The cost of a new B2B website in 2026
A bespoke B2B website from an agency like Bigfork costs between £15,000 and £35,000 and takes four to six months from start to finish. Where your project lands in that range depends on how much strategy, content and development it needs.
This guide explains what drives the cost, what a good quote should include and how to make the case to your MD or FD.
- Table of contents
- Key takeaways:
- The difference between a template and bespoke website
- What makes a B2B website more expensive?
- Ongoing website costs to consider
- Does the CMS platform affect the cost of a website?
- What a B2B website quote should include:
- Why quotes from different agencies will vary
- Is a cheap website quote a red flag?
- Are website costs fixed, or will they change if the scope changes?
- Justifying your budget to the MD or Finance
- Working out the ROI of a new B2B website
- Get a quote for your B2B website
Key takeaways:
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A bespoke B2B website typically costs £15,000 to £35,000 and takes four to six months to complete.
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Template websites are cheaper and quicker but limit your design options, technical flexibility and future growth.
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Copywriting, photography and videography, animation effects and custom tools are the main things that can add to the cost of a B2B website project.
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Ongoing costs can be hosting, maintenance, licences and continued testing and improvement. Bigfork’s optimisation retainer start from £1,000 a month.
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A good quote breaks the project into clear stages. Ask every agency you speak to about each stage so you can compare like for like.
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To get the budget approved, give your website a revenue or performance target and show the return on investment.
The difference between a template and bespoke website
A template website is an off-the-shelf site that you fill with your own content. It’s a bit like a ready meal. Quick and affordable, but made for everyone.
A bespoke website is designed and built around your business, your buyers and how they make decisions, which is why it costs more. For a B2B business that relies on its website for leads, a template can be restricting.
| Template | Bespoke | |
| Starting point | A ready-made theme off the shelf. | Research into your business, buyers and goals. |
| Design | Adapted to use your brand colours. | Designed specifically around your audience, branding and objectives. |
| Content | Must fit in the template layout. | Planned around your services and buyer's questions. Informs the design and layout of pages. |
| Integrations | Limited to compatible plugins. | Built to work with your CRM and tools. |
| Room for growth | Limited by themes. | Can be developed over time. |
| Upfront costs | Lower. | £15,000 - £35,000 at Bigfork. |
| Timescale | Quicker. | 4-6 months start to finish. |
| Best for | Smaller businesses needing an online presence. | £10m+ B2B businesses who want their website for lead generation and growth. |
What makes a B2B website more expensive?
B2B websites cost more because more strategy and planning goes into them. Before anything is designed, the agency needs to understand your buyers, the problems they're trying to solve and what your business needs the website to achieve. This discovery shapes every decision about the design, structure and content found on your website.
From there, the main things that contribute to the cost are:
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Copywriting: writing copy takes extra expertise and significant time, but it’s worth getting it right to position your company properly and generate leads.
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Photography or videography: quality images make a site look more premium. It may be outsourced to an agency partner.
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Engagement and animation effects: Scrolling effects and animation make a site more memorable but take longer to design and build.
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Custom built tools or calculators: tools like ROI calculators and product finders significantly improve user experience, increase site engagement, and are effective for lead capture; they just take a bit more development time.
An example of premium user engagement that'll increase the cost of a website. This site is Onyx Insight.
Ongoing website costs to consider
Expect to pay from £1.9k per year ongoing website costs.
It will vary based on:
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Quality hosting (the server space that keeps your website online and fast).
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Maintenance, including security updates, CMS and plugin updates, and regular backups
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Licences and paid plugins, depending on your CMS needs
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Level of support from the agency. Your website is a key B2B marketing asset, so reliable support is as important as the build.
Many B2B businesses also budget for ongoing website optimisation retainers so the website keeps getting better after launch.
Prices will vary depending on the package, but as a rough guide, ours start from £1,000 a month.
Does the CMS platform affect the cost of a website?
Yes.
Your CMS (content management system, the software your team uses to update the website) affects both the build cost and the running cost.
Open-source systems like WordPress have no licence fee, but you'll pay for hosting, maintenance and any paid plugins. Some CMSs like Craft and Statamic have license fees for the CMS, but they're still open source.
SaaS platforms like Squarespace and Webflow charge a monthly or annual fee, which includes hosting, and they handle any maintenance behind the scenes.
Choosing the right CMS for your website is important, so you can talk these options through with your agency.
What a B2B website quote should include:
- A discovery workshop and specification.
- Strategy covering your value proposition and positioning.
- Competitor analysis, so your website stands out from competition.
- Any customer research, such as a survey of people who use your current website.
- An SEO audit and migration plan, so you keep the search rankings you already have.
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Conversion optimisation, to turn more visitors into enquiries.
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Mood boards and page designs, with the number of unique page layouts stated.
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The CMS and website build, including any integrations.
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Content population, with the number of pages included and copywriting responsibility.
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Testing, project management and the number of amendment rounds.
A detailed quote often comes from a good website design brief. The clearer you are about what your website needs to achieve, the more accurate your quotes will be.
Why quotes from different agencies will vary
Quotes between agencies will vary as they’ll have different pricing structures. Some might include things like discovery, copywriting and SEO in their initial pricing, but others won’t.
The easiest way to compare quotes fairly is to ask every agency to break theirs into the same stages. Use the list above as a checklist.
Is a cheap website quote a red flag?
Not necessarily. A lower quote will be fair if the scope is smaller.
Be cautious if an agency quickly gives you a price without asking about your buyers or goals, doesn’t give you a plan to migrate your current website to the new one, or if a quote is simply based on the number of pages needed.
A cheap website that needs rebuilding, or loses your search rankings at launch, ends up costing more. Look at previous work and read case studies properly to make sure you're choosing the right website agency.
If you’re worried about working with an agency you don’t know, you can agree to pay for discovery phase first with an option to stop afterwards if you’re not happy with the direction it’s going.
Are website costs fixed, or will they change if the scope changes?
The cost of the agreed scope shouldn't change. If the agency takes longer than planned to deliver what was agreed, that's the agency's cost to absorb. Check the quote is a fixed price for the agreed work, rather than an estimate based on time.
If the scope changes, the cost will likely change. Adding an extra type of page, a new integration or changes to an approved design all take extra time. A good agency will price any extra work and get your approval before starting.
It also helps to involve everyone who needs to sign the website off from the start. We've seen late changes from the C-suite increase the budget, often when a director sees the designs for the first time after everyone else has approved them. Bringing decision makers into the discovery phase means their views shape the website from the beginning.
Justifying your budget to the MD or Finance
The way to get approval for a B2B website budget is by showing the return on investment.
Give your website a revenue target and show how you'll measure it. Your MD or FD wants to know what the website will bring in, what it will save and how you'll prove it.
Then show the difference hitting that target would make. If your website turned more of its visitors into leads, and your sales team won the same share of them, how much extra revenue would that bring in? Use that figure to work out your ROI.
Working out the ROI of a new B2B website
ROI % =
(extra sales − cost of the project) ÷ cost of the project × 100
Include the other benefits too, such as cost savings, a more productive sales team, customer lifetime value and brand awareness.
Lead with the numbers and leave design out of it.
As Bigfork co-founder Mark Ellaway puts it:
"If you can't put a number on it, you'll get a no."
Get a quote for your B2B website
What happens after I fill in the form?
- One of our experts will arrange a 30-minute call with you to learn about your website goals.
- After the call, we'll email you our initial ideas and a ballpark cost. No obligation to proceed.
- If you want to go further, we’ll put together a detailed proposal with three pricing options.
“We've already seen a noticeable improvement in user engagement and enquiries.”
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