UK Small Business Website Statistics
92% of UK small businesses with 10 to 49 employees had a website as of the survey fieldwork in late 2025 and early 2026, according to the government’s UK Business Data Survey 2026 (DSIT, published 18 June 2026). The figure was 84% for micro businesses, 76% for sole traders, and 78% across all UK businesses. Ownership rises with size up to 97% for medium businesses and 99% for large ones.
This page collects the verified UK figures on website ownership, online selling, business counts, general business barriers and online retail’s share of total sales, each tied to its original source, reference period and denominator. A CSV of every figure on this page is available to download below.
What percentage of UK small businesses have a website?
- 92% of small businesses (10 to 49 employees) had a website. 84% of micro businesses (up to 9 employees) had one, and 76% of sole traders (no-employee businesses, including those with more than one owner but no staff) had one. Across all UK businesses, the figure was 78%. [DSIT, UK Business Data Survey 2026, published 18 June 2026, fieldwork October 2025 to January 2026, sample 4,450 UK businesses]
- Ownership continues to rise with size beyond the small-business band: 97% of medium businesses (50 to 249 employees) and 99% of large businesses (250+) had a website. [Same source]
- Ownership rises with every step up in size: sole traders (76%), micro (84%), small (92%), medium (97%), large (99%). The overall spread from sole traders to large businesses is 23 percentage points.
What share of UK small businesses sell online?
Owning a website and selling through it are different things. Most UK small businesses that use digital tools use them to run the business, not to take orders online.
- 69% of UK SME employers (1 to 249 employees) used technology or web-based software to sell to customers or manage the business in 2024, up from 61% in 2023 and 50% in 2022, an 8 percentage point year-on-year gain and a 19-point rise over two years. [DBT, Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2024, SME employers, published 25 September 2025, fieldwork 18 October 2024 to 16 May 2025, sample 8,396]
- Adoption rises with size: 67% of micro employers, 75% of small employers and 81% of medium employers used such technology in 2024. [Same source]
- Of all SME employers, 65% used digital tools to manage the business (up from 54% in 2023) and 23% used them to sell to customers online (down 4 percentage points from 27% in 2023). [Same source]
- 53% of no-employee businesses used technology or web-based software in 2024, up from 44% in 2023. Of all no-employee businesses, 42% used it to manage the business and 25% used it to sell to customers online. [DBT, Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2024, no-employee businesses, published 25 September 2025, fieldwork October 2024 to May 2025, sample 2,192]
- If you sell in a specific sector, our industry guides set out what an online store or booking system needs to include for that trade.
What share of UK retail sales happen online?
- Internet sales were 28.8% of total retail sales in Great Britain in August 2026, up 0.4 percentage points from 28.4% in July 2026. [ONS, Retail Sales bulletin, published 18 September 2026]
- This is a Great Britain, all-retailer figure. It measures total retail spending online, not the share of small businesses that sell online, and it includes large multiples alongside small retailers. Use it to describe the online retail market, not small business adoption specifically.
What broader barriers do UK small businesses report?
No UK primary source currently breaks out barriers to website or digital-tool adoption specifically. The two figures below are the closest published evidence: one general innovation barrier and one general growth obstacle, neither aimed at digital adoption alone.
- Lack of finance was the most common barrier reported by innovating UK firms, small firms included alongside larger ones. [Enterprise Research Centre, The State of Small Business Britain 2025, published February 2026, drawing on the Innovation State of the Nation Survey]
- Separately, taxation, VAT, PAYE, National Insurance and business rates was the most frequently reported general obstacle to growth for UK SME employers in 2024. [DBT, Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2024, SME employers]
- Treat both as general business barriers, not evidence about why a small business would or would not have a website.
How much time do UK adults spend online?
