Two things I hear from joiners, plumbers, groomers, and gardeners week after week:
“My Facebook page does the job.”
“I got a quote for £299 — yours seems pricey.”
Both are usually wrong. Not in a slick “let-me-sell-you-a-website” way — wrong in a “here’s the actual maths” way. This post lays out both, with the numbers, so you can decide for yourself.
Quick answer. A Facebook page works for word-of-mouth businesses but won’t get you found by people who don’t already know you, and Meta can change the rules at any time. A £299 website is rarely £299 — mandatory monthly fees usually push the all-in Year 1 cost above a £600 custom build that you actually own. Stop paying for the £299 build and the site usually disappears the same day. Stop paying for the £600 build and you keep the files, the domain, and a full export.
Is Facebook enough for a small business?
A Facebook page is fine for some things. It’s free. Your existing followers see your posts (sometimes — algorithm permitting). You can message back and forth in Messenger. For a hobby or a side hustle that runs on word-of-mouth, that genuinely is enough.
Here’s what it isn’t enough for, if you depend on the business for income:
Being found by people who don’t already know you. Facebook business pages almost never appear when someone googles “joiner Glasgow southside” or “emergency plumber near me”. The slot at the top of Google for those searches is taken by Google Business Profile listings and websites — not Facebook pages. If you’re relying on Facebook to bring in new customers who haven’t heard of you, you’re invisible to most of them.
Being a permanent home for your business online. Facebook can change the algorithm on a Tuesday and your reach drops 60% overnight. It’s happened repeatedly. They can suspend your page if a competitor mass-reports it. They can decide tomorrow that local-business pages need a paid tier. None of that is hypothetical — all of it has happened to small businesses. You don’t own anything on Facebook except the content; the audience and the discoverability belong to Meta.
Being one place customers can check everything. Pricing, reviews, gallery, hours, contact form, online booking — on Facebook these are scattered across years of posts. Customers don’t scroll. They glance, decide, leave. A website has all of that on the first screen.
Reaching customers who aren’t on Facebook. Younger customers (Gen Z, increasingly Millennials) don’t scroll Facebook for local services. They google, they check Instagram, they ask in WhatsApp groups. If the trade you’re in skews younger — gardeners, dog groomers, valeters — a Facebook-only presence quietly cuts you off from a generation of customers.
A website does all four. It also costs money, which leads to the second assumption.
What does a £299 website actually cost?
You’ll see ads for “websites from £299” — particularly from budget agencies across the UK. The £299 number is real. It’s also only the start.
A typical industry-pattern breakdown for this kind of budget build looks like this:
| Cost | |
|---|---|
| Build (one-off) | £299 |
| Mandatory care plan | ~£26/mo |
| Content updates extra | ~£36/mo |
| Business email extra | ~£8/mo |
| Total monthly | ~£70/mo |
| Year 1 total | ~£1,139 |
| Year 2+ | ~£840/yr |
The figures above are illustrative of a common UK budget-build pricing pattern — they’re not a quote from any specific provider, and actual fees vary by builder. The principle to watch for is the same: a low headline build fee plus mandatory monthly add-ons.
The build fee is a loss-leader. The provider makes their margin on the recurring monthly. Each individual line is justifiable on its own — hosting does cost money, content updates do take time — but the sticker price hides them all and you only meet them after you’ve signed. We walk through every line item builders typically charge for separately in our website-quote checklist.
You don’t own the website at the end of any of it. Stop paying, the site disappears.
What “all-inclusive” looks like
For comparison, here’s the equivalent monthly under our current Brochure launch offer (£600 build, £20/month all-inclusive):
| Build + monthly | Year 1 | Year 2+ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget build + add-ons | £299 + £70/mo | ~£1,139 | ~£840/yr |
| Our Brochure (launch) | £600 + £20/mo | £840 | £240/yr |
| Our Online Store | £1,800 + £45/mo | £2,340 | £540/yr |
A few things drop out of that:
- By Year 1, the £299 build has already cost £300 more than our Brochure.
- By Year 2+, the £299 build costs £600/year more — every year, indefinitely.
- Over five years, the gap is roughly £2,700.
- You own our Brochure. You don’t own the £299 one.
For a wider view of small-business website pricing across the Scottish market — including what to expect at each tier — see How Much Does a Website Cost for a Small Business in Scotland?. For shop owners specifically, hiring an online shop builder in Glasgow walks through the four kinds of arrangement you’ll be offered.
