Bespoke web design
We write the words, design every screen and set the site up to be found. One studio does all three, so nothing falls between suppliers.
From £995 for a one-page site, £1,495 for several pages. Fixed in writing before we start.
A written answer within one working day.
Bespoke web design at Werehouse Media means a website built for one business rather than filled into a layout somebody else designed. Three things decide whether a website earns its keep: what it says, how it looks and behaves, and whether the people you want can find it. Most businesses buy those three from different suppliers at different times and spend the rest of the project reconciling them.
We settle all three together before anything is built, which is why the finished site behaves the way the drawing promised. You see the real homepage early, on your own phone, with your own words and pictures in it, so what you approve is what launches rather than a picture you have to imagine into a website.
Bespoke website design starts from £995 for a focused single-page build and from £1,495 for a multi-page small business website, with larger builds priced on what they actually involve; a redesign of an existing site starts from £1,495. The price is fixed in writing before work begins, and you own the domain, the content and every account outright.
A website is two halves, and you only ever get shown one.
The front is what you sign off. The back decides whether it loads on a train, whether Google can read it, whether the enquiry reaches your inbox, and whether it still works in three years. Turn it over.
Every complaint anyone has about a website is a complaint about the back. It is slow. It looks broken on my phone. It does not come up on Google. The enquiries do not arrive.
So the back is not an extra on the quote. It is in the price of every site we build.
How it usually goes
Three people, one website.
A designer, a developer, and somebody who “does the SEO”. Three quotes, three timelines, and nobody answerable for whether the finished thing actually works.
The look gets signed off as a picture. Then it gets built, and what the picture could not show arrives one item at a time: the headline that runs to four lines on a phone, the page that takes six seconds to appear, the form nobody sent a test enquiry through.
By then the budget is spent and the conversation turns to who owes whom a fix. The fault is rarely any one supplier. It sits in the seams between them.
Most of your customers are holding a phone.
So the design starts on the phone, rather than being squeezed in at the end.
What actually makes a small business website work
- The first screen answers the question they arrived with.What you do, where you do it, and whether you are credible. Most sites spend that space on a slogan.
- One obvious next action.Several competing buttons is the commonest conversion problem in small business sites.
- Proof next to the claim.A testimonial three screens below the promise it supports does very little.
- It appears fast on a phone on mobile data.Not on your laptop on office wifi.
- The way to contact you matches how customers behave.People ring a trade and email a consultant, so forcing everyone through one form loses the ones who would have used the other.
Fast on a phone, or it does not launch.
Every site is checked on real hosting, throttled to a mid-range phone on mobile data, before it goes live.
Google Lighthouse scores for this page on a phone, measured September 2026. Every site we build has to score 90 or more for speed on a phone before it launches.
What every website includes
- Every word written for youAn hour on the phone, and we write the site. You correct it, so there is no blank page and no month waiting for content.
- Designed for your businessNothing is on the page because a template put it there.
- A real page, earlyYou open the homepage on your own phone while changing your mind is still cheap.
- Built to be foundWhat your customers search for decides which pages exist, from the first week. Our local SEO services start from the same work.
- Nothing waiting to breakNo pile of add-ons for an update to break, so there is less to pay somebody to fix.
- You own all of itThe domain, the content and every account are in your name. If you ever leave, nothing stops working.
Eight more things set up behind every page
- Google can read it, and so can a screen readerHeadings in order, links that say where they go, and every page usable from a keyboard.
- Your business details, in the format Google readsAddress, hours, services and prices, so you have a better chance of being the answer, not a blue link.
- Pictures cut to the size they are shown atSpace is kept for each one, so nothing jumps while the page loads.
- A speed limit agreed before we buildA ceiling on how heavy each page can be, so nothing added later slows it down.
- Your old links keep workingEvery old page is sent to the right new one and checked after launch, so the positions you have earned are not thrown away.
- Enquiries that always arriveA filter stops the spam, every enquiry reaches your inbox and a copy is kept.
