In Sussex in 2026, a small business website typically costs anywhere from a few hundred pounds to well over £5,000 to build, then keeps costing money for hosting, domain and updates. Local freelancers often quote £400 to £3,000. Brighton agencies start around £2,000 and climb past £10,000. DIY builders are cheap in pounds and expensive in evenings. A done-for-you one-page site with us is £99 to set up and £29 a month, or £299 a year.
That £99 is for a one-page site. Shops and multi-page builds are quoted to match. The national version of these bands is in our UK website cost guide. This post is the local picture: Hassocks, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, the Brighton agencies, and what you actually pay over three years.
What will a website cost in Hassocks, Burgess Hill or Haywards Heath?
Mid Sussex prices sit a little below Brighton and a little above what you might be quoted in a quieter part of the country. The work is the same. The overheads are not.
If you are a tradesperson in Hassocks, a shop in Burgess Hill, or a builder in Haywards Heath, you do not need a city-centre creative team. You need a site that loads on a phone, names the towns you cover, and makes the call button obvious. That job has an honest price. It is not a £12,000 brand project, and it is not a free Wix template with your mobile number in Comic Sans.
What I see locally in 2026:
- A Mid Sussex freelancer: £400 to £3,000 for a small site, quality and aftercare varying wildly.
- A Brighton or Hove agency: £2,000 to £10,000-plus, more process, more polish, more invoice.
- Wix or Squarespace: roughly £9 to £79 a month depending on plan, plus your time, plus the extras.
- A subscription site: a low setup fee and a flat monthly or yearly figure with the upkeep inside it.
I work from Hassocks. BW Electrical is a Hassocks electrician who had no site at all. Ruby’s Bakery is in Burgess Hill and came off a slow Wix build. Sindall Building Contractors are in Haywards Heath and needed more than one page. Oilfire Heating is in Uckfield, close enough that the same local pattern applies. Phoenix Piling covers a wider Sussex patch. None of those jobs needed a Brighton pitch deck.
Why do Brighton agencies charge more?
Brighton has a dense design scene and city overheads. Rents, salaries and the kind of clients who want a motion reel all feed the day rate. If you want a large bespoke build, a shop with a brand film, or a team of specialists in a studio overlooking the sea, that market exists and it prices accordingly.
A business on Keymer Road or Church Road does not have to buy that market. Being based in Hassocks rather than a North Laine office is part of how we keep a one-page site at £99 and £29 a month. The site still has to look professional. It does not have to fund a beach-view retainer.
Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill sit in the middle of the quotes people collect. Someone will get a £2,800 Brighton figure and a £600 freelancer figure and assume the truth is the average. It is not. The truth is what is included, how fast it goes live, and who answers in November.
How much do local freelancers charge?
Around Brighton, Worthing and the Mid Sussex towns, a freelance designer will often quote £400 to £3,000. A designer who knows that Mid Sussex means Hassocks, Hurstpierpoint, Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath will write better service areas than someone guessing from a map. The risk is the silent inbox six months later, when you need the Christmas hours changed.
If you hire a freelancer, agree in writing what the build includes, what a change costs after launch, how you reach them, and who owns the domain login.
What do DIY builders cost if you are in Sussex?
The same as they cost anywhere. Wix and Squarespace do not have a Sussex discount. As of 2026, on annual billing, Wix Classic is about Light £9 a month, Core £16, Business £25 and Business Elite £119. Squarespace is about Basic £12, Core £17, Plus £29 and Advanced £79. Monthly billing is dearer. Check the vendor sites, because they change.
The free Wix plan shows ads and will not use your own domain. Squarespace has no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Domains are often free in year one. Email is usually extra. Apps and transaction fees stack on top. The Sussex-specific cost is your time after a day’s work. Oilfire Heating in Uckfield had already spent hours in both editors before deciding that was the wrong place for a heating engineer to be.
What does a Page Forge site cost in Sussex?
The standard one-page site is £99 to set up and £29 a month, or £299 a year. That includes the .co.uk domain, UK hosting, SSL, six content updates a year, and support you can actually phone. Live in about five working days. SEO and GEO start at £99 as a one-off. The detail is on our pricing page.
I will keep repeating the limit, because it matters: £99 is a one-page site. A bakery that needs a changing product list, a builder that needs service and area pages, or anyone taking payments will get a quote. Sindall needed a multi-page site. We did not pretend a single scroll would carry extensions, loft conversions and new builds. Ruby’s needed a site we could keep current as the range moved. That is managed work, not a template you fight each season.
We build across Sussex, not only the three towns in the heading. Uckfield, Lewes, Hurstpierpoint, Ditchling, the coast. If you are further out, a lot of the work is still phone, email and a shared folder of photos. You are not paying a Brighton studio rate for a Hassocks-built page.