UK adult internet users aged 18 and over, measured on personal smartphones, tablets and computers, spent an average of 4 hours 30 minutes online per day as of May 2025, up 10 minutes from May 2024. [Ofcom, Online Nation 2025, published 10 December 2025]
Ofcom’s research covers general internet use rather than local-business search specifically, and this page does not use it to claim anything about how customers find local businesses, since no primary UK source currently publishes that breakdown with a clear sampling frame and measurement period. If you are pricing up what a proper site should cost before committing, see our guide to SEO website costs in the UK.
Method
Every figure above is drawn directly from the publisher’s own release: the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Department for Business and Trade, the Office for National Statistics, the Enterprise Research Centre and Ofcom. Each figure keeps its original denominator (UK businesses by size band, UK SME employers, UK no-employee businesses, or Great Britain retail sales) and reference period, and none are combined or averaged across different denominators. Percentage-point changes are calculated by simple subtraction of the published year-on-year figures; the working is in the downloadable CSV.
Limitations
- The UK Business Data Survey 2026 website-ownership figures and the Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2024 technology-adoption figures come from different surveys with different fieldwork windows (October 2025 to January 2026, and October 2024 to May 2025 respectively) and are not directly comparable measures. One asks about website ownership; the other asks about broader technology and web-based software use.
- The ONS internet retail sales figure (28.8%) covers all Great Britain retailers, not UK small businesses specifically, and excludes Northern Ireland.
- No current UK primary source publishes a breakdown of how customers specifically find local businesses online (search engines, maps, social media or marketplaces). Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report covers general UK internet use, not local-search intent, so this page does not extend its figures to that claim.
- Figures come from different survey waves and fieldwork windows across 2022 to 2026; each is labelled with its own year so they are not read as a single snapshot.
How to cite this page
OptimisedWebsite (2026). “UK Small Business Website Statistics.” Retrieved from https://optimisedwebsite.com/learn/uk-small-business-website-statistics/
Download the data
Download the CSV of every figure, source and reference period
Source: DSIT, UK Business Data Survey 2026, 18 June 2026
View data table
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Sole traders | 76% |
| Micro | 84% |
| Small | 92% |
| Medium | 97% |
| Large | 99% |
Source: DBT, Longitudinal Small Business Survey, 25 September 2025
View data table
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 50% |
| 2023 | 61% |
| 2024 | 69% |
Frequently Asked Questions
92% of UK small businesses with 10 to 49 employees had a website, according to the UK Business Data Survey 2026 (DSIT, published 18 June 2026, fieldwork October 2025 to January 2026). The figure was 84% for micro businesses (up to 9 employees), 76% for sole traders, and 78% across all UK businesses.
23% of UK SME employers used technology or web-based software to sell to customers online in 2024, down from 27% in 2023 (DBT, Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2024, published 25 September 2025). Among no-employee businesses, 25% sold to customers online. Most small businesses that use digital tools use them to manage the business rather than to sell directly.
5.64 million UK businesses had 0 to 49 employees at the start of 2025, making up 99.2% of the UK's 5.7 million private sector businesses (DBT, Business Population Estimates 2025, published 2 October 2025). Of the total, 4.3 million (75%) had no employees at all.
Internet sales were 28.8% of total retail sales in Great Britain in August 2026, up from 28.4% in July 2026 (ONS, Retail Sales bulletin, published 18 September 2026). This figure covers all Great Britain retailers, not small businesses specifically, so it should not be quoted as an SME-only statistic.
No UK primary source publishes a barrier breakdown specific to digital or website adoption. The closest published evidence is general: lack of finance was the most common barrier reported by innovating UK firms, including small firms, according to the Enterprise Research Centre's State of Small Business Britain 2025 report. Separately, taxation, VAT, PAYE, National Insurance and business rates was the most frequently reported general obstacle to growth for SME employers in 2024 (DBT, Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2024). Neither is digital-adoption-specific.
Yes. The UK Business Data Survey 2026 found website ownership rises with size: 76% of sole traders, 84% of micro businesses, 92% of small businesses (10 to 49 employees), 97% of medium businesses (50 to 249) and 99% of large businesses (250+).