Cost breakdown by build method
There are four routes to a finished site, and they are not four prices for the same thing. The UK and US columns are ranges we have observed in public pricing pages and in quotes sent to us during 2026. Read them as market ranges, not as averages from a survey.
Observed market ranges, checked November 2026
| Build method | Typical range, UK / US | What that buys, and what it leaves out |
|---|---|---|
| DIY website builder | UK £0–£300 a year US $0–$400 a year | Template, your words, domain and hosting. Fast to start. Leaves out structure, schema and booking. |
| Template plus a freelancer | UK £350–£1,500 US $500–$2,500 | Theme, five to eight pages, a contact form. The hardest band to compare. Often no copy, specialty pages or handover. |
| Specialist therapy studio | UK £900–£2,400 US $1,200–$3,500 | Fixed page list, clinical copy, booking, local SEO, handover. Usually no photography or ongoing content. |
| Full-service agency | UK £3,000–£12,000+ US $5,000–$15,000+ | Discovery, brand system, campaign assets, account management. No media spend or retainer. |
Why the same brief gets four different numbers
Therapist website cost is driven by six lines, not by talent: how many pages are actually designed, who writes the words, whether photography is included, whether booking and intake are wired up, whether schema and local SEO are part of the job, and whether there is a brand underneath it. A five-page brochure with your own copy is a genuinely different product from a ten-page site with clinical copy and an intake flow. Compare the page list before you compare the price.
Our own three tiers start at $290 (≈ £230), which sits below the specialist-studio band above. That is deliberate: the page list is fixed, there is one design direction rather than three routes, and there is no bespoke art direction or campaign work. What we sell is structure and clinical judgement, not a custom illustration set. If you want a bespoke brand, that is the agency band, and we will say so rather than stretch a fixed fee to cover it. The detail of what we design is on the website design page.
What is included in our fee
Three one-time fees. No hourly billing, no retainer you did not ask for, and no charge for the basics. Every figure is in US dollars; the GBP line under each tier is approximate.
$290
≈ £230 approximate
A solo therapist opening or restarting a practice.
- Five-page website
- Custom design, not a template
- Brand guide: colours and type
- SSL, domain and hosting setup
- 30 days of post-launch support
$470
≈ £370 approximate
An established practice that needs to be found.
- Ten-page website
- Specialty pages built for search
- Advanced booking and intake forms
- Full local SEO setup
- 90 days of support and a monthly report
$620
≈ £490 approximate
A clinic with several clinicians and obligations.
- Multi-clinician website
- Team directory and profiles
- Insurance and fee pages
- Advanced SEO and content strategy
- Booking and EHR integration
We invoice in US dollars, deliberately. One currency for every client means the figure on the quote is the figure on the invoice: no FX adjustment between the two, and no re-invoicing if sterling moves during a four-week build. Your bank converts at its own rate when you pay. The GBP figures on this page are approximate, converted November 2026 at roughly £1 = $1.27, and are there for comparison only.
The add-ons, and when you need them
Add-ons are quoted separately and agreed before work starts. If you take the tier as it is, the answer is usually fine: most practices choose nothing extra.
Add-ons in USD. GBP approximate, converted November 2026
| Add-on | Price (USD) | Approx GBP | When it is worth it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logo design | $49 | ≈ £39 | One concept, two rounds of revisions. Only if you have no mark at all. |
| Extra page | $40 each | ≈ £31 | Beyond the tier’s page count. Most builds need none. |
| Copywriting | $30 per page | ≈ £24 | Written from your intake answers. The long pole in most projects. |
| Booking / EHR setup | $99 | ≈ £78 | Your existing system wired into the site, not just linked out to. |
| Google Business Profile | $49 | ≈ £39 | Set up, verified and linked. The highest-return £39 on this list. |
| Photo editing | $75 | ≈ £59 | Your own photographs, cropped and colour-corrected. |
| Rush, one week | $149 | ≈ £117 | Front of the queue. Nothing else about the build changes. |
| Care plan | $29 /mo | ≈ £23 /mo | Hosting, security, backups and small edits. Cancel any time. |
| Articles | $49 /mo | ≈ £39 /mo | Eight a month, written and published for you. |
| Social posts | $59 /mo | ≈ £46 /mo | Fifteen a month: carousels, stories and statics. |
What we will not charge you for
SSL, a mobile-first layout, on-page SEO basics, a sitemap, a working enquiry form, two rounds of revisions and a handover walkthrough are inside every tier. They are not upgrades, and a quote that lists them as extras is telling you something about how the rest of the project will run. The full line-by-line comparison is on the pricing page.
Build your quote
See every tier
Hidden and ongoing costs to watch for
The build fee is the easy number. These are the ones that decide whether year two is cheap or expensive, and most of them are missing from the quote you are comparing.
