Orchestrix vs a web agency.
A typical UK web design agency quotes £3,000 to £5,000 up front for a custom 5-page site, plus hosting on top. We build the same shape of site for £0 up front, £50 a month for 24 months. £1,200 total.The work isn’t different; the overhead is.
A UK web agency quote of £4,000 up front plus £50 a month hosting is £5,200 over 24 months. Our £50-a-month plan is £1,200 over the same 24 months, build included. What’s missing from our quote is the agency wrapper: account managers, project managers, design-to-developer handoffs. For a small business where the owner makes the call, the wrapper is overhead, not value. For a large organisation that genuinely needs head-office coordination, an agency might still be the right answer, and we’ll say so.
Nine dimensions, honestly.
A £4,000 quote, line by line.
A £4,000 quote isn’t a rip-off. It is a real cost. Roughly:
- ~£800Designer time. Wireframes, visual design, revisions.
- ~£1,200Developer time. Build, deployment, testing, SEO foundations.
- ~£1,000Project manager + account manager time. Status calls, scope tracking, change management.
- ~£600Agency margin. The agency is a business.
- ~£400Workshop / kickoff / discovery phase. Sometimes useful; sometimes theatre.
The £800 + £1,200 (designer and developer) is the work. The other £2,000 is the wrapper. We remove the wrapper. Same designer-and-developer hours, no agency overhead, paid monthly instead of up front. The full plan lives on the websites page.
We’ll tell you straight.
- You're running a full rebrand with multiple deliverables
If the website is one of six deliverables (brand, signage, brochures, recruitment campaigns, social) an agency can coordinate the whole thing in a way a small outfit can't.
- You're a large organisation coordinating a head-office team
If sign-off runs through marketing, compliance, operations, and finance, with committees and review cycles, the project management overhead of an agency is actually earning its keep.
- Your brand budget is comfortably above £15,000
At that ceiling, the agency wrapper buys real things: dedicated brand work, brand systems, motion design, professional photography of your premises. Our plan does not include those.
- You need a partner with formal security certifications
Some agencies hold security certifications and run formal compliance processes we don't. If your procurement requires those, an agency is the right answer.
What people ask at the call.
- Are you actually cheaper than a web agency, or is the £50/mo a trick?
- Genuinely cheaper. A typical UK web agency quote of £4,000 plus £50 a month hosting is £5,200 over 24 months. Our plan is £1,200 over the same 24 months, build included. The cost difference is roughly £4,000. What you don't get is the agency stack: account manager, project manager, separate designer and developer, kickoff workshop. What you do get is a custom 5-page site built by the same small team that does all of it.
- Why is the price so different?
- Three reasons. First, no agency overhead (account manager, project manager, design-to-developer handoff) cuts roughly £2,000 to £3,500 from a typical quote. Second, the scope is bounded at 5 static pages with no online payments or custom integrations, which keeps build effort predictable. Third, the 24-month plan spreads the build cost rather than the client paying it up front, which lowers the cash-flow barrier without lowering the quality.
- What if I need 10 pages, not 5?
- Additional pages are quoted at the brief stage and added to the build. The 5-page scope is the standard plan; we'll price additional pages explicitly so you know the number before signing. It is not £50 a month for a 10-page site.
- Do I miss out on agency value at this price?
- You miss the agency wrapper: workshops, decks, kickoff sessions, project management updates, status calls. Some organisations genuinely want that wrapper because it helps internal coordination. If you are a large organisation coordinating a head-office team, an agency might still be the right answer, and we'll tell you so. For a small business where the owner makes the call, the wrapper is overhead.
- Will my site look as good as an agency-built one?
- Design quality depends on the designer, not the agency overhead. We're a small outfit with a decade of design and build experience, for clients ranging from small UK practices to global manufacturers. We build clean, fast sites shaped around your trade, not a template. Some agency builds are excellent; some are templated mediocrity sold at a premium. Have a chat with us and we'll walk you through real, live builds.
Got a quote you put back in the drawer?
Bring the quote to a quick chat. We’ll tell you straight which parts are worth paying for and which parts the £50-a-month plan covers without them. Costs nothing either way, or ring us on 07754 218 688 any weekday.