Your options, compared
Wix, an agency, or a local studio?
Four ways to get a website, priced honestly over three years - including the maintenance fees and chatbot subscriptions that never make it onto the quote.
Start here
The bit nobody puts on the quote
Every quote you get covers the same thing: building the website. Almost none of them cover what happens afterwards, and that is where the money actually goes. Hosting. Plugin updates. The chat widget. The person whose job it is to keep you turning up on Google.
So this page compares the four routes on the whole cost, not the headline. If one of them suits you better than us, it will say so - there are three columns here that are not ours, and they win some rows.
Your options
Wix, an agency, or a local studio?
There are a few broad ways to get a website built. Which one you pick matters more than the logo on the invoice, because it decides what happens to you after launch week.
| What you get | DIY builderWix, Squarespace | Local agencyWordPress build | INKON Starter£500 once | INKON Launch£99 a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Site built for you | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| You own the files and domain* | Included | Included | Included | Partly, see note |
| Hosting included* | Included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Fixes and small changes included | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Google Business Profile worked monthly | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Content written and published for you | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Social posts made for you | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Built to be found by AI | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Enquiries answered in seconds* | Not included | Not included | Partly, see note | Included |
| Every price published up front | Included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Someone local you can meet | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| To build | Your time | ~£1,500 once | £500 once | Included |
| Every month after | £15 forever | £30-100 maintenance | Hosting only | £99 |
| AI chat assistant | £20-46 a month | £20-46 a month | £200 a year | Included |
| Year one, site only | ~£180 | £1,860-£2,700 | £500 | £1,188 |
| Year three, site only | ~£540 | £2,580-£5,100 | £500 | £3,564 |
✓ included · ~ partly, see below · ✗ not included
- You own the files and domain. On a monthly plan the build is ours while you subscribe; after the term the standard site is yours to keep.
- Hosting included. You own a Starter Site outright, so you can host it anywhere - no lock-in, but it is not included.
- Enquiries answered in seconds. AI lead response is a £200-a-year add-on to a Starter Site, and included on Launch.
The maintenance line is the one people miss. A WordPress site is a stack of plugins that somebody has to keep updating forever, and most agencies charge £30 to £100 a month to do it. That is rent on complexity you never asked for, and it is why the £1,500 quote is rarely £1,500. Here is what the plugin treadmill really costs →
Yes, over three years Launch costs more than the cheapest agency. We are not going to pretend otherwise. The difference is what happens in those three years. Their monthly fee buys software updates. Ours buys your Google listing worked every month, content written and published, social posts made, and enquiries answered in seconds while you are up a ladder. Different jobs at a similar price.
Why is £500 so much less than £1,500 for the same five pages? Because the build is efficient, not because the site is lesser. It is the same code, the same speed and the same structure as every site we make. What a Starter Site does not come with is the monthly work, and that is the honest difference between the two columns on the right.
The chat assistant is where the sums get silly. Bolt one onto a site you already have and it is a monthly tool on top of everything else. Tidio, one of the common ones, is around £20 a month before you add its AI, which is another £26. Intercom charges roughly 80p for every enquiry its AI resolves, so a busy month costs you more than a quiet one. Ours is £200 a year on a Starter Site, and simply included on Launch, because it is part of the site rather than a subscription bolted to the side of it.
A word on "subscription". Wix is a subscription and so are we, and people muddle them constantly. They are opposites. With a builder you rent the software and do the work yourself, forever. With us the work is done for you.
And to be fair to the agencies. There are good ones in every town, and around £1,500 for a well-built one-off site is a perfectly reasonable deal if that is genuinely what you want: built properly, handed over, looked after by you from then on. Plenty of businesses are happy with exactly that. If it suits you better, I will say so. The same goes for the other two routes people ask about: a cheap freelancer can be fine if you already know what you want and are happy chasing them for changes, and a big-city agency at £5,000 and up does excellent work, with an account manager sat between you and the people doing it.
The short version
Which one is actually for you?
- Pick a DIY builder if you want one page, you enjoy fiddling with it, and being found on Google is not really the point. It is the cheapest thing on this page and it is honest work for a small job.
- Pick a local agency if you want a one-off build done properly and handed over, and you have someone who will look after it afterwards. Ask for the maintenance figure in writing before you sign.
- Pick our £500 Starter Site if you want a proper five-page site you own outright from day one, and you would rather do the ongoing bits yourself. No monthly anything.
- Pick the £99 Launch plan if the reason you have not sorted your website is that you have no time. The build is the easy part. This is the one where the monthly work is somebody else's problem.
Genuinely unsure? Get the free audit first. It tells you where you rank now and where enquiries are leaking, which usually makes the choice obvious - and it costs nothing either way.
The questions people actually ask
Is Wix good enough for a small business?
For the very simplest needs, yes. If you want a single page saying who you are and how to reach you, and you are happy to build and maintain it yourself, a builder does that job for about £15 a month. What it will not do is the work that gets you found: your Google Business Profile worked every month, content published, enquiries answered while you are on a job. Those are not features you switch on, they are work somebody has to do.
Is a £1,500 agency website worth it?
It can be, if a one-off build is genuinely what you want: designed properly, handed over, and looked after by you from then on. The thing to ask before you sign is what happens in month two. Most local agencies build on WordPress, which needs its plugin stack updating forever, and that usually arrives as a maintenance fee of £30 to £100 a month. So the £1,500 quote is rarely £1,500 - ask for the three-year number.
Why is a £500 website cheaper than a £1,500 one?
Because the build is efficient, not because the site is lesser. Our Starter Site is the same code, the same speed and the same search structure as everything else we make. What it does not include is the monthly work - the Google Business Profile, the content, the social posts, the AI lead response. That is the honest difference between paying £500 once and £99 a month.
How much does an AI chat assistant cost for a small business?
Bought separately, it is a monthly tool. Tidio, one of the common ones, starts at around £20 a month and its AI agent is a further £26 on top. Intercom prices its AI at roughly 80p for every enquiry it resolves, so a busy month costs more than a quiet one. We charge £200 a year to add ours to a Starter Site, and include it on the Launch plan, because it is built into the site rather than bolted onto it.
Is a monthly website plan the same as a Wix subscription?
They are opposites, and they get muddled constantly. With a builder you rent the software and do the work yourself, forever. With a plan like ours the work is done for you: the build, the hosting, the local SEO, the content, the enquiry handling. One is a tool you operate. The other is a job somebody else does.
Which option is cheapest over three years?
A DIY builder, at roughly £540, if your time is free - which it is not. After that, our £500 Starter Site, because there is no monthly fee attached to it. An agency WordPress build lands between £2,580 and £5,100 once maintenance is counted, and our Launch plan is £3,564. Launch is dearer than the cheapest agency over three years and we are not going to pretend otherwise - the difference is what happens in those three years.
Not sure which one you need?
The free audit answers it: where you rank, where the enquiries leak, and what we'd actually do - a short breakdown in your inbox, no meeting, no obligation.