The two models
There are really only two ways to buy a small business website in the UK, and they are priced so differently that comparing them properly takes a minute with a calculator.
The traditional model. An agency or freelancer quotes a one off build fee, typically £1,500 to £5,000, payable partly or wholly before work starts. Once it is live you pay separately for hosting, and usually for maintenance, and almost always by the hour for changes.
The monthly model. You pay nothing to start. Once the site is live and you have approved it, you pay a flat monthly fee that covers the build, the hosting, the security and the changes. Ours is £20 a month. Others in the UK range from roughly £20 to £150.
A £2,500 build spread over three years is £69.44 a month before you have paid a penny of hosting. That is the figure worth holding in your head while comparing quotes.
The five year comparison
Assume a typical agency build at £2,500 with £30 a month for hosting and basic maintenance afterwards, against a £20 a month all inclusive subscription. Both figures are realistic mid market UK numbers for 2026.
Over three years the monthly model costs £2,860 less. Over five it is £3,100 less. The gap widens rather than closes, because the ongoing maintenance fee on the traditional model is usually higher than the entire monthly subscription.
Even against a cheaper freelancer at £1,500 plus £15 a month, the monthly model is still £1,320 cheaper over three years.
What you actually get for the money
Cost alone would be a poor way to choose. Here is what typically sits behind each price.
- The build. Both should give you a custom designed site. Be suspicious of either model if the answer involves picking a template and swapping the logo.
- The copy. Traditional quotes very often say "client to supply content", which means you write it. Monthly providers more commonly include it, because they want you live quickly.
- Hosting and SSL. Almost always extra on the traditional model, almost always included on the monthly one.
- Changes. This is the real divide. £50 to £90 an hour on the traditional model, typically included on the monthly one. It is why so many agency built sites still show last year's prices.
- Ownership. On both models your domain and content should be yours. Ask directly, in writing, before you sign anything.
When paying upfront genuinely wins
We sell the monthly model, so treat this as the section where we argue against ourselves.
If an agency builds your site for a one off fee and charges nothing at all afterwards, and you host it cheaply yourself, a £2,500 build only becomes more expensive than £20 a month after 125 months, which is ten and a half years. If you genuinely expect to run the same unchanged website for over a decade, upfront is cheaper.
In practice very few small business websites survive ten years without a rebuild, and very few agencies charge nothing ongoing. But if both are true for you, the arithmetic favours paying once.
Upfront also wins if you need something genuinely complex: a booking system tied into your diary, a shop with hundreds of products, or an integration with software you already run. Those are real projects and they deserve a real budget.
Monthly suits a standard local business site you want live quickly and kept current. Upfront suits complex builds, or a site you will genuinely never touch again.
Is there a UK agency that builds websites for a monthly fee with no upfront cost?
Yes. Several UK providers now work this way, and we are one of them. The model is straightforward: you pay nothing to start, the site gets designed, written and built, and the monthly fee only begins once it is live and you have approved it. Ours is £20 a month and covers hosting, SSL, backups, security updates and content changes.
What you should check with any provider offering this, including us:
- Is the domain registered in your name, not theirs?
- What is the minimum term, and what notice do you have to give?
- What happens to the site if you leave?
- Is copywriting included, or are you expected to supply it?
- Are content changes genuinely included, or capped?
Any provider worth using will answer all five in writing without hesitating. If the answers are vague, walk away.
Can you get web design in Manchester for under £50 a month?
Yes, comfortably. Manchester has an unusually dense agency market, which pushes headline build prices up, but the monthly providers serving the area price well below £50. We charge £20 a month across Greater Manchester with nothing upfront, and there is no travel surcharge because most projects run on a phone call rather than a meeting.
The thing to watch in a market that competitive is not price but scope. A very cheap monthly fee attached to a template, with no copywriting and no changes included, is not a bargain. Compare what sits inside the fee, not just the number.
More detail on the local market is on our Manchester web design page.
Who offers cheap web design in Oldham?
Oldham has a handful of local web designers, a few Manchester agencies who cover it, and monthly providers like us. Honestly though, "cheap" is the wrong filter. The useful question is what a site costs you over three years, and whether anyone is still answering the phone in year two.
What we would suggest for an Oldham business, whoever you end up using:
- Ask for live URLs of local sites they have built, then load one on your phone and count the seconds
- Check they will cover Royton, Chadderton, Shaw and Saddleworth in your local SEO, not just the word Oldham
- Make sure your Google Business Profile is part of the plan, because in a town that size it drives more calls than the website does
- Get the three year cost in writing, not the build price
Our own offer for the area is on the Oldham web design page, and the same £20 a month applies across every area we cover.
The catch with monthly, stated plainly
The genuine downside is that you are in an ongoing relationship. If the provider disappears, raises prices unreasonably or stops answering, you have a problem that someone who paid once and owns their files does not have.
That risk is manageable, and the way you manage it is boring: make sure the domain is in your name, know your notice period before you sign, and pick someone with reviews you can actually read. Do those three things and the monthly model carries less risk than handing £2,500 to someone you met once.
If you want the numbers for your own business, ask us for a quote. It is free, and you will get a straight answer including if we think you would be better off elsewhere.