What hidden costs do Sussex quotes leave out?
The same list as the rest of the UK: hosting at £5 to £30 a month if the designer “just emails you the files”, domain renewal, SSL, agency care plans at £50 to £200 a month, hourly updates, professional email, and your time if the plan is that you will hop into Wix whenever something changes.
A £900 local build plus £20 hosting plus four paid tweaks a year plus a domain can pass £2,000 over three years without anyone feeling they spent £2,000. That is how cheap becomes average.
How does the three-year cost look for a Sussex business?
Round numbers, 36 months, one-page equivalent where the comparison is fair. Vendor prices as of 2026, always worth checking.
Page Forge. Monthly path: £99 + (£29 × 36) = £1,143. Annual path: £99 + (£299 × 3) = £996. Hosting, domain, SSL and six updates a year are inside it.
Wix Core, annual, plan only: £16 × 36 = £576, then domain after year one, email, apps, and every hour in the editor.
Wix Business: £25 × 36 = £900, same extras.
Squarespace Core: £17 × 36 = £612. Plus: £29 × 36 = £1,044. Transaction fees if you sell on a lower tier.
A Mid Sussex freelancer at £1,500, plus £15 a month hosting (£540), plus £60 × 4 hours of updates a year (£720): about £2,760.
A Brighton agency at £4,000 plus a £80 monthly care plan: £4,000 + £2,880 = £6,880.
Now the time. Twenty hours to build a DIY site, plus two hours a month for three years, is 92 hours. At £40 an hour that is £3,680 of work you did not invoice to a customer. A Hassocks tradesperson’s real hourly rate is often higher. The DIY saving against £996 a year with us evaporates once you count a few weekends honestly. Elite Wix (£4,284) and Advanced Squarespace (£2,844) are shop-grade spends. Do not buy them for a one-page local site.
Do I need a multi-page site or will one page do?
Most Sussex trades and independents need one good page. BW Electrical needed to be found, look certified, and get the call. The Vests needed a set-list flavour and a booking enquiry. Phoenix Piling needed to look like a contractor a developer can take seriously. One page covers that.
You want more pages when the work splits into distinct searches. A Haywards Heath builder doing extensions, kitchens and new builds may need a page for each. That is a quoted job. It is still not automatically a Brighton agency job.
Google rewards pages that load quickly and say the useful thing early. ChatGPT and the other assistants prefer the same: fast, factual copy they can lift. A slow five-page Wix site with thin text loses twice. Speed is part of being findable, not a luxury extra.
How should I judge a Sussex quote?
Ignore the town in the letterhead until you have answered these:
- What is included for the money: hosting, domain, updates, or just pictures of a homepage?
- What does a change cost in six months?
- How many working days to go live?
- Will it be quick on a phone on the A273?
- Can I speak to the person who built it?
- Is the £99-style offer actually a one-pager, and is the £8,000 offer actually more site, or just more process?
A designer who knows the difference between Hassocks and Haywards Heath is useful. A designer who answers the phone is more useful. The two together is what you want. If you want the service without the pricing essay, see web design across Sussex. If you want a straight number for your job, get in touch and I will tell you whether it is a one-pager at the published price or a quote.
Frequently asked questions
Is it cheaper to hire a web designer outside Brighton?
Often, yes. Brighton overheads and a busy agency market push prices up. A designer based in a Mid Sussex town can do the same quality of one-page or small multi-page site for less, and much of the work is remote anyway.
What is the cheapest way to get a proper website in Sussex?
DIY is the cheapest in pounds if you ignore your time. Once you count evenings, a subscription site is usually the lowest-risk value: low setup, predictable monthly or yearly cost, no separate hosting or update bills. A very cheap freelancer is only cheaper if they stay reachable.
Do I need to meet my web designer in person?
Rarely. Most of the work is phone, email and files. A local designer who can visit when it genuinely helps (a bakery shop floor, a yard, a van wrap that should match the site) is a bonus, not a requirement.
Is the £99 Page Forge price for any website?
No. It is for a one-page site. Multi-page sites and shops are quoted. SEO and GEO are from £99 extra as a one-off if you want that work. I would rather say that on the page than have you feel misled at the quote.
How much do Brighton agencies charge for a small business site?
Commonly from around £2,000 and well past £10,000 for custom work, often plus a monthly care plan. That can be the right buy for a large or unusual project. It is more than most local trades and independents need.
Will a local one-page site be found on Google and in ChatGPT?
It can be, if it is fast, specific about the towns you cover, and paired with a complete Google Business Profile. Assistants tend to quote clear, factual pages. Slow or vague sites give them less to work with. There are no guaranteed positions, and anyone who sells you one is guessing.