Checkout Websites started because we couldn't believe how long, how expensive, and how painful getting a website built had become for small UK businesses. So we built a different model.
In 2023, a friend asked us to help them find a web designer. They had a clear brief, a realistic budget and a genuine need. What followed was six months of agency meetings, scope creep, a £6,800 quote that felt arbitrary, and a site that launched eight weeks late — with a layout they'd said they didn't want in week two.
We'd seen this story before. It's not that agencies are bad — it's that the traditional agency model is fundamentally misaligned with what most small businesses actually need. Discovery meetings exist because agencies don't have a better way to capture a brief. Long timelines exist because most of the process is waiting. High prices exist because overhead is baked into every hour.
We built Checkout Websites around the opposite assumptions: a structured brief that captures everything upfront, a lean build process with no unnecessary steps, and transparent flat pricing that reflects the actual work involved.
The result: better websites, faster, for less.
"Previous agency quoted 8 weeks and £6,000. Got it done in a week for £1,500. The site looks better. I've sent three referrals."
After years building sites for agencies, we start noticing how much of the process is theatre — meetings, discovery decks, "design sprints" that don't improve the outcome. The actual building takes a fraction of the quoted time.
We test a streamlined brief-to-build process with a handful of businesses. The structured questionnaire replaces discovery meetings. Flat pricing replaces opaque quotes. Clients get sites faster and prefer the results.
We launch publicly. First ten clients come via referral. Average rating after thirty days: 4.9 stars. Average time saved vs their previous agency quote: 6.2 weeks. Fastest build: 11 hours.
Over 40% of new clients come from referrals. We launch a formal referral programme (£100 per referral, no cap). We iterate the brief system, pricing model and hosting infrastructure based on real client feedback.
Every site we've built is live. Every client received a quote before ordering. No project has ever launched late. That record is something we work hard to protect with every new order.
Started Checkout Websites after watching small business after small business get quoted £8,000 and a 3-month wait for a website that took a week to build. That gap between agency pricing and reality felt like a con.
Every site is built by hand — no templates, no outsourcing, no hiding behind a "team" that's actually a platform. When you email us, you're talking to the person who built your site.
📸 Tip for you: adding a real photo here massively increases trust — visitors are 60% more likely to order from a page with a real human face.