What does a £400 website actually include?

“Websites from £400” can mean almost anything. Sometimes it is a template with your name changed. Sometimes the final invoice bears little resemblance to the headline. Here is exactly what £400 means at Ashburn Stone, what it includes, and when a larger price is the honest answer.

What is included

The feature list does not shrink because the site is small. A £400 build includes the same standard website features as a larger one:

• design that works on phones, tablets and desktop screens;
• contact and enquiry forms;
• online booking connected to your calendar, if you need it;
• a blog or news section;
• an image gallery or portfolio;
• WhatsApp contact, maps and directions;
• basic on-page search optimisation;
• Google Analytics setup;
• SSL and a secure-hosting-ready handover;
• a private preview and revisions before launch; and
• a WordPress site you own and can edit.

There is no “professional forms” tier and no fee to unlock a gallery. The price is driven by the amount of page design and content work, not a row of feature switches.

What one to three pages can do

A small site works best when the business has one clear audience and a straightforward next step. For example:

• a tradesperson showing services, coverage, proof and a quote form;
• a consultant explaining the offer, experience and how to book;
• a new local business that needs a credible home online before it needs a large content library; or
• an event, campaign or single service with one focused call to action.

A one-page site does not have to be one short screen. It can contain a proper introduction, services, examples, reviews, questions, contact details and an enquiry form. Separate pages become useful when each service needs room to answer different questions or rank for a different search.

What costs extra

There are three common additions that involve separate work rather than another website feature:

• Written-for-you copy — £200. We turn one conversation and your existing notes into the page copy.
• A logo — £150. A properly drawn mark supplied in the formats you need.
• SEO and Google setup — £150. Search Console, Google Business Profile and local launch setup.

An online shop is also a different job. Products, tax, stock, delivery and payment flows need an ecommerce platform and proper testing, so we price Shopify builds separately rather than pretending they are a checkbox.

What hosting costs

The website build and the ongoing home for the website are separate:

• £35 a month Essential hosting: your domain, UK hosting, SSL, updates, backups and monitoring; changes are charged when you need them.
• £60 a month Fully managed: all of that, plus 30 minutes of development or content changes each month.
• £100 a month Growth: an hour of changes each month and a monthly check-up of speed, broken links and Google Search Console, with anything it finds fixed.

You can also take the finished website to another suitable host. The build is not held hostage to a maintenance plan.

When £400 is not enough

A larger site needs a larger budget when there are more distinct pages to design, more content to organise, or a more involved customer journey. Our published prices are £400 for up to three pages, £800 for six and £1,200 for nine, with the pages in between priced on the same scale. From ten to twenty pages, each page past nine adds £100; larger sites are quoted from the brief.

A customer sign-in area, internal dashboard, payment workflow or bespoke integration is not a normal brochure website. That sits under business systems and portals, because it requires user accounts, permissions, data handling and ongoing maintenance.

What we need from you

A quick build still needs decisions. The work moves fastest when you can provide:

• the services you want to sell;
• the areas you cover;
• real photos, if you have them;
• examples of work or customer comments you are allowed to publish; and
• one person who can approve the preview.

If you do not have all of that, it is not a reason to delay asking. We can identify the gaps in the brief and price any help before work starts.

The honest test

A £400 website is good value when a small, clear site can do the job. It is poor value if the business really needs six service pages and they are crushed into one endless page to protect the headline price. The aim is the smallest site that answers the customer’s questions properly — not the smallest invoice at any cost.