Dental & GP Website Cost (2026): What You Should Pay — And What to Avoid

Modern GP and dental practice websites are no longer “digital brochures”. They are regulated, operational tools that must handle NHS information standards, WCAG accessibility, online forms, patient communications and sometimes online booking. That has real, ongoing cost — but it should still be clear, predictable and good value.

This guide breaks down realistic 2026 costs for UK dental and GP websites, what should be included, which “extras” are red flags, and how to calculate a three‑year total cost of ownership (TCO) so you can budget with confidence.

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What Does a Dental or GP Website Really Cost in 2026?

Typical build and monthly cost ranges

For UK healthcare (NHS and mixed/private) you will normally see:

• Basic template site for small clinic: £800–£2,000 build, often DIY or generic agency
• Professional healthcare‑specific site: £2,500–£6,000 one‑off, or £120–£350/month including hosting and support
• High‑end bespoke with complex integrations/multi‑site: £6,000–£12,000+ or £300–£700/month

For dental practices, specialist agencies commonly quote around £4,000–£6,000 for a high‑quality, fully featured site, so pricing far above that should be scrutinised carefully for genuine extra value rather than “dental tax”.

For GP practices and PCNs, costs vary depending on list size, ICB requirements, and whether you opt into a practice‑wide or PCN‑wide platform, but the same principles apply: professional, compliant websites do not need five‑figure build fees to be effective.

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Line‑Item Costs Owners Actually Face

1. Design and build (one‑off or spread monthly)

This is the upfront work to design, configure and launch your site.

• Information architecture for patients and carers (e.g. appointments, prescriptions, self‑care, urgent help)
• Content structure aligned with NHS guidance and local services
• Custom design or branded theme setup
• Page build for key journeys: home, services/treatments, Meet the Team, fees/NHS bands, policies, accessibility, complaints, referrals, news
• Integration setup: NHS App links, online triage forms, eConsult/Accurx/Anima/ Klinik, booking or referral systems, marketing tools for private work

Realistic expectations:

• Simple but compliant refresh (existing content, new layout): £800–£2,000 or included in a higher monthly plan
• Full new site with content support, clinic‑specific design and integrations: £2,500–£6,000 equivalent value

2. Hosting and security

For healthcare, hosting cannot be an afterthought.

You should expect:

• UK or EU data centres with strong security standards
• SSL certificates and automatic renewal
• Daily backups and tested restore
• Proactive monitoring and uptime targets (e.g. 99.9%)
• Basic WAF/security hardening and bot protection

Typical ranges:

• Generic shared hosting: £5–£20/month (often too weak for clinics)
• Managed, healthcare‑grade hosting with maintenance: usually bundled into £40–£150/month all‑in web packages

3. Ongoing support and small changes

This is where many practices overpay.

Common real‑world tasks:

• Updating staff profiles, opening hours and holiday closures
• Adding new NHS or practice policies
• Posting news alerts (e.g. flu clinics, system downtime, strikes)
• Tweaking homepage banners, hero messages, forms or buttons
• Fixing broken links, images or embed codes

Reasonable models:

• Included “fair use” changes within a monthly plan
• Or a clear, low hourly rate (e.g. £60–£90/hr) with minimum billable increments clearly stated

Red flag: ticket systems that charge £15–£30 “per tiny edit” such as changing a phone number or swapping one image. Those add up quickly and distort your true TCO.

4. Speed, updates and technical maintenance

In 2026, practices are judged on digital experience as much as phone access. A slow or broken site is a patient safety and reputational risk.

Ongoing technical tasks should include:

• Core CMS and plugin updates (with testing, not just auto‑update)
• Performance optimisation (image compression, caching, code improvements)
• Uptime and error monitoring
• Fixing compatibility issues after browser or NHS system changes

You should not be paying separate “emergency” fees every time a core plugin updates and breaks something — that should be covered by:

• A fixed monthly support/maintenance package, or
• A clearly limited but realistic inclusive hours allocation

5. Accessibility and content compliance

WCAG 2.1 AA and NHS service accessibility expectations mean:

• Colour contrast checks and keyboard navigation
• Font size and line spacing suitable for older and visually impaired patients
• Clear language, avoiding jargon where possible
• Proper heading structure, alt text and ARIA attributes where appropriate
• An accessibility statement and feedback mechanism

There are two cost aspects:

• Initial accessibility build: should be baked into the core project price (not sold as a luxury extra)
• Monitoring and fixes: small tweaks as content evolves, usually within standard support

Beware offers that:

• Charge extra for a basic accessibility review
• Rely only on paid accessibility “overlay” plugins instead of coding things correctly
• Treat WCAG as a bolt‑on bolt rather than a baseline requirement

6. Content creation and updates

For NHS practices, core content is partly mandated (services, safety, policies). For private dentistry and private GP, content is also central to marketing and SEO.

