In-house web developer vs agency: which costs less?

Key takeaways

In-house web developer vs agency is decided by how much web work you have. A £40,000 developer costs about £49,300 a year with tools, or about £148,000 over three years. An agency build of £5,000–£20,000 plus care at £150–£500 a month costs roughly £10,000–£38,000 over the same period. A hire pays only when web work is constant.

• In-house web developer: about £148,000 over three years with tools.
• Agency: about £10,000–£38,000 over three years for build and care.
• In-house web developer: pays off when there is full-time web work.
• Agency: suits most SME sites with periodic change.

What does an in-house web developer cost?

A web developer on £40,000 costs about £46,263 a year in employment costs using 2026/27 rates. Add equipment, software and hosting tools, about £3,000, for about £49,300 a year, before recruitment. Over three years that is about £148,000. Check salaries for your area and skill level; ONS earnings data gives a reference.

• In-house vs outsourcing: which model is more cost-effective?
• Total cost of ownership of an in-house team

What does an agency cost?

As typical UK ranges, an agency-built lead generation site costs about £5,000–£20,000, and care with regular changes about £150–£500 a month. Over three years, build plus care comes to roughly £10,000–£38,000. Ad hoc work is often charged at £50–£100 an hour.

• how much a business website costs in the UK
• Agency, freelancer or website builder?

When does an in-house web developer make sense?

When there is enough web work to keep a developer busy all year: an e-commerce business shipping weekly changes, a product with a customer portal, or many sites and landing pages. At that point, internal speed and context are worth the fixed cost.

• When is in-house cheaper than outsourcing?

What are the risks of a single in-house developer?

One developer is one point of failure. If they leave, knowledge of the code, hosting and passwords can leave with them. They also cannot cover every skill, from design to SEO to security. Document the set-up and make sure the business owns every account.

• Your web developer has disappeared: what to do next
• Who owns your website, domain and content?

Is there a middle option?

Yes. A marketing or operations person makes content changes in the CMS, and an agency handles builds, technical changes, security and performance on a care plan. This covers most SMEs at a fraction of a developer salary.

• In-house vs outsourced website maintenance
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses

What should you check in an agency?

That you will own the domain, hosting account, code and content; that response times are written into the care plan; and that the agency measures what the site produces, such as enquiries, not just uptime. Ask for examples of sites they maintain and how they handle urgent fixes.

• Questions to ask a web design agency before signing

What should stay with you whichever route you choose?

Ownership and access. Keep the domain registration, hosting account, analytics, Search Console and code repository in the business's name, with at least two people in the business holding admin access. Keep a short document of how the site is built and deployed. These make any change of developer or agency straightforward.

• Leaving a proprietary website platform safely

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see in UK trades businesses: a relative or junior hire built and runs the site, but changes take weeks and nobody measures enquiries. An agency rebuild focused on conversion, followed by a care plan, costs far less than a developer. Across GBL website clients we have seen a 2.4x enquiry rate from this kind of work.

• See client work

Developer or agency checklist

Use these steps to decide.

• Estimate web work hours per month for the next year.
• Cost a developer fully loaded over three years.
• Get agency quotes for build and care.
• Check who owns every account and the code.
• Decide who makes day-to-day content changes.

Next step

Tell us how much your website changes and what it needs to produce. We will cost a developer and an agency over three years in a 30-minute call.