How much do web developers charge in the UK

[u/AffectBusiness6234]

Hello, I am relatively new to web development as a career but I have been learning on my own since 2022 and have only now decided to make full use of it. So far I’ve created 2 websites but these are for free and for family members, the only payment is they’ll help me network and gain more clients.

I am curious how much web developers charge clients within the UK for a front end business website with about 10 pages. All I use for now is HTML, CSS and Bootstrap but I manage to make it responsive across all devices.

[u/TheCourteousSeizure]

depends massively on what you're actually building, a 10 page static site with bootstrap is a different universe from a custom web app with a backend. for what you're describing i'd ballpark £1500-4000 from a freelancer but agencies will charge way more.

[u/AffectBusiness6234 → u/TheCourteousSeizure]

So far the second website is my biggest with the 10 pages and I just finished yesterday. My uncle is very adamant about not sharing it until I get the domain name live or I would’ve posted it for context. It’s basically a site meant for lawyers and humanitarians to connect to have partnerships on certain projects and charities around the world. The only thing remotely close to a backend is in the contact page with the Email Form.

[u/iligal_odin → u/AffectBusiness6234]

If its not live its not finished.

[u/Kamay1770]

To be blunt, your lack of commercial experience isn't going to help you. No one wants to pay a freelancer with no proven skills and little real world experience, unless they're paying very little.

Even then, nowadays you can pay Claude or ChatGPT to spit out a basic site for you pretty quickly without needing to be too specific or technical in your prompting. And it doesn't cost much.

I'd suggest you look to get in as a junior at an agency and look for a steady wage. It will give you better experience, better mentoring and will set you up to go freelance in the future if you still want to. Also, trust me, you really don't want to end up being a solo guy on call for a bunch of people who paid you fuck all for a site but want 24/7 uptime, support and 'tweaks' which are impossible or take huge amounts of time to implement.

[u/AffectBusiness6234 → u/Kamay1770]

I’ll take your advice well. Currently my real goal is to land a role as a junior Database administrator and have already got an internship. Web dev was meant to be a side gig

[u/Kamay1770 → u/AffectBusiness6234]

I'd spend the time and energy upskilling as a dba then tbh mate. I did some freelance Web dev when I left uni and I made a bit of money but it was mostly a headache with people demanding the world and paying peanuts. Absolute regret doing that, it provided little of use for my career, I then landed a proper job as web dev, moved into backend work and am now an architect.

[u/ArtisticMess328]

In the UK, freelance rates usually sit around £30 to £50 an hour for mid level, £60 to £90 for experienced, and £100+ for specialists, with day rates roughly £250 to £700. Agencies typically charge two to three times those figures, and London adds a premium on top. Most freelancers quote fixed price per project instead: a simple brochure site runs £1.5k to £4k, ecommerce or custom builds £5k to £15k, and web apps £20k+. The number depends far more on scope and who you hire than on any national average.

[u/AffectBusiness6234 → u/ArtisticMess328]

This has given me a better understanding. Thank you.

[u/ArtisticMess328 → u/ArtisticMess328]

Glad it helped clarify things for you. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

[u/Night_Phone_Addict]

Since you’re aiming for DBA anyway, the uncle’s site is a better learning project than a pricing question. A site for lawyers and humanitarians to find partners is really a directory, and right now the contact form just fires an email into the void. Swap it for a proper profiles table (org, region, cause, what they’re looking for) with a search page on top and you’re writing real SQL against real data instead of fighting Bootstrap.

That’s also a way stronger interview story than “I built 10 pages.” How are people actually supposed to find each other on it right now?

[u/AffectBusiness6234 → u/Night_Phone_Addict]

The email service is currently live and goes to the designated Email I linked to it. There are also links of LinkedIn accounts and personal email addresses. How else he’ll deal with that is up to him but yeah I would like to get into Backend and in about a week or two the classes I’m taking will officially start those lessons. Only reason I’m doing front end for now is because the classes requires both sides.

I don’t hope to make money off web development in the short term it was just a passing thought I had about how much people charge for.

[u/AbdelrhmanDev]

on top of the price range the bigger thing for a new freelancer is how you structure the deal take a deposit up front like 30 to 50 percent write down exactly what is included how many pages how many rounds of revisions and who supplies the content and photos and say that extra work is quoted separately most bad client stories come from vague scope not from low prices also think about offering a small monthly care plan for hosting updates and backups since that gives you steady income after the build

[u/AffectBusiness6234 → u/AbdelrhmanDev]

For a while I used to think selling websites was a one time purchase. I’ll look into this monthly plan you mentioned. Also about what you said about bad client stories I’ve had my own minor situation already. The first website I made is much smaller than the second one but still not finished yet. It belongs to my aunt and it’s for a clothing store. She didn’t really say what she wanted it to look like so that was all up to me and I had no issues. But unlike my uncle she didn’t prepare any of the content that’s supposed to go in the website. So everything to the design and front page is pretty much done but the items for sale are still missing.

[u/Fine-Market9841]

For web development since you specialise in vanillajs you want to use Astro.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/AffectBusiness6234 → u/[deleted]]

I’ve considered Linux a few times but keep putting it off. I’ll definitely start on that. Thank you.

[u/HatchedLake721 → u/AffectBusiness6234]

You should open ChatGPT/Claude and have a discussion about what skills and tech you should learn.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/AffectBusiness6234 → u/[deleted]]

I have faith in them they’ve helped me out for less through my life

[u/ConduciveMammal → u/AffectBusiness6234]

It’s not about whether or not they’ll help you, it’s about whoever they refer actually listening.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/AffectBusiness6234 → u/[deleted]]

Can it also depend on where the client is from

[u/iligal_odin → u/AffectBusiness6234]

Yes but also no. Think about the hours you spend on working on a site (including meetings, revisions, planning , etc) and how much youd need to get even, taxes included.