Typical paid content items:

• Service or treatment pages
• Blog posts / patient information articles
• Landing pages for specific campaigns (e.g. Invisalign, implants, minor surgery)

Ranges:

• Professionally written, clinically appropriate page: £80–£250/page depending on length and research
• Practice‑supplied content lightly edited for web and compliance: often included, or charged at a lower rate

7. Optional marketing and SEO

SEO and paid advertising should be treated as separate line‑items, not silently baked into all web packages.

Common ranges in 2025–26 for UK dental SEO:

• Basic SEO support: £300–£800/month
• Growth campaigns in competitive areas: £1,500–£5,000+/month depending on goals, competition and scope

For GP practices, “SEO” is usually lightweight (local searches) and more about:

• Accurate NHS profile listings
• Clear signposting and structured data (schema)
• Local ICB and NHS England digital standards

This should not require large marketing retainers unless you run significant private services.

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What’s Included vs “Extras” — Red Flags for Healthcare Providers

Core basics that should be included as standard

For GP and dental websites, a fair, transparent package should normally include:

Essential technical features

• SSL, backups, uptime monitoring

• Mobile‑responsive layout

• Basic on‑page SEO (titles, descriptions, headings, schema for organisation/practice) Healthcare‑specific essentials

• NHS‑appropriate content structure (appointments, prescriptions, referrals, urgent help)

• Integration with online consultation/triage tools where used

• Policies and statutory information sections (complaints, privacy, accessibility, safeguarding)

• WCAG 2.1‑aligned design and content patterns

Support and small changes

• Reasonable number of small edits included (e.g. content updates, new banners, simple layout tweaks)
• Phone/email support with UK working‑hours response times

If any of these are routinely described as “extras”, treat that as a warning sign.

Common “extras” that deserve scrutiny

1. Expensive “care plans” for basics

• “Care” or “concierge” plans adding hundreds per month just to guarantee minor edits, simple analytics or basic reporting
• Long contracts (2–5 years) for “priority support” where in practice you only need a handful of changes per quarter

Ask specifically:

• What changes are included monthly?
• What is excluded or chargeable?
• What happens if we don’t sign up — do we still receive security and compatibility updates?

2. Stacks of paid plugins

Paid plugins are sometimes justified (e.g. specialist form builders, multilingual support). Problems arise when:

• Your site depends on 10–20 paid add‑ons
• Each has its own licence fee and renewal schedule
• You are charged retail price plus a margin for each plugin

This can easily add £30–£150/month in hidden third‑party fees. Prefer:

• Platforms that minimise paid plugin reliance
• All‑inclusive licences where the agency manages renewals at their cost
• Clear disclosure of any third‑party tools and who pays what

3. Ticket fees for tiny changes

If you are charged individually for:

• Updating one staff member’s profile
• Changing clinic hours for bank holidays
• Swapping homepage banners
• Fixing a broken link

…your costs become unpredictable and disproportionately high.

Look for:

• Inclusive “small change” policies
• Clear definition of what counts as a chargeable change (e.g. new sections, complex form logic, design overhauls)

4. Overpriced photography and video bundling

High‑quality clinical photography and video can be valuable, but:

• It does not need to be bought only through your web provider
• It should not be required to access core web features

If imagery is bundled:

• Ask to see separate price lines
• Check you own the rights and can reuse assets independently

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A Simple 3‑Year TCO Worksheet (Printable)

Use this to compare options over a realistic three‑year period, rather than just headline build or monthly fees.

Step 1: Capture headline numbers

Create a simple table with three columns (Year 1, Year 2, Year 3) and rows for each cost.

One‑off costs (Year 1)

• Website design & build:

  • Content creation (launch):
  • Initial training for staff: Annual / monthly recurring costs

• Hosting & maintenance:

  • Support plan:
  • Plugin/licence fees:
  • Domain registration:
  • Optional marketing/SEO:

Step 2: Estimate “hidden” change costs

Change‑request estimates per year

• Small content edits (e.g. hours, staff changes): number per year × cost each =
• New pages or sections (e.g. new clinic, new service): estimated hours × hourly rate =
• Compliance/accessibility updates beyond core maintenance: estimated hours × hourly rate =

If small changes are included in your plan, set those line items to £0 but note any fair‑use limits.

