Quick answer: A UK website redesign typically costs £1,500–£8,000 for a brochure site, £2,500–£30,000+ for e-commerce, and £15,000–£150,000+ for a custom platform, depending on page count, integrations and whether you’re rebuilding on a new CMS.
If you’re planning a website redesign, the honest answer to “how much will this cost” is: it depends – but not vaguely. The price is driven by a handful of concrete factors you can scope before you ask for quotes: how many pages you have, whether the design is templated or fully custom, what CMS you’re on, whether you sell online, and how many third-party systems (CRM, booking, payment, stock) need to talk to your site.
This guide sets out realistic UK planning ranges for 2026, explains what actually moves the price up or down, and gives you a practical framework for deciding between a freelancer, an in-house hire and an agency – plus what to check before you sign anyone up. If you want the full breakdown of new-build pricing rather than a redesign, our companion guide to business website cost in the UK covers that in more depth.
How much does a website redesign cost in the UK?
Most UK redesigns fall into three bands: £1,500–£8,000 for a brochure site, £2,500–£30,000+ for e-commerce, and £15,000–£150,000+ for a custom-built platform. These are planning ranges, not fixed prices – your final quote depends on scope.
Agency pricing research from WebFX’s website redesign pricing guide puts the broad market range at roughly $3,000 to $75,000 (agencies typically charge more at the top end than freelancers or in-house teams), which maps to a similarly wide spread in the UK once you account for exchange rates and regional agency day rates. The gap between the low and high end of any of these bands almost always comes down to two things: how much of the design is custom versus templated, and how much content and functionality needs to be rebuilt rather than reused.
It’s worth sizing the redesign against how much of your business actually depends on the site. Office for National Statistics retail sales data shows internet sales have sat at around 27–28% of total UK retail sales through 2025 and into 2026 – more than double the 19.2% share recorded in 2019. If a meaningful share of your revenue already comes through the website, or is meant to, the redesign budget should be weighed against that revenue exposure, not just against the invoice.
What drives the cost of a redesign?
Page count, custom design work, CMS choice, e-commerce complexity and third-party integrations are the five biggest cost drivers – content migration and accessibility work add further, often underestimated, hours.
Page count and content volume set the baseline: a 6-page brochure site takes a fraction of the design and build hours of a 60-page resource hub. Custom design – bespoke layouts, illustration, animation – costs more than working within a proven theme or component library, but it’s also what separates a site that looks like every competitor’s from one that doesn’t. CMS choice matters too: migrating from a locked-down legacy platform to WordPress or a headless CMS adds setup and data-migration work that a like-for-like refresh avoids.
E-commerce adds its own layer: product catalogue size, payment gateway integration (Stripe, PayPal, Klarna and similar), stock sync with an existing system, and checkout redesign all add hours. Checkout design in particular is worth getting right first time – Baymard Institute’s cart abandonment research, an average across 50 published studies, puts the typical online cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, and Baymard’s own qualitative data attributes 17% of abandonments specifically to a checkout that’s too long or complicated – a problem a redesign can directly fix.
Two drivers are easy to skip when scoping a quote but shouldn’t be: content migration (moving and restructuring existing pages, images and metadata without losing search rankings) and accessibility. GOV.UK’s service manual notes that in the UK, 1 in 5 people have a long-term impairment affecting their ability to do everyday activities – a fifth of your potential audience – which is why accessible design (adequate contrast, keyboard navigation, screen-reader-friendly markup) should be scoped in from the start rather than retrofitted.
How long does a website redesign take?
A brochure redesign typically takes 3–6 weeks, e-commerce 6–12 weeks, and a custom platform build 12–24+ weeks, from discovery through to launch.
Timelines track cost drivers closely: more pages, more custom design, more integrations and more content to migrate all add weeks, not just pounds. A realistic project runs through discovery and content audit, design (usually with at least one or two review rounds), build, content migration, QA and accessibility testing, and a launch window with redirects mapped so existing search rankings aren’t lost. Agencies that quote a full site redesign in under two weeks are usually skipping one of those stages – often QA or redirect mapping – which tends to surface as broken links or a traffic dip after launch.
Freelancer vs agency: who should you hire?
Freelancers are usually cheaper and faster for small, well-defined brochure sites; agencies are better suited to e-commerce, custom builds, or any project that needs design, development, SEO and project management working together.
A single experienced freelancer can be the right call for a straightforward brochure redesign with a fixed page count and no integrations – you get direct access to the person doing the work, usually at a lower day rate. The trade-off is capacity and bench strength: if the freelancer is unavailable, ill, or simply doesn’t have deep expertise in, say, checkout UX or technical SEO, the project either stalls or the gaps show up after launch.
