Solicitor website cost and compliance requirements

A solicitor website costs £1,500-£8,000 for a one-off build or £99-£199 a month managed. Law firm sites sit above other professional services for one reason, and it is not design. The SRA requires you to publish prices for certain work, display the digital badge, and show your complaints procedure. Get that wrong and it is a regulatory matter, not a missed lead.

Compliance first, because it is not optional

The SRA Transparency Rules require firms to publish cost information for specified services. The list has covered areas including residential conveyancing, probate, motoring offences, employment tribunal claims and immigration, though the scope has been reviewed and extended over time, so check the current position on the SRA website rather than trusting an article, this one included.

Where the rules apply, you generally need to show:

• The total cost, or a realistic range with the basis of the charge
• What is and is not included
• Likely disbursements
• Whether VAT is included
• Typical timescales
• Who does the work and their qualifications

Plus the SRA digital badge on the site and your complaints procedure, including how to escalate to the Legal Ombudsman.

The odd upside of mandatory pricing

Most firms treat transparency as a burden. It is also a genuine advantage if you do it properly.

Clients comparing three firms are anxious about cost and expect to be stonewalled. A firm with a clear, well-written costs page reads as confident and straightforward. A firm meeting the letter of the rule with a grudging table of numbers reads as neither.

The rule is going to apply either way. Writing that page well costs nothing extra and converts noticeably better.

Where the money goes

Route	Cost	Reality
Freelancer, one-off	£1,500-£3,500	Fine if you handle compliance wording yourself
Legal specialist agency	£5,000-£15,000 + monthly	Knows the rules, often a shared template
Managed monthly	£99-£199/mo	Site, content and compliance kept current

The legal specialists are worth a comment. They do know the rules, which saves you explaining them, and that has real value. They also frequently sell the same template widely, so it is common to find three firms in one county with structurally identical sites. Look at their portfolio before signing.

Note that £49 tier is missing from the table. For a regulated law firm I would not recommend the entry level, because compliance upkeep and practice area content need more attention than it covers.

Write for the situation, not the legal category

The biggest content mistake law firms make is organising the site the way a firm is organised rather than the way a client thinks.

Nobody wakes up searching “family law”. They search “can my ex stop me seeing my kids”, “what happens to the house in a divorce”, “how long does probate take”, “employer sacked me without warning”.

Those are pages. Written in plain English, answering the question honestly, then explaining how you help. They rank because almost every competitor has written a page called “Family Law” instead.

Local versions matter too. Most legal work is still chosen locally, so “conveyancing solicitor Guildford” beats “conveyancing” for a firm in Guildford, and it is winnable.

What else belongs on the site

The people, with photos, qualifications and what each actually does. Legal services are bought from a person.

Reviews and case outcomes, carefully. Client confidentiality applies, so anonymised outcomes and testimonials that do not identify anyone. Get consent where there is any doubt.

Accreditations. Lexcel, Conveyancing Quality Scheme, Resolution, legal aid contracts, whichever you hold.

Clear next steps. A phone number, a form that delivers securely, and a plain statement of what happens after someone gets in touch. Legal enquiries often carry sensitive information, so the form needs to reach a secure inbox rather than a shared reception account.

One-off or monthly

An established firm with a strong referral base can pay £3,000 once, provided someone internal keeps the costs pages current when fees change and watches for rule updates. That someone needs to genuinely exist, because an out of date costs page is a compliance issue rather than an inconvenience.

A firm trying to grow a practice area, or one without anyone to own the website, is better served monthly. Fee changes, new practice area pages, profile upkeep and rule changes all need handling. £99-£199 a month covers it.

The maths is straightforward in law. One conveyancing instruction is several hundred pounds of fees, one probate matter considerably more. A handful of extra instructions a year covers the plan many times over. Whether the site delivers them is not something anyone can promise, and a provider guaranteeing you clients in a regulated profession should worry you.

Sector detail is in online presence for solicitors and lawyers, with comparable professional-services numbers in accountant website cost.

Our plans are £99 Complete and £199 Premier for regulated firms, monthly with no contract, and you own your domain and content. The pricing page has the scope, or tell us your practice areas and we will say which fits.