Short answer: an accountant's website should cost less than one new retainer client's first month. If it costs more than that every month, or ties you in for three years, someone's having you.
Accountancy is one of the few trades where the cheap website and the expensive one often look identical: the same stock photo of a calculator, the same tax articles, the same "contact us for a quote". This year that matters more than usual, because Making Tax Digital is putting a lot of new people in front of Google looking for help. Here's what each option costs a practice in 2026, and what a site needs to win those enquiries.
Referrals get people to your website. Your website decides whether they call.Why 2026 is different
Making Tax Digital is sending people to Google
From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 have to keep digital records and send HMRC quarterly updates. HMRC expects around 780,000 people to come in at that first stage. From April 2027 the threshold drops to £30,000, with around 970,000 more due to follow.
Plenty of them have never had an accountant, or have one who does a return once a year and nothing else. They're searching things like "making tax digital help", "MTD accountant for landlords" and "quarterly tax updates sole trader". A practice with a plain-English page on what MTD means for them, what you charge to handle it and which software you work with is answering exactly what they're typing in.
The options, pricedWays to get a practice website
DIY website builder
Wix, Squarespace or a generic template.
30 to 60 hours of evenings in the busiest job going, and the result rarely ranks. Showing your AML supervisor and professional body properly, and writing fee pages that actually help, is the part templates skip.
Practice website providers
Built for accountants, with a library of tax articles included.
That library is the catch. The same articles sit on many other practice sites, so Google has no reason to rank yours, and you usually don't own the site or the domain when the contract ends. How template providers compare.
Traditional web agency
One-off fee, you own it.
Updating your fixed fees or adding an MTD page becomes a billable change, which is exactly when you'd want it done fast.
Prices, credentials and a niche
Switching accountant feels risky, so the site's job is to make it feel safe. That comes down to three things most practice sites avoid.
Fixed fees, published. Even a "from" price for a self-assessment return or a limited company package filters out the wrong enquiries and reassures the right ones.
Credentials people can check. Your professional body, whether that's ACCA, AAT, ICAEW or CIMA, and your AML supervisor, named on the site and written into the schema.
Who you're best for. Landlords, trades, contractors, creative freelancers. A practice that says who it helps most ranks for those searches and wins the people making them. More on that in why switching accountant feels risky.
The one-client mathsDo the sum that counts
A self-assessment return typically brings in £150–£300 a year per client. A monthly bookkeeping and accounts retainer for a small limited company typically runs £100–£300 a month. A Starter build is £1,250 and £79 a month. One new retainer client at £150 a month covers the build in under nine months, and every client after that is profit on the site.
Want to see one built for a real practice? DF Accounting is a live 35-page build for a solo practice working remotely across the UK.
Three tiers, all transparent
A one-off build fee plus a small monthly. No long tie-in. You own the site. Cancel any time after the 3-month minimum.
Three years at the Professional tier is £7,144 all in: about the cost of one agency build, but with 36 months of new content, updates, hosting and ongoing SEO bundled in. Stop any time and you keep the site.
Three questions for a practice website
Is the content written for my practice, or shared with other firms? Ask to see where else their articles appear. If the answer is "lots of places", they won't rank for you.
Can I publish and update my own fees? Prices change every tax year. You shouldn't need a support ticket to change one.
Do I own the site and the domain? Your domain is in your email address and on every engagement letter. Losing it is a bigger job than losing a website.
The right question isn't "what does it cost?" It's "will it win the clients I actually want, and is it mine?"
The version built specifically for practices is the accountant websites page.
Keep reading: How much does a website cost in the UK? Every option, side by side · Every Zenlio price on one page