- Security and backupsEncrypted and copied off-site at launch. On a care plan we watch it too, so if it goes down we know before you do.
- Visitor numbers without a cookie bannerEnough to see what is working, chosen so most sites need no consent pop-up.
How we do it
Three decisions, made once, in the right order.
Settled together, none of them quietly compromises the other two. That is the difference you are paying for.
| The decision | Bought separately | Settled together |
|---|---|---|
| The words | You write them, or the build waits. Most projects stall here, for a month or more. | An hour on the phone and we write them. You correct us, which takes an afternoon. |
| What you approve | A picture of a website, near the end. | A real page on a real address, early, that you can open on your own phone. |
| Being found | Retro-fitted once the pages are already signed off. | Decided before a single page is designed, because it decides what the pages are. |
| Changing your mind | Expensive. The build has started and somebody has to unpick it. | Free, because it happens before the expensive part does. |
| When something is wrong | Three suppliers, three timelines, and a conversation about whose fault it is. | One studio and one number. Whatever it is, it is ours. |
| At the end | Whoever set the accounts up is holding them. | The domain, the site and every account are in your name, from day one. |
When the split is the right answer. If you already have a designer you trust and a developer who works well with them, that is a good setup and we would tell you to keep it. This is about the ordinary case, where three suppliers meet each other for the first time in the middle of your project.
What is bespoke web design, and when is a template enough?
Bespoke web design means the site is designed around your business, your words and your customers, rather than your words being poured into a layout made for someone else. For small business website design there are three honest routes, and the cheapest is sometimes the right one.
| Route | Typical cost | Who edits it | Speed on a phone | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website builder | £150 to £600 a year, plus your time | You, in the builder’s editor | Usually fine, rarely fast | When you need something it does not do, or want to leave |
| WordPress theme | £800 to £3,000 from a freelancer, plus upkeep | You, through its dashboard | Depends on the theme and every add-on installed | When updates and add-ons stop working together |
| Bespoke | From £995, or £1,495 for several pages | We do, or you do if it is planned that way | Checked on a mid-range phone before it goes live | On cost and time: more up front, and three to six weeks to launch |
Still choosing between Wix, Squarespace or a web designer? That guide compares them route by route, and this one sets out how much a website costs in the UK.
Starting prices, and what moves them.
What you pay depends on how many pages there are and what has to work. You get the number in writing before anything begins.
Why these are starting prices. A five-page site for one town and a twenty-page site covering six services in four towns are different jobs, and one number for both would overcharge one of you. We scope it and put the figure in writing, and it only moves if you add something. See all our prices, or website care for after launch.
How long does a website take?
A single page is a matter of days. A business website with several pages is usually three to six weeks, and most of that is waiting on photographs and approvals rather than on design. Anything with a shop, a booking system or a customer login runs longer, and the timeline is agreed when you are quoted rather than promised in advance and missed.
A written answer within one working day.
When you should not hire us at all
If your budget is under about £200 and you need something live this month, use Squarespace and do it yourself. It will be fine, and we would rather say so now.
If nobody can find you at all, that is a search problem and a new website will not fix it on its own. Spend the money on being findable first.
And if you are pre-revenue and still testing whether anyone wants the thing, trade under a plain name and spend the money finding out.
Not sure a new site is the answer? Ask for a free SEO audit of the one you have first.
Five stages, and you see it working at every one.
Each stage decides what the next one can do. The longer version is on the process page.
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An hour on the phone
About the business, not the website: what you sell, who buys it and what they ask first.
You get: the brief, written by us and corrected by you.
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What pages exist
Which pages you need, and what somebody searched for to land on each one.
You get: a page map, and the search each page is aimed at.
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The homepage, for real
A live page on your own phone, to send to anyone with an opinion. This is the moment to change your mind.
You get: a link, and a fixed price before the expensive part starts.
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The rest of it
Every other page, filling in on the draft site as you watch.
You get: the whole site to review, page by page, before anyone else sees it.
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Live, and then checked
Old addresses pointed at the new ones. We check again a fortnight later, when the numbers mean something.
