom domain, no third-party adverts, a contact form), paid over three years, plus your own time at a modest £15 an hour.
Self-hosted WordPress — the budget workhorse
WordPress powers a huge chunk of the web for good reason: the software is free, hosting starts around £3 a month, and there is a theme or plugin for almost everything. Pair it with one of the best cheap templates and a capable DIYer can produce something genuinely professional for under £100 a year all-in.
The catch: you are the IT department. Updates, backups, security and the occasional "why is my site suddenly white?" moment are all yours. Many of our clients started here and called us when the maintenance stopped being fun.
Wix — the easiest, not the cheapest
Wix's drag-and-drop editor is the friendliest on the market, and for a total beginner it's hard to beat for speed to launch. But the free plan forces Wix adverts onto your site, and the plans you'd actually want for a business land around £10–£15 a month. Three years of that is £360–£540 — several times the price of our £150 Starter package, for a site you can never fully take with you.
Squarespace — the looker
Squarespace templates are beautiful out of the box, which makes it a solid choice for visual businesses: photographers, designers, cafés. Prices are similar to Wix once you're on a sensible plan. The editor is more structured — which stops beginners breaking the design, but also limits how far you can push it.
"Every 'cheap' builder advertises the price of the plan you don't want. Always price the plan you'd actually run your business on."
Hostinger — the dark horse
Hostinger's builder is less famous but aggressively priced, and its hosting is among the cheapest reliable options for UK sites. If you're cost-sensitive and reasonably technical, Hostinger hosting plus WordPress is the sweet spot — we cover the hosting angle in our low-cost hosting guide.
DIY builder vs a £150 professional build
Here's the honest maths. A realistic builder plan at £12 a month costs £432 over three years, plus perhaps 20–40 hours of your own time learning, tweaking and fixing. A £150 professional build costs £150 once, plus roughly £50 a year for your own domain and hosting — about £250 over the same three years, with zero evenings lost. For a business where an enquiry is worth £50+, the DIY route only wins if you enjoy the process itself.
"The question isn't 'which builder is cheapest?' It's 'what is an hour of my time actually worth to my business?'"
Still tempted by DIY? Fair enough — for some startups it's the right call. Our guide to affordable web design for startups helps you decide which route fits your situation.
Frequently asked questions
On pure monthly price, entry plans from builders like Wix and Hostinger start around £3–£10 a month — but add a custom domain, ad removal and a decent template and most small businesses land at £10–£25 a month. Over three years that is £360–£900, which is why many owners choose a one-off £150 professional build instead.
Usually, yes. Self-hosted WordPress itself is free; you pay only for hosting (from about £3 a month) and a domain. The trade-off is that you handle updates and security yourself — or pay someone to.
It is harder than it sounds. Most builders do not let you export your design, so moving means rebuilding. If you think you will outgrow DIY within a year or two, starting with a professionally built site you own is often cheaper overall.
They can. Modern builders handle the technical basics well enough. Rankings depend far more on your content, speed and local relevance than on the platform — see why cheap websites can still rank.
The bottom line
WordPress wins on price and ownership, Wix on ease, Squarespace on looks, Hostinger on value hosting. But once you price the plan you'd actually use and count your own hours, a professionally built £150 website you own outright is usually the cheapest option of all — it just doesn't advertise on telly.