It's the first question almost everyone asks me, and the honest answer is that it depends on what the website needs to do. Here's how the options break down, so you can work out which one fits your business.
Doing it yourself
Website builders like Wix or Squarespace cost a monthly subscription and your own time. They're a reasonable starting point if you're testing an idea. The catch is the time it takes to make them look professional, and most end up looking like the template they started from. Nothing is written for Google, and nobody is looking after it.
A freelancer or small studio
This is where most local businesses land: someone designs and builds a site around your business, writes it so people nearby can find you, and hands over something that looks like it was made for you, because it was. Prices vary a lot, so ask what's included. Is hosting part of it? Who fixes things when they break? Do you own the site?
An agency
Agencies make sense for bigger projects with lots of moving parts. You'll usually pay for account managers and a team, and the person you meet in the sales call often isn't the one doing the work.
The running costs people forget
A website isn't a one-off. There's the domain name, hosting, an SSL certificate, backups, security updates and small changes as your business changes. Either you handle those yourself or someone does it for you. A site nobody maintains slowly goes stale, drops down Google and eventually breaks.
What I charge
I keep it simple: a one-off fee to design and build the site, then a monthly plan that covers hosting, security, backups and updates. Sites start from £795 plus £79 a month, you can cancel the monthly plan with 30 days' notice, and every plan is listed on the pricing page.
If you're not sure what you need, send me your current site and I'll tell you honestly whether it's worth replacing.