You get: a live site, and a starting point you can hold us to.
Straight answers
How much does web design cost in the UK?
In our own reading of published UK prices, a one-page site for a UK small business in 2026 runs roughly £400 to £900, a business website with several pages £1,000 to £4,000, and anything with a shop, bookings or customer logins £4,000 upwards. Werehouse Media projects start from £995 and multi-page websites from £1,495, with the final figure depending on how many pages there are and what has to work. You are quoted in writing before anything begins.
Is a bespoke website worth it for a small business?
It is when the website has a job to do: bringing in enquiries, bookings or sales. If it only needs to exist, a website builder at £150 to £600 a year is the better buy, and we will tell you so. A useful test: would one or two extra customers a month cover the difference within the first year? If so, the bespoke site is usually the better spend.
What is the difference between web design and web development?
Design decides what the site looks like and what order things come in. Development is the part that makes it actually work, load quickly and be readable by search engines. Splitting the two across two suppliers is where most problems start, because each makes decisions the other then has to live with. Here they are the same decision, made once.
Will I see the design before it is built?
Yes, and you will see it as a real page rather than as a picture of one. The homepage goes on a live address early, with your own words and photographs in it, so you can open it on your own phone and send it to anyone else whose opinion matters. The direction can change at that point, while changing it costs nothing.
Can I edit the website myself?
Yes, if it is planned that way. We can hand the site over with a login for changing text and images, and if you will edit it every week we build it around that from the start. If changes are occasional, send them to us: website care covers them from £49 a month, with no contract.
Do you use templates or themes?
No. Pages are designed for your business rather than filled into a layout somebody else decided on, so nothing is on the page because it came with the template. It also means there is no pile of add-ons sitting in an admin screen waiting for an update to break them.
Can you redesign my existing website?
Yes, and the important part is not losing the positions you already have. That means recording where you are starting from, pointing every old address at the right new one, and checking after launch rather than hoping. Redesigns start from £1,495 depending on how much of the existing site can be kept.
Do you build websites outside Sussex?
Yes. We are based in Sussex and work with businesses across the UK and worldwide. A project runs over calls, email and a live draft site you open on your own phone, so distance makes no difference. If you are close by, see web design in Sussex.
A website’s job ends at the enquiry. That is an expensive place to stop.
A site that works produces work: forms to read, quotes to write, calls to return. We build that half too, and on a site we built it is the cheapest part to add.
What your customers actually type decides a website before anyone draws a page: which pages exist, what each one covers and the title each one carries. Those searches are how the enquiries arrive, and every enquiry brings admin with it, which is the work the four systems below take off your hands.
What can be added behind the website, and what is each one for?
- The enquiry answers itselfEnquiry automation replies to a form sent at nine at night straight away, with what happens next, when a person will be in touch and what to send in the meantime. The lead is still warm in the morning, and nobody had to sit up to answer it.
- Nothing sits waiting to be noticedBusiness automation qualifies every enquiry, sends it to whoever should have it and chases it on a schedule until somebody answers or closes it. Quotes follow themselves up, and the request for a review goes out on the day the job finishes rather than three weeks later.
- The calls you miss stop being lostAn AI receptionist answers the phone out of hours, takes the details of the job, books it into the calendar and writes it up where the rest of the work lives. A trade or a clinic that cannot stop mid-job to pick up gains the most, because a missed call there usually means the job goes to the next name on the list.
- The same fact is typed onceThe website, the CRM, the accounting package and the calendar stop being four places where somebody enters the same customer by hand. Systems integration connects them, so a booking made online shows up everywhere it should without anyone copying it across.
None of it is in the website price. Business automation starts at £650 for a single job, and a connected system across two or three tools from £1,950. See how the pieces fit together, or ask for a free systems audit of where the hours go.
Before you commission one
Tell us what it has to do
Not what you want it to look like. What it has to achieve. Everything else follows from that, and we will tell you honestly if a new website is not the answer.
Or say it in one line to ed@werehousemedia.com. Want to see how a project runs first? Read the process.