To a stranger, no website is a red flag. Your Edinburgh site, live, all in for £500
Five pages of proper web design for your Edinburgh business: home, services, about, reviews and contact. The words, the photos and the Google side are all handled, so you turn up to a finished site.
- £500once, fixed
- No contractnothing to cancel
- You own itsite and domain
Compare the cost
Why £500 once beats "from £349"
Budget web packages advertise a low headline price and then charge you every month for hosting and maintenance. Here's how that actually adds up.
| Feature | Savvy Website | Typical pay-monthly package | DIY site builder |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up front | £500 | from £299–£349 | £0 |
| Monthly fees | None | £20–£30 a month | £13–£25 a month |
| Cost over 3 years | £540 | around £1,200 | around £700, and rising |
| Who writes the words | We do | Usually you | You |
| Your own domain | Included, first year | Sometimes included | Paid extra |
| Who owns it | You, outright | Usually them | You rent it |
| If you stop paying | Nothing happens | Site comes down | Site comes down |
Our three year figure is £500 plus roughly £20 a year for domain renewal after the first year. One like-for-like note: pay-monthly totals usually include an email inbox and ours doesn't. Email is an optional add-on, priced on request. We do offer optional care plans from £24.99 a month if you'd rather we looked after the site. It is never required, there is no minimum term, and the three year figures above assume you don't take it. Even allowing for that, the gap doesn't close. Comparison figures are typical advertised UK prices for budget and DIY packages in 2026. Always check what your own quote includes.
The only clause that matters
£500 fixed. We don't get half of it until you're happy.
£500, fixed. Half gets the build started; the other half is due only once you've approved the finished site. If we can't get it right, you don't pay it, and the site still transfers to you.
- You approve it before the balance is due. Not the other way round.
- We carry the risk. If we can't get it right, you don't pay the balance.
- It's yours outright. Site and domain, both in your name.
The arithmetic, in full
Fixed. That is the whole cost of your website, and there are no monthly fees to us, ever.
- Today, to start the build
- £250
- Once you've approved it
- £250
- Monthly fees, either way
- None
Card, Apple Pay or Klarna, handled by Stripe. If you would rather get a price first, start there instead.
We don't get that second £250 until you tell us the site is right. If we can't get it right, you don't pay it, and the site still transfers to you.
The method, start to finish
Watch how I actually build a website
Me, on camera, walking through a real build: how I work out what belongs on each page, how I write the words from a single phone call, and how it gets set up to be found on Google. The person explaining the method is the person who'll build yours.
No jargon, and nothing to read first, just press play.
What's included
Everything in your website, for one fixed price
One price covers the lot. Read every line. There's nothing hiding underneath it.
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Five pages, or one sharp one
IncludedHome, services, about, reviews and contact. If a single page suits your business better, we build a cracking one-pager instead. Same price, your call.
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Every word written for you
IncludedYou talk, we write. A 20 minute phone call gives us everything we need to write pages that sound like you. No homework, no forms to fill in.
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Built for phones first
IncludedMost of your customers will find you on a phone, so that's where your site has to shine. Fast to load, easy to read, one tap to call you.
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Your own web address, in your own name
IncludedYour own domain (yourbusiness.co.uk), registered to your business, first year on us. After that it's about £20 a year, paid to the registrar, not to us.
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Found on Google and Maps
IncludedSet up properly for Google Search and Google Maps, including your Google Business Profile, so people nearby searching for what you do can actually find you.
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Hosting and the boring bits
IncludedFast, secure hosting, the padlock in the browser bar, and backups. All sorted for you and included for the first year.
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A matching email address
Optional add-onPriced when you ask. Never snuck into the £500, and never billed monthly by us.
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The lot, one price
£500Once it's approved and paid, the site and the domain belong to your business outright. No rent, no strings. No add-ons, no upsells, and no monthly fees to us. The only running cost after year one is the £20-a-year domain renewal, paid to the registrar.
The work
What a £500 website actually looks like
Start with Local Conference Solutions, live now. Watch me walk through how it was built.
The three example builds are set in Glasgow, but it's the same build and the same £500 for an Edinburgh business.
Edinburgh
Websites for the Edinburgh businesses that never got round to it
Edinburgh is a hard city to be invisible in, and if you're not there when someone looks, the answer they find is a competitor.
Between the Festival, the Christmas markets and a steady stream of visitors year round, an awful lot of people are looking something up on a phone at any given moment.
Plenty of good Edinburgh businesses still run on a Facebook page and word of mouth. That works right up until it doesn't: someone recommends you, the person Googles your name, finds nothing that looks official, and books elsewhere. A simple, tidy website fixes that for £500 and about a week of your patience.
We're not an Edinburgh agency with a Charlotte Square address and the overheads that come with it. We're one person in Glasgow who builds good small websites cheaply and honestly, for businesses on both sides of the M8.
