Darlington websites, priced in the open
Most firms quote you a build price and stop there. Then the hosting bill turns up in year two. Our web design in Darlington starts with a one page landing site for £99 plus VAT, so £118.80 in total. You buy your own hosting and domain, in your own name, so we never add a yearly charge on top.
What you pay us
One page site. Bigger sites get a fixed written quote.
Three year cost check
A post on the Teesdale Noticeboard this week warned local owners about “free” website deals. The writer said hosting often starts at £200 to £300 a year, then creeps up until some people pay £400 just to keep a basic site online. We checked what Darlington buyers are offered today.
| Firm | Build price they publish | Hosting | What you can work out for three years |
|---|---|---|---|
| RapidWeb Devs | £499 once, or £99 a month | Inside the monthly plan | £3,564 if you take the monthly plan |
| BuiltWeb | £300 for up to 5 pages | Free, they say for life | £300 |
| DUO Digital | From £300 | First year free, later years not listed | £300 plus two years of hosting |
| Smart Choice Digital | From £249 + VAT (£298.80) | Not listed | £298.80 plus hosting |
| Dove Design | Landing page from £1,200 | Not listed | £1,200 plus hosting |
| HS Tech Solution | £99 + VAT (£118.80), one page | You buy it direct, in your name | £118.80 plus whatever your host charges you |
Prices come from each firm’s own website or Google listing, checked on 3 October 2026. Some of these are five page sites and ours is one page, so compare like with like. Bigger sites get a fixed written quote from us.
UK price guides put a .co.uk domain at roughly £10 to £20 a year and basic hosting at £50 to £150 a year. When the account sits in your name, nobody can raise it without telling you, and you can leave whenever you like. We set it all up and show you where the bills come from.
New offices, new firms
New desks are coming to Darlington. Council minutes from May 2026 put the ground floor of 156 Northgate on track to open in July 2026, with the rest of the building due by December. It is being turned into small business offices with Towns Fund money. In June 2026 the council also backed a five storey block near the government hub, with space for about 500 workers in professional and digital firms. Building starts in 2027.
Start ups at Central Park, in Business Central and Innovation Central, face the same question: what does a first website need? Keep it short and clear.
A one page landing site covers all of this. You can add pages later as the work grows.
Getting on the map
Search “web designer Darlington” on Google Maps and three of the top four results share an address: Business Central at Union Square. That tells you something useful. Being on the map is about your Google Business Profile, not where your web designer sits.
Google says local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence. A September 2026 study by Localo checked 16,098 Business Profiles and found these made the biggest difference to a top three map spot:
Figures show how many more percentage points of profiles reached the top three when the signal was strong. Stuffing keywords into reviews or posts made almost no difference. So we spend your budget on what moves the map: a fast site that matches your profile, the right categories, and a simple way to ask happy customers for reviews.
By trade
Darlington has 3,450 firms, and 3,050 of them employ fewer than ten people, according to Nomis 2026 business counts. Here is what the biggest groups need from a site.
510
firms
Photos of finished jobs, the areas you work in, and a quote form that works on a phone in the van.
460
firms
One clear page per service, who you are, and an easy way to book a call.
310
firms
Prices people can see before they ring, and a booking link.
300
firms
Opening hours, what you stock, and a map pin to your door.
280
firms
The menu as text, not a PDF, so it loads on any phone and Google can read it.
How it works
Five steps, each one agreed with you before the next one starts.
1
About twenty minutes. Tell us what you do and who you want to reach. No charge.
2
Within one working day you get a fixed price, a page list and a launch date.
3
We show you the design first. Changes are made before you pay the balance.
4
We check it on phone, tablet and desktop, run Google PageSpeed Insights, and send test messages through every form.
5
You get every login. Anything that needs adjusting in the first fortnight costs nothing.
The owner
Hamza Shafiq, the owner, answers your questions himself. Home for him is Durham, roughly thirty minutes north of Darlo on the A167. Sit down with him there, or pick a video or phone chat on a day that suits you. There is no sales team and no account manager passing messages along.
