What does a website actually cost an Exeter business in 2026?

Ask a web designer what a website costs and you'll usually get “it depends”. True, but not much help. So on 5 October 2026 we went and read the published prices of every Exeter and Devon web studio we could find that puts a number on its site, plus the big DIY builders. This is what the local market actually charges, today.

For the general UK picture, and what you get at each level, see how much a website costs in the UK. This post is the local numbers.

The short answer

We found 21 studiosin Exeter and across Devon that publish prices. Taking each one's cheapest complete website:

So a small Exeter business can get a website built locally for a few hundred pounds, and most studios that publish prices start there. Those are “from” prices, though, usually for one page or a handful of pages built from a template. The bigger packages on the same price lists run from about £1,000 to £3,500 for a fully custom site or an online shop.

Paying monthly instead

Eleven of the studios offer a pay-monthly website, where the build costs little or nothing up front and you pay a monthly fee that usually covers hosting too. Published monthly prices ran from £9 to £199, with the middle at about £50 a month.

Two things to check before signing one:

• The minimum term. Some plans roll month to month. Others tie you in for 12 or 24 months. Only three studios stated a term on the price page itself, so ask.
• Who owns the site if you leave.On some monthly plans the site stays with the studio. That's not wrong, but you should know before you start, not when you want to move.

The DIY builders

Doing it yourself costs less in cash and more in time. Here are the UK prices on the builders' own pricing pages, billed annually:

Over three years, a mid-tier DIY plan costs about the same as a cheap studio build plus hosting. The difference is who does the work, and who notices when something breaks.

Watch the VAT

Most price pages don't say whether VAT is included. Of the 58 studio price lines we recorded, 38 didn't say either way, 11 were plus VAT and 9 included it. On a £1,500 site, that's a £300 difference. Ask before you compare two quotes.

Where we sit

For transparency: our websites start from £1,500 upfront for up to five pages, plus a care plan from £60 a month, or from £197a month with nothing upfront. There's no VAT to add. That puts us among the five local studios whose entry price is £1,000 or more, well above the median of £375, and on purpose: it is the price of a site built to bring in work. The full detail is on our websites page.

So what should you pay?

Whatever gets you a site that loads quickly on a phone, shows up when people search, and makes it easy to call you. In our study of 50 Exeter business websites the most common failure was the first one: 38 of 47 sites were slow to show their content on a phone. A £400 site that does those three things is worth more than a £4,000 one that doesn't.

How we did it

On 5 October 2026 we searched for web designers in Exeter, Plymouth, Torquay, Barnstaple and Mid Devon and recorded every published price, exactly as written, from each studio's own page. Studios that only quote on request aren't included, so this reflects the part of the market that publishes prices, which may lean towards smaller studios and lower prices. A studio's entry price is its cheapest complete website, leaving out add-ons like hosting and care plans. Two of the 21 are local branches of a national franchise.