The £20/month includes content updates, business email, daily backups, security monitoring, and direct access to the engineer who built the site. No add-ons, no surprises. Stop paying, you keep the website files; we hand over a full export.
A quick decision table
Honest version, including the times when not paying us is the right answer:
| If you… | Best option |
|---|---|
| Have fewer than 10 enquiries a year and no plans to grow | Facebook page is fine. Stay there. |
| Want to be found by people who don’t know you yet | Brochure site (£600 launch + £20/mo) |
| Sell products online | Online Store (£1,800 + £45/mo) |
| Have £299 to spend, full stop | A free Google Business Profile + a Linktree-style page (£0–£50/yr). Skip the website until you can afford a real one. The £299 build will cost you more than waiting six months. |
That last row is the awkward one. If your honest budget is £299 and you can’t sustain £20/month afterwards, don’t buy a £299 website. You’ll be paying more for less. A free Google Business Profile (set up well, with photos and reviews) plus a single-page link aggregator does more for you in the short term and costs nothing.
A real example — KAP Joinery
Paul runs a joinery business on Glasgow’s southside. Before the website, his enquiries came through Facebook Messenger — long threads, lost messages, no easy way to share quotes. Reviews lived in Facebook posts that nobody scrolled back to find.
Since the site went live:
- Quote requests come through a proper form on every page. Messenger is optional now, not the only way.
- Reviews are collected on the site, auto-publish, and feed Google’s review snippet too.
- He ranks for “joiner Glasgow” — page one. People who’d never heard of him now find him on a search they’d have done anyway.
- The site runs on AWS, not a £3 shared host, so it loads fast and doesn’t fall over when he gets a feature on the local-news Facebook page.
Same Paul. Same skills. Same word-of-mouth network. But now visible to the half of his potential customers who weren’t already in his network.
You can see the project at kapjoinery.co.uk, or read the full process write-up in our KAP Joinery case study.
What to do next
If you’re a Glasgow trade or local service business and any of this lands:
- Free mockup of a new site — I’ll send you a homepage design for your business, no commitment. Request the mockup.
- Free review of your current site — if you’ve got something already and it’s not pulling its weight, I’ll tell you what to fix. Request the review.
- The full small-business package — £840 first year all-in (Brochure launch offer, £600 build + 12 months of £20/mo hosting). See the small-business page.
Or just call: 07459 934592. I’m in Glasgow. I built this site. The same person picks up.
The bottom line
A Facebook page works until it doesn’t. A £299 website costs more than a £600 one. Neither of these are opinions — they’re maths and business reality, and I’d rather you knew the maths going in than learn it after you’ve paid.
If your honest answer is “the business doesn’t depend on online visibility yet”, then a Facebook page is fine and you should stay there. If your answer is anything else, the £20/month route is almost always cheaper than the £299 one over any meaningful timeframe.
Either way, don’t pay for a £299 website.
Frequently asked questions
Can a Facebook page replace a website for a small business?
For hobby projects or businesses that run entirely on word of mouth, a Facebook page can be enough. For businesses that need to be found by new customers via Google, build credibility, or own their own audience permanently, a website does what Facebook can't. Facebook business pages almost never appear when someone googles a local trade like 'joiner Glasgow' or 'emergency plumber near me'.
What does a £299 website really cost over two years?
A £299 build typically comes with mandatory monthly fees that bring the all-in cost to ~£70/month — about £1,139 in Year 1 and £840/year from Year 2 onwards. By comparison, a £600 custom build with all-inclusive £20/month hosting costs £840 in Year 1 and £240/year from Year 2. And you own the £600 build at the end; the £299 one usually disappears the day you stop paying.
When is a Facebook page enough for a small business?
A Facebook page works when your business runs on word of mouth, you're not relying on Google search to bring in new customers, and you have fewer than ~10 enquiries a year. For trades, shops, or services that depend on online visibility for revenue, a website is essential — and the £20/month route is almost always cheaper than a £299 one over any meaningful timeframe.
Do small businesses really need a website in 2026?
It depends on the business model. If your customers find you through referrals and Facebook, no — a Google Business Profile and Facebook page can carry you. If you need to compete in Google search results or grow beyond your existing network, yes. Younger customers increasingly start with Google, Instagram, WhatsApp groups, and reviews rather than Facebook business pages.
What can a website do that a Facebook page can't?
A website appears in Google search results for local services (Facebook business pages almost never do), gives customers one place to find pricing, reviews, gallery, hours, and a contact form, and stays under your control if Meta changes the algorithm or suspends a page. You own the audience and the discoverability; on Facebook, Meta does.