- Leith, Portobello and the shore. Cafes, studios, salons and trades.
- Stockbridge, Bruntsfield and Morningside. Independent shops and practices.
- Gorgie, Corstorphine and Newington. Trades, garages and takeaways.
- The Old and New Town. Small operators competing with big budgets.
- Musselburgh, Dalkeith and Midlothian. Same price, same week.
Edinburgh in detail
The Edinburgh customer who is somewhere else
A great deal of the work in this city is commissioned by people who are not in it, which leaves your website to do the whole job on its own.
Edinburgh was the first council in Scotland to make its entire area a short-term let control area, in September 2022. Letting a place out short term here needs a licence, and the mandatory conditions attached to that licence require the number to appear in the listing, with an energy rating where one is needed. Around those flats sits a trade that rarely gets counted: changeover cleaners, laundries, key holders, small maintenance firms, photographers and handymen. Their customer is very often an owner who lives in London or abroad, has never met them and never will, and is choosing between three names on the strength of a website and a couple of messages.
The city also takes its decisions early. Since July 2026 an overnight stay in Edinburgh has carried a visitor levy, so a bed is booked, priced and settled long before anyone arrives at the door. The same habit runs right through August, when venues, crews, printers, riggers, cleaners and drivers are hired months ahead by companies that will not set foot in Scotland until the week they open. It reaches ordinary trade too. People moving here line up a dentist, a barber, a nursery and a garage from a laptop in another town, weeks before the van is loaded.
Underneath all of that is the capital's own machinery. The Scottish Parliament sits at Holyrood, the Court of Session has sat in Parliament House off the Royal Mile since 1707, the Faculty of Advocates keeps its library in the same square, and the large offices run west to Lothian Road and Festival Square. Organisations of that size buy from small suppliers constantly, and the person doing the buying is often at a head office somewhere else. Meanwhile a search that says only Edinburgh returns the entire capital, which is why the part of the city you actually work in belongs on your page.
- The Grassmarket, Victoria Street and the Cowgate. Short-term flats, guest houses, bars, small venues and the trades that keep them all running sit within a few hundred yards of each other. Almost every booking here is made in advance by somebody who is not yet in Scotland. Put the licence number where it belongs, answer the visitor levy question before it is asked, and show the actual rooms.
- Gorgie Road and Dalry Road. Tenement flats four storeys up, garages, takeaways, barbers, joiners and electricians, with Tynecastle Park off McLeod Street in the middle of it. A lot of the work here is instructed by whoever holds the keys rather than whoever sleeps in the bed. Show the trade bodies you belong to, the streets you turn out to, and a number that answers.
- Holy Corner, where Bruntsfield Place becomes Morningside Road. One long street of delis, boutiques, opticians, dentists, physiotherapists, tutors and small salons, with more practices on the first floors above them. Plenty of the people choosing between them moved into the area recently and have nobody to ask. Say plainly what you sell or treat, who the person is, what it costs to begin, and where the door is.
- Leith Walk, Constitution Street and the shore at Newhaven. The tram has run the length of the Walk down to Newhaven since June 2023, so somebody can settle on you while standing in the city centre and reach your door without a change or a car park. Studios, tattooists, bakeries, bike shops and small restaurants live off that. Photographs of the frontage, the nearest stop named, hours that are right.
- Marchmont, Warrender Park Road and Newington. Flats above flats, a lot of them rented out, with the Meadows on one side and the university buildings round George Square on the other. The person instructing you is regularly not the person living there. Keep the site plain about what you take on, how fast you turn out, and how somebody sends an address and gets an answer in writing.
After you're live · optional
Never want to think about this again?
Once your site is live it is yours. It keeps working whether you pay us another penny or not, and most owners simply renew the domain each year.
Both plans are completely optional. They suit some people and they are not essential to anything. You never have to take one, the £500 does not depend on it, and you will not be asked about either on the call.
If we think one would genuinely help, we will say so near the end of the build, once we have worked with you and know how your business runs.
Care plan · optional
For a site that is live and just needs looking after.
No setup fee, and it’s month to month.
- Hosting and the security certificate. Kept paid and kept current.
- Your domain renewed. Handled before it lapses, not after.
- Three changes a month. Submit a ticket and it’s done within four working days.
- Backups and updates. Checked monthly, not when something breaks.
- A traffic report each month. What people looked at, sent over by email or WhatsApp.
A change means edits to pages you already have: prices, hours, photos, wording. However many small edits are in one request, that’s one change. New pages and redesigns are quoted separately.
Success plan · optional
For when you want someone working on the site with you.
No setup fee, and it’s month to month.
- Everything in the care plan. Hosting, domain, backups, monthly report.
- Talk to Michael directly. No ticket and no queue.
- Changes as you go. New pages and sections too, not just edits to what’s there.
- We tell you what’s worth doing next. You don’t have to work out what to ask for.
