Pricing

The prices are on the website.

Which sounds obvious until you try to find them anywhere else. These are real numbers, they are what you will be quoted, and the figure is agreed in writing before anything starts.

No VAT: I am under the threshold

onwardcreations.co.uk
  • Fixed prices
  • Agreed in writing
  • Half up front

Packages

Three ways in.

Most small businesses land on the middle one. If you are not sure which fits, describe the business on the phone for twenty minutes and I will tell you, including if the answer is the cheapest one.

  • Presence

    £1,200

    Sole traders and new businesses

    One page, up to five sections. Live in one to two weeks.

    • Custom design, not a theme
    • Single page, up to five sections
    • Built for phones first
    • Contact form that reaches you
    • Basic SEO: titles, descriptions, sitemap
    • Hosting and domain set up in your name
    • Two rounds of changes
    • Two weeks of free snag fixes

    Live in 1–2 weeks

    Start a project
  • Bespoke

    from £4,500

    Anything with moving parts

    Scoped per project, priced before it starts.

    • Everything in Standard
    • Booking or ordering
    • E-commerce
    • Integrations with what you already use
    • App work
    • Phased, so you can stop at the end of any phase
    • Rounds of changes agreed per phase

    Live in Scoped

    Start a project

Every figure above is the whole price. No VAT, no setup fee, no per-page extra, and no discovery workshop billed separately before anything gets built.

After launch

The care plan, if you want it.

Optional, monthly, and cancelling it does not take your site down. It exists because a site nobody maintains goes stale within a year and insecure within two.

£55/month

Care

  • Hosting, domain renewal and SSL
  • Daily backups you can roll back to
  • Security updates
  • Uptime monitoring
  • Small content changes: prices, hours, staff, menus
  • A monthly note on what happened, in English

£75/month

Care and content

  • Everything in the £55 plan
  • Monthly content work: posts written in your voice
  • Periodic photography on site

No lock-in, and I mean it structurally

One month's notice, no exit fee, no minimum term. The domain is registered in your name, the code is in a repository in your name, and the analytics account is yours. Cancelling is genuinely just cancelling. I hand over anything you do not already hold and the site keeps running wherever you move it.

Where this sits

Against the other four things you could do.

Written as fairly as I can manage. There are good reasons to pick any of these columns: a DIY builder is genuinely the right answer for some businesses, and a good agency will out-resource me on a large project.

How a hand-built site compares with a DIY builder, the cheapest freelance work and a regional agency
Measure DIY builder Cheapest freelance Me Regional agency
Typical cost £15–£30/month, forever£200–£500 once£1,200–£4,500 once£2,500–£8,000 once
Who builds it You, in your eveningsUsually a theme, lightly editedMe, by handA team you rarely meet
Who you speak to A help centreOne person, sometimesThe person building itAn account manager
Loads in under a second Rarely. Builders ship a lot of codeDepends entirely on the themeYes, and it is measuredSometimes, if it was asked for
Accessible to WCAG 2.2 AA NoAlmost neverAs standardUsually chargeable
Do you own it No. It lives on their platformUsuallyYes, all of itUsually, on final payment
If you stop paying The site comes downIt stays upIt stays upIt stays up
VAT on top YesUsually notNoYes, 20%

Not included

What the price does not cover.

Here rather than discovered in week three. Most arguments between a client and whoever built their website start with something in this list.

  • Photography and video

    Not in any package. Good photographs of your actual premises, staff and work are worth more than anything I can do with a layout, and they are worth paying a photographer for. I will tell you when your phone will do.

  • Copywriting beyond the included support

    From Standard up I rewrite what you have and fill the gaps. What that is not is a full brand-voice exercise or a set of long-form articles. If that is what you need I will say so and it gets quoted separately.

  • Ongoing advertising

    I do not run Google or Meta ads and I would not be the best person to. The site is built so that whoever does run them has something worth sending traffic to.

  • Logos and brand identity

    I will work with the logo you have, and make it look as good as it can. Designing a new identity from scratch is a different job with a different specialist, and I would rather point you at one than pretend otherwise.

  • Third-party costs

    Domain registration is about £12 a year, and some tools you might want have their own monthly fee. These get listed with real numbers in the quote rather than appearing later.

50 / 50

Payment terms

Half to start, half on launch. The first half books the time and is what I begin work on. The second is due when the site goes live and before the logins change hands. Bespoke work splits per phase instead, so you are never paid up further than the work delivered.

No VAT

The price is the price

I am not VAT-registered (turnover is under the £90,000 threshold), so there is nothing to add at the bottom of the invoice. £2,400 is £2,400. Against an agency quoting the same number plus VAT, that is £480 you keep.

2 seconds

The one guarantee

If a page I build does not load its main content in under two seconds on a mid-range phone on mobile data, I keep working until it does, at my cost. It is the only guarantee on this site because it is the only one that is entirely within my control.

Questions

About money, specifically.

The awkward ones, answered here so nobody has to ask them out loud.

Why is there no VAT?

Because I am not VAT-registered. Turnover is under the £90,000 threshold, so there is nothing to add. That is a genuine 20% difference against most agencies and against any freelancer who has crossed the threshold. £2,400 here is £2,400, not £2,880. If that changes, it will change on this page before it changes on an invoice.

What are the payment terms?

50% to start and 50% on launch. The first half is what books the time and it is what I start work on; the second is due when the site goes live and before I hand over the logins. For Bespoke work it is split per phase instead, so you are never more than one phase ahead of what has been delivered.

What if the scope changes halfway through?

The price changes in writing, before the work happens. Neither of us benefits from me quietly absorbing an extra three days and resenting it, or from a surprise line on the final invoice. Small things stay small things. I am not going to bill you for moving a paragraph.

Do I have to take the care plan?

No. It is monthly, it is optional, and cancelling it does not take the site down. You would arrange hosting and updates yourself or with someone else. It exists because for most small businesses this is better as somebody’s job than nobody’s.

What happens if the site is slow?

I keep working until it is not. If a page I build does not load its main content in under two seconds on a mid-range phone on mobile data, that is my problem to fix at my cost, not a change request. It is the one guarantee on this site because it is the one I can actually hold myself to.

Is there a discount for charities or start-ups?

Sometimes, and you should ask. I would rather do a good job for a smaller number than a rushed one for the full number, and there are projects worth doing for reasons other than the invoice. Ask on the call rather than assuming the published price is the only one.

The next step

Let's find out if I'm the right fit.

Twenty minutes on the phone. You tell me what isn't working, I tell you what I'd do and what it costs. If it's not me you need, I'll say so.

Or call 07700 900123. I reply within one working day.