An agency brings a team – design, development, SEO, project management – under one contract, which matters more as project complexity rises. For e-commerce rebuilds, multi-integration projects, or sites where organic search traffic is a significant revenue channel, that breadth usually outweighs the higher price tag. Our own website design and development service is built around that team model. Either way, the decision framework is the same one we set out in how to choose a web design agency: match the supplier’s structure to the complexity of what you’re building, not to the size of the quote.
When is a redesign worth it?
A redesign is worth it when you have clear evidence of a problem – poor conversion, slow load times, an outdated CMS, or a brand mismatch – not simply because the site looks dated.
Speed and usability issues are measurable, and the data on what slow, cluttered pages cost is stark. Think with Google’s mobile page speed research, led by Google’s Global Product Lead for Mobile Web Daniel An, found that as mobile page load time goes from one second to 10 seconds, the probability of a visitor bouncing increases by 123%, and as the number of elements on a page rises from 400 to 6,000, the probability of conversion drops by 95%. If your current site is slow or overloaded, that’s a measurable, fixable reason to redesign.
Visual credibility matters too, and it’s been studied directly. The Stanford Web Credibility Project, led by researcher B.J. Fogg, put it plainly in its published guidelines: “We find that people quickly evaluate a site by visual design alone.” If your design is actively undermining trust – inconsistent layout, dated typography, no clear signals of who’s behind the business – that’s a credibility problem a redesign addresses directly. But if the site converts well, loads fast, and simply isn’t your personal taste, a redesign is a cost without a clear return – a smaller round of targeted improvements is usually the better call.
How to choose a web design agency
Check for a named team with relevant experience, a clear process with defined milestones, transparent scope-based pricing, and evidence of results on similar projects – not just a portfolio of screenshots.
Ask to see the process end to end: how they run discovery, how many design revisions are included, how content migration and redirects are handled, and what QA and accessibility testing looks like before launch. Ask for a fixed scope of work tied to the quote, not just a day-rate estimate, so you know what’s included if requirements shift. And ask what happens after launch – ongoing support, hosting, and whether SEO continuity was part of the plan or an afterthought. We cover the full checklist in how to choose a web design agency, and if you’re also weighing up in-house marketing leadership versus outsourced support for the wider growth plan around the redesign, fractional CMO vs agency covers that decision in detail.
Website redesign cost by site type
| Site type | UK planning range | What’s typically included | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brochure site (5–10 pages) | £1,500–£8,000 | Template or light-custom design, CMS setup, on-page SEO, mobile responsive build | 3–6 weeks |
| E-commerce site | £2,500–£30,000+ | Product catalogue migration, payment gateway integration, checkout UX, stock sync | 6–12 weeks |
| Custom platform / web app | £15,000–£150,000+ | Bespoke design, CRM/ERP integrations, custom functionality, full QA and accessibility testing | 12–24+ weeks |
Frequently asked questions
Is a website redesign tax-deductible for a UK business?
Website costs are generally treated as a business expense, though the exact tax treatment depends on whether spend is classed as revenue or capital expenditure. Speak to your accountant about your specific project before assuming full deductibility.
How much should a small business budget for a redesign?
For a small UK business with a straightforward brochure site, budgeting £2,000–£6,000 covers most template-based or light-custom redesigns. E-commerce or anything with integrations should budget from £5,000 upward.
Will a redesign hurt my search rankings?
It can, if URLs change without redirects, if content is deleted rather than migrated, or if page speed regresses. A competent agency maps every old URL to a new one and checks Core Web Vitals before launch specifically to avoid this.
Should I redesign or rebuild from scratch?
If your CMS, hosting or core architecture is the limiting factor – not just the visual design – a rebuild is usually more cost-effective long-term than repeatedly patching an outdated platform.
Do I need a full redesign or just a refresh?
If the site converts reasonably well and the main issues are visual or content-based, a targeted refresh (new templates, updated copy, image and speed optimisation) is often cheaper and faster than a full redesign.
Ready to plan your redesign?
Getting the scope right before you ask for quotes is the single biggest lever on both cost and outcome. WiseGuyXL has delivered an average of 341% organic growth across 30+ projects in 9+ markets, and we scope every redesign around the numbers that actually move your business, not just how the site looks. Get in touch to talk through your project and get a realistic, scope-based quote.
Related reading: business website cost UK and how to choose a web design agency.