- A call every month. Half an hour on what’s working and what to change.
The point is that you are not on your own with it. We review the data together, suggest what is worth doing, and build it with you. Sites rarely land first time. They get there by iteration.
Cancel any time, and the site stays yours. It does not come down, it does not get locked, and we hand over every login. That is not how most monthly website deals work, which is exactly why it is written here.
How it works
Four steps, and you're only ever committed to the one you're on
See a free preview
We show you a preview of what your site could look like before you spend a penny. If it's not for you, that's the end of it. No hard feelings.
Start the build
Like the direction? The first half, £250, gets the build under way. We have a quick call about your business so we can write your pages properly.
Site goes live
Your site goes live at your own address about a week after our call. You get up to two rounds of changes to get it just right.
Approve it, or walk away
Approve it and the last £250 completes the £500. If we've not got it right, you don't pay it. The deposit covers the work done and the site is still yours.
Get a quote
Tell us what you do. We'll send back a price and a plan.
Two fields is enough to start. You'll have your price within one working day, and a free one-page plan for your business alongside it. If the job's bigger than the £500 build, we'll tell you straight and quote it properly.
- A free plan comes with it. One page: where you come up on Google for what you do, who is above you, and the three things costing you calls. Yours to keep, whether you use us or not.
- We reply within one working day. Usually much sooner.
- No obligation, and no chasing. If it's not for you, that's the end of it.
- Rather just talk? Call or text Michael directly on 07508 750017, or message on WhatsApp.
If we emailed you first, the easiest thing is simply to hit reply.
Questions
The things Edinburgh businesses ask before getting a website made
How much does it cost to get a website made in Edinburgh?
Edinburgh agencies typically quote £2,500 to £10,000 for a small business website and freelancers £800 to £3,000. Budget packages advertise from around £349, but add £20 to £30 a month for maintenance and email.
Ours is £500 once, with no monthly fees. The only ongoing cost is about £20 a year for the domain, and that goes to the registrar, not to us. See the full price breakdown →
Can you build the whole website for me?
That's the whole idea. We do all of it: the words, the design, the photos, the domain, the hosting and the Google side, then show you the finished site and you tell us what to change.
Your part is a 20 minute phone call and any pictures you've already got on your phone. There's no software for you to learn and nothing for you to write.
You are in Glasgow and I am in Edinburgh. Why would I not just use somebody in the city?
Fair question. The honest answer is that the M8 changes nothing about any part of this job. The call that gets your words out of your head works just as well on the phone. The building happens wherever we are sitting. Once it is live, your site is served from the internet rather than from an office, and it belongs to you rather than to us. We come across when it genuinely helps. What we would not ask you to pay for is an Edinburgh address. If you want somebody who will drop into the shop every month, say so early and we will tell you plainly whether that is us.
Will my site be set up to rank in Edinburgh searches?
Yes. Your site is built with your Edinburgh location and the areas you cover written into the pages and the underlying code, and we set up or tidy your Google Business Profile so you show up on Google Maps when someone nearby searches for what you do.
Nobody honest will promise you a particular position for £500. What we can promise is that the groundwork is done properly. After that it's reviews and time that do the rest.
What's the catch with the £500?
There isn't one. We keep the price down by doing one focused job well: a fast, good-looking site that gets you found and gets your phone ringing. £500 is the whole price of the website. There are optional care plans afterwards, from £24.99 a month, if you want us looking after it, but it is never required and it is not mentioned until your site is finished.
Are there any monthly fees?
None that you have to pay. Hosting, the security certificate and backups are included for the first year, and after that the only bill is the domain renewal, about £20 a year, paid directly to the registrar. There's no contract and nothing to cancel. If you would rather we kept looking after the site there are optional plans from £24.99 a month, but you can take the site and never hear from us again and it will carry on working.
How long does it take to get a website made?
About a week from our phone call to going live. You get up to two rounds of changes after that to get it right.
A lot of the people who hire me have never set foot in Edinburgh. What does the site have to do differently?
It has to finish the job on its own. When nobody is going to shake your hand first, the page does the reassuring: a real name and a face, photographs of work you have genuinely done rather than stock pictures, the districts and streets you cover written out, and a plain account of what happens after somebody gets in touch. Then give them a way to reach you that does not depend on the pair of you being awake at the same time, and reply in writing with something they can forward. People buying from a distance keep a paper trail, and they pick whoever makes that easy.
I have to show my licence number wherever the flat is advertised. Does my own website count as an advert?
Treat it as one. The mandatory conditions on a Scottish short-term let licence require the licence number to appear in listings and advertisements, along with an energy rating where one is required, and a site that shows the rooms and takes enquiries is plainly doing the advertising. So we put those where a guest and an inspector can both find them, normally in the footer and on the page for the property itself. We are not your licensing adviser and will not pretend to be. You give us the number and the wording, and we make sure it lands on every page that needs it.