Proof
Do not take our word for speed. Open these live sites and run them through PageSpeed Insights yourself.
Scores were tested in September 2026. Both sites, like most of our work so far, belong to clients in Australia. UK firms get the same build and the same terms.
Our work
A plumber in DL1 and an accountant on Coniscliffe Road need very different pages. Pick a trade below, then open each site on your phone and judge the layout, the speed and how easy it is to get in touch.
Keegan ElectricalElectrical contractorOpen the live site →
Just InspectionsBuilding inspectionsOpen the live site →
Structura EngineeringStructural engineersOpen the live site →
Static SolarSolar installationOpen the live site →
Offsite GroupConstructionOpen the live site →
Your Family MedicalMedical practiceOpen the live site →
Dr Bella MarkerHealthcare practitionerOpen the live site →
Mindful MosaicCounsellingOpen the live site →
Precision Paralegal SupportLegal supportOpen the live site →
Wealth Way CapitalFinanceOpen the live site →
One Drop FMFacilities managementOpen the live site →
Pelican ServicesTrade servicesOpen the live site →
Piano PickupSpecialist removalsOpen the live site →
Moments by MRPhotographyOpen the live site →
Jordan BS MediaMedia productionOpen the live site →
Next SwingSport and leisureOpen the live site →
Dane ThornburghPersonal brandingOpen the live site →These sites belong to clients overseas, mostly in Australia. A Darlington firm gets the same build, the same testing and the same handover of every login.
Areas
We build for firms across DL1, DL2 and DL3, from the town centre, North Road and Victoria Road to Cockerton, Harrowgate Hill, Haughton le Skerne, Mowden and Faverdale. We also work with businesses in Middleton St George, Hurworth, Heighington and Croft.
Running a business elsewhere in the area? See our Darlington hub, our County Durham page, web design for County Durham, SEO in Darlington or web design in Middlesbrough.
FAQ
£118.80
one page site, VAT included, paid once
Pay for what you need now. A one page site with us costs £118.80 including VAT. In Darlington, published prices for small sites run from about £300 to £1,200 and up. Agencies often charge £2,000 or more. Ask every firm for a fixed price in writing first.
It can be nothing at all after the build. With us, you pay £118.80 once and your own host bills you directly. Some firms charge £99 a month instead, which adds up to £3,564 over three years. Always work out the three year total before you sign.
UK guides put basic hosting at roughly £50 to £150 a year for a small site. Watch out for deals that start free and then rise every year. Buying hosting in your own name keeps the price in your hands and lets you switch whenever you want.
A basic shared hosting plan, bought directly from a UK host, is usually the cheapest option for a small business site. You avoid any middleman mark up. We help you choose a plan, set it up, and connect your domain so everything sits in your name.
The build is £99 plus VAT at 20%, so you pay £118.80 in total. We show the full figure on every quote. Hosting and your domain are paid straight to the companies that provide them, so they appear on their invoices, not ours.
Usually, yes. You need the login for your domain and a copy of your site files or content. We check what you have, then plan the move so your pages, email and Google listing keep working. If your old firm controls the domain, we tell you how to ask for it.
A website helps, but it is only part of it. The map pack leans most on your Google Business Profile: reviews, photos and categories. We build the site to match your profile, set the profile up properly, and show you an easy way to collect reviews.
Get the price, the page list and the launch date in writing. Ask who will own the domain and hosting. Ask what happens if you are unhappy with the design. Open two live sites the firm has built and test them on PageSpeed Insights.
Yes. New tenants often need a site quickly and on a small budget. A one page landing site is usually live in about a week once we have your logo, photos and service list. We can add more pages when the business grows.
Hamza, the owner, meets clients in Durham, which is about thirty minutes from Darlington. Not keen on the drive? A video chat or a phone call does the same job. Most first chats take about twenty minutes and cost nothing.
Free quote
Tell us what your business does and what you want the site to achieve. Within one working day you get a fixed price with VAT shown, a page list and a launch date for your web design in Darlington. No monthly fee to us, no hosting mark up.