Is Your Agency Charging Too Much for Your Website? Probably Yes.
The average small business pays £3,000–£15,000 for a website that costs the agency £400 in real labour. Here's exactly what's in that invoice — and what you can do about it.
The gap between what you pay and what it costs to build is wider than almost any other industry. Here's why.
Average agency quote (5-page SMB site)
£5,500
This is what a typical UK digital agency charges a small business for a standard informational website with a contact form.
Actual labour cost to build it
£380
A mid-level developer working at typical UK agency hourly rates spends 8–12 hours on a basic 5-page site. That's the build cost.
What ChilledSites charges
£29
Per year. Includes hosting, custom domain support, contact forms, and AI generation in under 60 seconds. No hidden fees.
The honest number: for a standard 5-page small business website, agencies typically mark up the real build cost by 700–1,400%. The remaining money goes to project management overhead, sales commissions, office costs, and profit margins — none of which improve your website.
Line item
Agency quote
Real cost
Markup
Design & development
£2,800
£380
7.4x
Copywriting
£800
£120
6.7x
Project management
£600
£60
10x
SEO setup
£500
£40
12.5x
Domain & first year hosting
£300
£25
12x
Annual maintenance retainer
£500/yr
£0–30
16x+
Total (year one)
£5,500
£625
8.8x
The structural problem
The Agency Model Is Broken for Small Businesses
Agencies aren't trying to rip you off. They're built for enterprise clients — and SMBs are paying enterprise prices for SMB work.
01
Built for £50k+ projects
Agency overheads — office rent, full-time staff, business development — only make financial sense when spread across large contracts. Your £5k website is subsidising a business model designed for projects 10x bigger.
02
Junior staff, senior rates
Most agency work is done by junior and mid-level developers billed at senior rates. The senior person you met in the pitch often disappears once the contract is signed. Your website is a training exercise for someone earning £28k.
03
Complexity is profitable
Agencies have a financial incentive to make projects seem more complex than they are. Custom CMS, bespoke design, brand strategy workshops — these aren't always necessary, but they are billable. You likely needed a clean, fast, well-written 5-page site.
04
Locked-in dependency
Many agencies build your site on their hosting, their CMS, or in a way that requires them to make changes. This isn't an accident — ongoing dependency is a revenue stream. Moving away later becomes painful and expensive.
05
Slow turnaround, always
A 5-page website taking 6–12 weeks isn't because it's complex. It's because your project is one of twenty on the agency's plate, and small jobs get pushed down the priority queue whenever a bigger client needs attention.
06
The maintenance trap
Annual maintenance retainers at £500–2,000/year often cover things that simply don't need doing — plugin updates that take 10 minutes, security patches that happen automatically, and "monitoring" that nobody checks.
The overhead breakdown
What You're Really Paying For
When you pay an agency £5,000 for a website, here's where the money actually goes — and how much of it touches your website.
Office rent & operations
Trendy studio in a city centre? You're funding that. Rent, rates, utilities, and office infrastructure add £800–1,500/month to an agency's fixed costs — spread across every client invoice.
~12% of your invoice
Sales & business development
The pitch process, proposals, networking events, LinkedIn ads, and sales team salaries — all baked into your invoice. It costs agencies £200–800 to win each small project. You're paying for that, too.
~18% of your invoice
Project management overhead
Account managers, project briefs, status calls, revision rounds, internal reviews, and client feedback cycles. For a 5-page site, this coordination often costs more than the actual build work.
~22% of your invoice
Profit margin
Standard agency net profit on SMB projects runs at 35–55%. This isn't unreasonable as a business model — but it means roughly half of everything you pay never touches your website in any form.
~40% of your invoice
Software licences & tools
Figma teams, project management software, premium WordPress themes, SEO tools, staging environments, and time-tracking software. These costs exist regardless of your project — and are baked into agency day rates.
~8% of your invoice
Actual website work
Design, development, content, and technical setup — the part that directly produces your website. Accounting for all overhead, this is what gets spent on building the thing you asked for.