Step 3: Add risk buffers

Healthcare environments change quickly (new online triage, ICB‑mandated features, new templates, NHS branding updates). Add:

• 10–20% annual contingency for:
  • Unplanned integrations (e.g. new booking system)
  • Design refresh elements to follow national guidance
  • Larger content reorganisations

Step 4: Calculate 3‑year totals

For each supplier or pricing model, calculate:

• Total Year 1 cost = one‑offs + recurring + estimated change costs
• Total Year 2 cost = recurring + estimated change costs + contingency
• Total Year 3 cost = recurring + estimated change costs + contingency
• 3‑Year TCO = Year 1 + Year 2 + Year 3

This worksheet will reveal that:

• A cheap build with expensive change‑tickets and plugin fees often ends up more expensive over 3 years.
• A transparent, higher monthly fee with inclusive support often has a lower and more predictable TCO.

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When Subscription Beats Big Upfront Fees

Subscription models (like ClinicWeb’s transparent monthly pricing) can be more cost‑effective and lower risk for primary care and dental providers.

Situations where subscriptions tend to win

1. Practices with frequent operational changes

• GP practices updating clinics, staff, clinics, service configurations or triage routes
• Dental practices adding new clinicians, treatments, offers or opening hours

Inclusive subscriptions absorb the cost of these small but constant updates. 2. Limited internal digital capacity

Where admin and reception teams are already stretched:

• You avoid the need for “someone who knows WordPress”
• You reduce the risk that compliance or accessibility tasks are forgotten
• You get a single point of contact for “website problems” without worrying about ad‑hoc bills

3. Need to spread cost and de‑risk cashflow

• No big up‑front capital expense
• Predictable monthly operating expense, easier to sign off and budget
• Built‑in upgrades as part of the platform’s roadmap instead of full rebuilds every 4–5 years Situations where upfront may still be appropriate
• Large groups with in‑house digital teams that can manage hosting, updates and support
• Organisations contracting through existing centralised hosting and security arrangements
• Projects requiring very custom integrations that are easier to treat as a capital project

Even then, consider hybrid models: modest upfront fee plus a fair, transparent maintenance subscription.

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How Transparent Monthly Pricing De‑Risks Budgets

A clear monthly package, such as the model described on ClinicWeb’s “pricing in plain English” page, helps practices by:

Clarity

• Single monthly number covering:

  • Hosting
  • Maintenance and security
  • Reasonable support and content edits
  • Regular performance and accessibility checks Predictability

• No surprise invoices for “incidentals”

• Easier to compare against other recurring practice costs (phones, clinical software, photocopiers)

Accountability

• If support or speed slips, you can challenge or switch provider
• You are not locked into a sunk‑cost, big‑build with no ongoing service

When reviewing any provider’s pricing page:

• Look for plain English explanations (not just technical jargon)
• Check what is “unlimited”, what is “fair use”, and what is clearly excluded
• Confirm notice periods and how you get your data and content if you ever leave

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Practical Key Takeaways for Practice Owners

Line‑item essentials to ask for in writing

• Design and build scope (number of page templates, integrations, content support)
• Hosting details (location, security standards, backups, uptime)
• Accessibility and compliance (WCAG 2.1 alignment, accessibility statement, NHS‑style pattern use)
• Support model (included edits, response times, escalation routes)
• All recurring third‑party licences and who pays for them
• Contract length and exit terms

Red flags to treat with caution

• Very low build cost paired with high ticketed change fees

• Over‑reliance on paid plugins and overlays for essential features

• Long, inflexible contracts (3–5 years) without performance guarantees

• Vague “care plans” that don’t spell out what you actually get each month Good practice for budgeting

• Always compare options using a 3‑year TCO worksheet, not just headline fees

• Involve your practice manager and IG lead when assessing hosting and data handling

• Make accessibility and NHS compliance non‑negotiable requirements, not optional extras

• Review your website contract annually as you would any other major supplier

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Conclusion and Next Steps

Modern GP and dental websites are core clinical and operational tools, not vanity projects. Realistic 2026 costs reflect:

• A sensible one‑off or embedded build cost
• Hosting, security, and compliance as standard
• Inclusive support for the everyday changes your team needs
• Minimal reliance on paid plugin stacks and “per‑ticket” fees

The most important step is to shift your thinking from “How cheap can we get a website?” to “What is the 3‑year total cost and risk of this supplier versus alternatives?”.

Next steps

• Use the 3‑year TCO worksheet above to map your current website costs.
• Gather your last 12–24 months of invoices (hosting, changes, plugins, SEO) and calculate your real annual spend.
• Compare that against a transparent monthly model that includes hosting, maintenance and fair‑use edits.
• When reviewing any provider — including ClinicWeb’s pricing in plain English — insist on:
  • Clear line‑items
  • Written confirmation of what’s included
  • No surprises on support, plugins or accessibility

By taking this structured approach, UK GP and dental practices can avoid overpriced “dental tax” websites, keep on the right side of NHS and accessibility expectations, and give patients a fast, clear and reliable digital front door without blowing the budget.