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Guide 19 · Before the brief

Do I need a website for my small business in 2027?

Yes, if you want new customers to find you: 78% of UK businesses had a website in the government’s 2026 survey, up from 68% two years earlier. Without one you can still work by recommendation and direct messages. These are the numbers by business size, and a way to decide.

Written by Hamza Hussain, software developer. Published .

  1. How many have one

  2. Rented or owned

  3. How to decide

How many small UK businesses have a website?

78% of UK businesses had a website in the government’s UK Business Data Survey 2026, up from 68% in the 2024 survey. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published the 2026 results on 18 June 2026, from 4,450 businesses interviewed between October 2025 and January 2026. The 2024 survey asked 3,911 businesses between October 2023 and February 2024.

Share of UK businesses with a website, by size (government surveys)

Bar chart. Sole traders: 65% in the 2024 survey, 76% in the 2026 survey. Micro businesses: 74% and 84%. Small businesses: 93% and 92%. All businesses: 68% and 78%.

  • Sole traders, 2024 survey65%
  • Sole traders, 2026 survey76%
  • Micro businesses, 2024 survey74%
  • Micro businesses, 2026 survey84%
  • Small businesses, 2024 survey93%
  • Small businesses, 2026 survey92%
  • All businesses, 2024 survey68%
  • All businesses, 2026 survey78%
UK Business Data Survey 2024 (3,911 businesses, fieldwork October 2023 to February 2024) and 2026 (4,450 businesses, October 2025 to January 2026). The dark bars are the newer survey.

The survey sorts firms by size: sole traders are the smallest group, then micro, small, medium and large businesses. Large businesses were at 99%, medium at 97%, small at 92%, micro at 84% and sole traders at 76%. The government says the rise “may be driven largely by micro businesses and sole traders”. About one sole trader in four still had no website. A ten-point rise in two years is large, and two separate surveys never match perfectly, so read the gap as a direction rather than an exact figure.

Do I need a website for my small business if I have a Facebook page?

You need one if you want people who have never heard of you to find you, because a Facebook page is space you rent and a website is space you own. Your customers are on the big platforms. Ofcom’s Online Nation report (10 December 2025) puts UK adults at about four and a half hours online a day, mostly on a smartphone, with Alphabet and Meta taking more than half of UK online time. 90% of adults use WhatsApp and 82% use Google.

Small firms follow their customers. Food Standards Scotland surveyed small food businesses in Scotland and reported on 19 August 2026 that 83% use social media and 81% use Facebook, against 54% with a website. Among firms with fewer than 10 staff, 47% had one. That is one narrow sector in one country, but it shows how many small firms rely on rented space.

What you hold on a platform and on your own website

Rented: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp

  • The address belongs to the platform.
  • The rules are the platform’s terms, which it can change.
  • Alphabet and Meta together take more than half of UK online time (Ofcom, December 2025).
  • 81% of small Scottish food firms used Facebook (Food Standards Scotland, August 2026).

Owned: your domain and website

  • The address is registered in your name.
  • The files and hosting sit in accounts you hold.
  • You choose the pages and the wording that Google reads.
  • 54% of those same firms had a website (Food Standards Scotland, August 2026).
Survey figures are from the sources named in each row. Rented space is where customers already are; owned space is what you still hold if a platform changes its rules.

I found no good UK survey of how many small businesses lose a social page to a ban, so I will not put a number on that risk. The Facebook guide covers Meta’s terms and when a page is enough for now.

Related: Do I need a website if I have a Facebook page?

Who can wait before getting a website?

A business can wait if nearly all its work comes from recommendations, repeat customers and direct messages, and it is not trying to win people who search. A mobile hairdresser who is fully booked from word of mouth is an example. The cost of waiting shows up only in the people you never hear from.

How do I decide whether to get one now?

Get one now if two or more of these are true. This is my rule of thumb, not a survey result.

  • People who do not know your name search for what you do in your area.
  • You have prices, areas covered or a menu that a stream of posts would bury.
  • You want enquiries to arrive somewhere you control, rather than in a platform’s inbox.
  • You want a web address for your van, invoices or cards that keeps working whichever platforms you use.

Related: What a website costs in the UK, How to buy a domain

Further reading

Official guidance behind the practical advice. Service inclusions are confirmed in your written quote.

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