What does a digital audit cost? UK price guide

Why the range is so wide

Because “digital audit” is not one product. It describes an automated tool report, an agency audit that functions as a sales document, a technical assessment, and a structured independent review. Those are four different pieces of work with four different purposes and no shared unit of measurement.

The first two are frequently free or very cheap, and it is worth being plain about why. They exist to sell something else. That is not an accusation, it is the economics. If the audit is the marketing cost for the work that follows, the provider can afford to give it away, and its conclusions will point towards the services they sell. Knowing that changes how you read the document, which is useful, and it does not mean the findings are wrong.

The rest of this page sets out the honest market range, including numbers that are not mine, so you can work out which level you actually need before anyone quotes you.

What you get at each level, and what it is worth

Four levels, four purposes. The cheap options are sometimes exactly what you need, and I have said so where that is true.

Level one

Automated tool report

Free to £1,000

A crawler checks your site against a standard list and produces a scored PDF. Page speed, broken links, missing tags, accessibility flags, keyword positions.

When it is enough: when you have a specific technical suspicion and want it confirmed, or when nobody has looked at the site for two years and you need a starting list. It is genuinely useful for that and it costs almost nothing.

What it cannot do: tell you whether any of it matters to your business. A tool cannot know that your highest-value work comes through referral and the site only needs to look credible.

Level two

Agency audit

From £2,500

A real person reviews your site and marketing and presents findings, usually in a meeting, usually alongside a proposal. Often better than the tool report because there is judgement in it.

When it is enough: when you already intend to appoint an agency and want to see how they think. Treating it as a paid-for pitch is a reasonable use of everybody’s time and I would not talk anyone out of it.

What to watch: the recommendations will map onto what the agency sells. If they build websites, you will need a new website. Read the diagnosis, discount the prescription.

Level three

Independent assessment

£1,500 to £6,000

A defined review by somebody with no stake in the answer. Looks at the site, the systems, the data and the way the organisation works, and produces a prioritised written recommendation aimed at whoever holds the budget.

When it is worth it: when a decision of real value depends on the answer. Renewing a supplier contract, choosing between rebuild and repair, or going to a board for investment.

What to watch: whether the independence is real. Ask directly whether they have reseller agreements, platform commissions or a delivery arm that would pick up the work.

Level four

Consultancy engagement

Fixed fee quoted

A team, a workstream structure, primary research, workshops and a substantial document. Appropriate for large or complex estates, regulated environments, and organisations where the audit itself has to withstand scrutiny.

When it is worth it: genuinely, when the scale demands it. A multi-site group with eight systems and four suppliers is not a two-week job and anyone who says otherwise is guessing.

What to watch: who does the work. Sold by a partner, delivered by consultants three years out of university, is a familiar pattern and the fee does not always reflect it.

What determines the price of a genuine assessment

Four things, and if you can describe them accurately you will get quotes that are comparable rather than four numbers you cannot reconcile.

Size of the estate

One website and a CRM is not the same as five sites, an intranet, a case management system and a data warehouse nobody has documented.

Number of suppliers

Each one adds a contract to read, a relationship to understand and a version of events to reconcile. Three suppliers is more than three times the work of one.

Access to people

The biggest factor and the most underestimated. Systems tell you what was built. People tell you why, and what they do instead when it does not work.

Who reads the output

Technical documentation for a development team is a different piece of writing from a paper a board can act on. Both are legitimate. Say which you want.

How to tell whether an audit was worth buying

Apply this after the fact, to the last one you paid for. It is the most useful thing on this page and it works regardless of who wrote the document or what it cost.

One

It told you something you did not already know

Not something you suspected. Something you did not know. A document that confirms your own view in professional language has produced comfort rather than insight, and comfort is expensive at these prices.

Two

It was specific about what to stop

Anyone can produce a list of things to start. Naming the activity you should abandon, the tool you should cancel or the channel that is not earning its keep takes an actual opinion, and it is where most of the money is recovered.

Three

The recommendations were ranked by value, not by ease

A list of fifty findings in severity order is a tool report with prose around it. What you need is the three things worth doing first and the reasoning for that order.

Four

It did not conclude that you need what the auditor sells

The simplest test of all. If the recommended next step happens to be the auditor’s largest service, you have read a proposal. It may still be the right answer. You just have no independent confirmation of that.

What to ask before commissioning one

Five questions, all fair, all answerable in a sentence by somebody who has thought about it.

Who will read the output, and is it written for them or for a technical team?
Will recommendations be prioritised by business value, and who decides that order?
Do you have any commercial interest in what the audit concludes?
How much of our time will this take, from whom, and by when?
What happens if you find the answer is that we should change nothing?

Where my own reviews sit

Level three, for the sake of completeness rather than as a pitch. Defined reviews with published fees, no delivery arm, no reseller agreements and no platform commissions, which means I have nothing to gain from any particular conclusion.

AI opportunity audit

£2,000+

AI readiness assessment

£2,500

Digital health analysis

£1,500+

Get-gain-grow

POA

See all five reviews

Common questions

How much does a digital audit cost in the UK?

Anywhere from nothing to tens of thousands of pounds, because four different things are sold under the same name. An automated tool report is free or under a few hundred pounds. An agency audit is often free because it functions as a sales document. A defined independent assessment typically sits in the low thousands. A large consultancy engagement runs into five figures and beyond.

Why is a free digital audit free?

Because it exists to sell you the work it recommends. That is not dishonest and the findings are often accurate, but the document has a commercial purpose and its conclusions will point towards services the provider sells. Read it for the facts and discount the recommendations.

What determines the price of a genuine digital assessment?

The size of the estate, the number of suppliers involved, how much access is granted to people rather than just systems, and whether the output is technical documentation or a board-facing recommendation. Access to people is the biggest single factor and the one most often underestimated.

How do I know whether an audit was worth buying?

A useful audit tells you at least one thing you did not know, is specific about what to stop as well as what to start, prioritises by value rather than by ease, and does not conclude that you need precisely the service the auditor sells.

How law firms choose and manage a digital agency

If the review is the first step in changing supplier, this covers what comes after it.

All guides

Long reads on the decisions people get stuck on. Free, and they sell nothing.

Not sure which level you need?

Most clients begin with a conversation. No pitch, no hard sell.

Tell me what decision is waiting on the answer and I will tell you whether it warrants a review at all.

Book a free 30-minute call

What does a digital audit cost, and how do you tell if it is worth buying