~7% of your invoice
The alternative
The AI Alternative: Same Quality, 100x Cheaper
ChilledSites uses AI to do in 60 seconds what an agency does in 6 weeks — at £29/year instead of £5,500.
60s
From prompt to complete multi-page website
£29
Per year, including hosting and custom domain
100%
You own everything — no agency dependency
0
Calls, briefs, revisions, or waiting
Traditional Agency
£5,500
upfront + £500–2,000/yr maintenance
6–12 week turnaround
Locked into agency hosting
Changes cost extra every time
Multiple meetings and approvals
Annual retainer to keep it running
~7% of budget on actual website
VS
ChilledSites AI
£29
per year, everything included
Live in under 60 seconds
Your own domain, you own everything
Edit anything with AI instantly
No calls, briefs, or approvals
Hosting and forms included
100% of budget on your website
Practical advice
What to Do If You're Already Locked Into an Agency
Already paying? Here's the step-by-step to reclaim control without burning the relationship — or your website.
1
Check your contract for IP and exit terms
Review who owns the design, code, and content. Many agency contracts include IP clauses that make leaving expensive. Look for contract length, notice periods, and whether you have the right to take your website files.
2
Confirm you own your domain — right now
Your domain should be registered in your name with you as the administrative contact. If the agency holds your domain registrar account, request a transfer immediately. This is non-negotiable — losing your domain is losing your brand online.
3
Request all source files and assets
Ask for your website's source files, all images, any copy documents, and database exports if applicable. A legitimate agency will provide these. If they resist, that's a red flag and potentially a legal issue — the content is yours.
4
Build a replacement before you cancel
Use ChilledSites (or another platform) to build your replacement site before ending the current contract. Test it thoroughly on a staging domain. This way there's zero downtime when you switch — no scrambling, no dead site.
5
Point your domain to the new site
Once you're happy with the replacement and your contract allows it, update your domain's DNS records to point to the new platform. DNS changes typically propagate within 24–48 hours. Inform the agency in writing that you're leaving.
6
Cancel the retainer — in writing
Send a formal cancellation notice via email, referencing your contract's notice period. Keep a copy. Many agencies will auto-renew retainers unless explicitly cancelled in writing within the correct notice window.
Try it yourself
Your business deserves a great website. Not a great invoice.
ChilledSites builds professional multi-page websites in under 60 seconds. Custom domain, hosting, and contact forms included. From £29/year.
Honest answers to the questions business owners ask before leaving their agency.
How much should a small business website actually cost?
A professional small business website should cost between £29–£500/year depending on the approach. AI builders like ChilledSites deliver professional multi-page websites from £29/year. Traditional agencies charge £2,000–£15,000+ for the same output, with most of that cost covering agency overhead — not your website.
What is a fair price for a website from an agency?
For a simple 5-page small business website, a fair price accounting for actual labour is £500–£800. Anything above £2,000 for a basic informational website means you're heavily subsidising the agency's overheads — office rent, sales team, account managers, and profit margin. Very few SMBs need to spend more than £800 on their initial website build.
Why do web agencies charge so much?
Web agencies charge high prices primarily because of overhead costs: office space, full-time staff (account managers, project managers, sales teams), expensive software licences, and industry-standard profit margins of 40–60%. Small business clients effectively subsidise infrastructure built to serve enterprise accounts. It's not malice — it's structural.
Can I get a professional website without using an agency?
Yes. AI website builders like ChilledSites generate professional, multi-page websites with custom domains, hosting, and forms included — for £29/year. The result is indistinguishable from an agency-built site at 1% of the cost. You get the full site in under 60 seconds and can edit anything yourself with AI assistance afterward.
What should I do if I'm locked into an agency contract?
First, check your contract for exit clauses, IP ownership terms, and whether you own your domain. Request all source files and assets in writing immediately. Build a replacement on a platform you own (like ChilledSites), then migrate your domain when the contract ends or an exit window opens. Never cancel without having a live replacement ready.
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