Observed ranges, checked November 2026. Your own quotes will vary by supplier and scope.
| Cost | Typical range | How often | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain name | £10–£20 / $12–$25 | Yearly | Register it in your own name. A studio holding the domain is a risk, not a service. |
| Hosting | £8–£30 / $10–$40 per month | Monthly | Included in our care plan. Managed WordPress sits at the top of that range. |
| Plugins and licences | £0–£300 / $0–$350 per year | Yearly | Forms, booking and SEO tools renew annually. Free plugins are rarely free forever. |
| Card processing | roughly 1.5%–3% + a fixed fee | Per payment | Stripe, PayPal and practice software each take a cut. Check your provider’s current rate. |
| Directory subscriptions | £15–£60 / $20–$80 per month | Monthly | Counselling Directory, Psychology Today and BACP listings. The cost that competes with a website. |
| Email and workspace | £0–£7 / $0–$8 per user, per month | Monthly | Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 if you want an address on your own domain. |
| Care and maintenance | $29/mo (≈ £23); £30–£100 elsewhere | Monthly | Updates, backups, security and small edits. Optional with us, but budget for it either way. |
| Photography | £150–£600 / $200–$800 | One-off | A real portrait beats six stock photographs. Usually the best money spent after the build. |
| Copywriting | $30/page (≈ £24); £50–£150 elsewhere | Per page | If you will not write it, someone has to. This is where most DIY builds stall. |
| Content and SEO | $49/mo (≈ £39); £300–£800 at an agency | Monthly | Only worth paying if you will publish consistently. Otherwise fix the structure first. |
The year-one total people forget
A Solo build plus a year of the care plan is $290 + $348 = $638 (≈ £502) before the domain. That is the number to put beside a directory listing: if your listing costs £40 a month, that is £480 a year and you own nothing at the end of it. The comparison is not website versus free. It is a one-off asset versus a subscription that stops the day you stop paying. Run your own fees through the ROI calculator before you decide the build is the expensive option.
Two things are not on the table. Your own time is a real cost, and a DIY build usually absorbs a working week or more before it is finished. Photography is the other: a professional portrait session is often the difference between a site that looks like a practice and one that looks like a template.
How to compare quotes
Four quotes can look identical on one page and differ on everything that matters. Ask these twelve questions of every designer, including us, and get the answers in writing.
- The page count, named page by page, not “up to ten”.
- Who writes the copy, and how many rounds are included.
- Who owns the domain, the hosting and the files.
- Whether the fee is fixed or hourly, stated in writing.
- What is explicitly excluded, especially photography.
- What counts as a revision and what counts as new work.
- The timeline measured from content approval, not from payment.
- Whether mobile and accessibility are checked on real devices.
- Whether FAQ, LocalBusiness and breadcrumb schema are included.
- What happens after launch: support window, handover and training.
- The payment schedule, the currency and who pays transfer fees.
- What an extra page or a new section costs six months later.
Three answers that should end the conversation
A price with no page list, a promise of a Google position, and a domain registered in the designer’s name. Each one moves risk onto you. The first two make the quote uncomparable; the third means you do not fully own the site you paid for. Our own answers to the awkward questions are published on the FAQ page, which is the standard you should hold every quote to.
Therapist website cost: the questions we are asked most
Six answers, with numbers. If your question is about process rather than price, the main FAQ covers timelines, ownership and what happens after launch.
Is $290 really enough to launch a therapist website?
Yes, for a solo practice that needs a clear five-page site. Solo includes the design, a brand guide, SSL, domain and hosting setup, and 30 days of support after launch. It does not include photography, extra pages or ongoing content. If you need ten pages, booking and intake, the honest answer is Practice at $470 rather than squeezing ten pages into five.
Why do you bill in US dollars?
One currency, so the number on your quote is the number on your invoice. There is no FX adjustment between the two and no re-invoicing if sterling moves during a four-week build. UK clients pay in USD and their bank converts at its own rate. The GBP figures on this page are approximate, converted November 2026 at roughly £1 = $1.27.
What is the cheapest option that is not a mistake?
A fixed-fee five-page build on a platform you own, with the domain registered in your name. That can be our Solo tier at $290 or a competent freelancer at a similar figure. The cheap option that usually is a mistake is a free builder plus weeks of your own time, because the hours are the real cost. If a site will never carry a fee page or booking form, DIY is genuinely fine.
What will the site cost to run each year?
With us, budget about $370–$500 a year (≈ £290–£395) after the build: the $29 care plan, a domain, and no separate hosting bill because hosting sits inside the plan. Add articles or social only if you want them. A site outside a care plan usually runs £100–£400 a year in hosting, plugins and occasional fixes, plus your own time.
When do I pay, and what does the quote commit me to?
Using the quote builder costs nothing and commits you to nothing. The written quote sets out the fee, the scope and the payment schedule before any work starts, so the dates and amounts are agreed in writing rather than discovered on an invoice. You can ask for changes or leave it, and no date is held until you say go.
What does it cost to change the site later?
Text, image and opening-hours changes are covered by the $29 care plan. A new page is $40, copy for it is $30 a page, and anything structural is quoted in writing first. A full redesign is a new build rather than an edit, and we will say so instead of billing hourly for a rebuild.
Where to go next
If this raised a question about your own site, Website Design covers structure and layout, the fifteen-point checklist covers what to fix first, and Pricing lists every tier and add-on in one place. When you are ready, price your own build.
General educational guidance, not clinical, legal, or financial advice.
