Sitesmiths
Answers, with the numbers behind them
We measure before we write. Every figure on these pages is either ours and dated, or a published price with its source named.
research
September 2026
We measured the UK high street, one website at a time
We pulled every plumber, electrician, salon and garage in the UK off OpenStreetMap, fetched their websites on a phone and scored each one. Here is the result.
comparison
September 2026
What a website actually costs in the UK
Real UK prices for every route to a small business website, and what each one charges again in year two. Agency, freelancer, builder and built-for-you.
Method
How anything here gets written
These pages exist to be quoted, by a person or by an assistant. That only works if every figure on them survives being checked.
- A number is ours and dated, or public with its source named
- No round figure that somebody liked the shape of, and no statistic quoted from another blog that quoted a third.
- The answer comes first, in one paragraph
- Each piece opens with the whole answer before the argument, so a reader who leaves after 10 seconds still has it.
- We say when the answer is that you need nothing
- Two of these pages end by telling a reader not to buy anything. A page that can only reach one conclusion is an advert.
- Prices are the ones actually quoted in the UK
- Where a supplier publishes no price we say the band trades report paying, and we say that is what it is.
Elsewhere
The rest of the site, and what each part is for
- Your town
- We measured the high street in 868 UK towns before writing a word about any of them. Your town's page prints how many local sites we fetched, how many failed, and the date we checked.
- Your trade
- A plumber, a salon and a dental practice need 3 different sites, because their customers decide in 3 different ways. Each trade has a page saying which, and which plan it lands on.
- Your own site
- Put your address in and we fetch it the way a phone would. It takes one request, nothing is stored, and if it passes we say so rather than selling you a replacement.