How much a website costs in Wales: the cost logic, without the sales pitch
What a website's price is made of in Wales: pages, words, Welsh translation by the word, photos, and the second-year costs a quote leaves out.
By Daniel Stoychev, Webso Digital · 4 September 2026 · 6 min read
A website in Wales is priced by five things: how many pages have to be made, who writes the words, whether a Welsh version is translated by the word, which features it needs beyond pages, and who takes the photographs. A five-page site for a café and an eighteen-page bilingual site for a charity are different jobs, and any quote that names one price without asking those five questions is guessing. This guide has no prices in it on purpose; ours are on the pricing page with what each package contains, and this is the logic for reading any quote, including that one.
What you are paying for
Pages, first. Each service, place or product that gets its own page is written, laid out, tested on a phone and given its title, description and structured data. Sixteen pages is more work than five, and the number of pages is set by how many services and places need one, which is why a sole trader and a firm of forty with the same pages should pay the same.
Words, second, and this is where quotes differ most. A site written after a call with you, from your answers, in sentences a customer would read, costs more than one filled from a template, and it is the only kind that brings enquiries. Ask each quote who writes the words. If the answer is you, the price is lower and the site will wait for months for text that never comes.
The Welsh, third. Translation is bought by the word from a translator, so the cost of the Welsh version follows the length of the English one. It is a fraction of the English build, because the design and the structure exist already, and it drops if a Welsh speaker in your business writes it and a translator proofreads. Machine translation is free and is not a Welsh version.
Features, fourth. A shop with delivery rules and a checkout, a booking engine, a members' area, a bilingual site's switch and hreflang: each is a piece of work with its own price, and each should be listed on the quote as a line, not folded into a headline.
Photographs, fifth, and usually yours. A shot list and a phone produce better pictures of your shop than any stock library. A quote that includes professional photography is buying something worth having; a quote that fills the gaps with stock is charging you for the wrong thing.
Three ways to buy
| Do it yourself on a platform | A freelancer | A studio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost shape | Low to start, a fee every month for ever | One-off, often the lowest | One-off, with a yearly care plan |
| Who writes the words | You | Usually you | Written with you |
| Ownership | The content; the site stays on the platform | Depends on the contract; ask | Should be yours outright; ask |
| Welsh | A widget, or a paid app | If the freelancer speaks it | Translated by a person, built as a second site |
| Speed on a phone | Depends on the theme; usually poor | Depends on the stack | Should be measured and shown |
| When it suits | A placeholder while the business starts | A small site with a clear brief | A site that has to bring enquiries |
The second year
Every website has running costs and most quotes leave them out. A platform charges monthly for as long as the site exists, and adds apps on top. A booking engine takes a fee per booking. A domain costs a few pounds a year and should be in your name. Hosting and care from a studio is a yearly figure covering the server, the certificate, backups, monitoring and small changes. And a bilingual site has one more: every later change is translated, so the Welsh version has a running cost of its own unless it is inside the care plan. Ask every quote for the year-two figure and write it beside the year-one one.
How to compare two quotes
- How many pages, listed by name.
- Who writes the words, and from what.
- Is the Welsh by a person or a machine, and is it a separate address with a switch, or a widget.
- What does it cost in year two, including the platform, the care and the Welsh updates.
- Who owns the domain, the site and the content if I stop paying.
- What is the mobile speed score of the last three sites you built; ask for the addresses and run the test yourself.
Two quotes with the same headline figure are rarely the same job once those six answers sit beside them. The cheaper one is often the one that costs more by year two, and the dearer one is often the one that brings the enquiries that pay for it.
Where our numbers are: on the pricing page, with what each package contains line by line, the Welsh version priced from and quoted by the word, and the year-two cost stated. The same for a café in Llandudno and a solicitor in Cardiff.
Questions on this topic
Why do quotes for the same site vary so much?
Because they are not for the same site. One is five template pages you fill in; another is sixteen pages written with you, a Welsh version by a translator and a form tested to your phone. The six questions above make the difference visible.
Is a cheap site a false economy?
For a business that needs enquiries, usually. It looks like every other template, loads slowly and has no page per service, which is the page that ranks. It is a fine placeholder for a business whose work all comes by phone.
Does the Welsh version double the price?
No. The Welsh pages reuse the design and the structure; the cost is the translation, by the word, and it falls if you have a Welsh speaker who writes it.
Can I pay monthly?
Some studios spread a build over the first year alongside a care plan or a monthly SEO tier; platforms are monthly by design but never end. Ask what the total comes to and who owns the site at the end.