What does a tradesman website cost? Honest 2026 pricing

"So what does a website cost?" - we hear that question almost every day. And the honest first answer is: it depends. Which, of course, helps you not at all.

So let's make it concrete. In this article you get real numbers for 2026, the hidden costs nobody likes to mention, and a clear sense of what actually pays off for a trades business. No sales pitch.

One thing up front: the price alone tells you little. A £200 site that nobody finds and nobody enquires through is more expensive than a £2,000 site that brings you new jobs every month.

The four routes to your own website

Broadly there are four options, and they differ massively in price, effort and result.

Option 1: build it yourself with a site builder

Wix, Squarespace, WordPress.com and the like advertise "free" or "from £8 a month". Sounds unbeatable.

• Visible price: £0 to £20 a month
• Setup cost: none
• Your time: high - easily 20 to 40 hours before you have something usable

The catch: your time isn't free. If you, as the owner, spend 30 hours fiddling with a site instead of working or winning jobs, that really costs you several thousand pounds. And the result usually looks like a builder template, loads slowly and ranks poorly on Google. The "free" site is often the most expensive - because it costs you enquiries you never even see.

Option 2: a freelancer with a template

A self-employed web designer takes a template and adapts it for you. A solid middle ground.

• Setup cost: £600 to £2,500 one-off
• Ongoing: hosting £5 to £20 a month, maintenance by arrangement
• Your time: moderate

Quality varies wildly - from seasoned pro to student side-hustle. The bigger problem often comes afterwards: what happens when the freelancer has no time, gets ill or moves on? Then you're stuck with a site nobody maintains, and every small change becomes a saga.

Option 3: a full agency

The full-service treatment with workshop, concept, design, development. High quality, but pricey.

• Setup cost: often £3,000 to £10,000, with no real ceiling
• Ongoing: £100 to £500 a month for maintenance and support
• Your time: high - workshops, reviews, sign-offs over weeks

For a mid-sized firm with its own marketing department, this can fit. For a garage or a plumbing business it's usually over-engineered. You pay for processes and structures you simply don't need. And don't forget VAT on top of those quotes.

Option 4: a specialised service for local businesses

A provider that exclusively builds and maintains websites for local service businesses - like us. Premium tech at a predictable price.

• Setup cost: £499 one-off with us
• Ongoing: from £69 a month, including hosting, maintenance, updates and security
• Your time: minimal - around one hour in total

The upside: you get agency quality without agency effort and without the agency price. You see the first draft within 24 hours, by the way - how that works is in our article website in 24 hours.

The hidden costs nobody mentions

With website pricing, most people only look at the first number. But the truth lies in the ongoing and hidden items:

• Hosting: the site has to live somewhere - £5 to £50 a month, often billed separately.
• Maintenance and updates: constantly needed with WordPress in particular, or the site becomes a security risk.
• Changes: new phone number, new service, new photo - with many providers every little thing costs extra.
• Your own time: the most expensive and most frequently forgotten item.
• Lost jobs: a poor or slow site costs you enquiries you never see - the most expensive bill of all.

Never ask just "what does the site cost?", but "what does it cost me in the first year - including hosting, maintenance and my time?"

What really counts: the return

Run the maths the other way round. Say an average job brings you £400 in margin. If your website brings you just one extra job a month, that's £4,800 a year. A site at £499 setup plus around £600 a year has paid for itself within weeks.

So the right question isn't "how cheap?" but "does the site bring me more than it costs?". For a site that gets found, loads fast and invites people to call, the answer is almost always yes.

Setup fee or monthly price - which is better?

Many businesses wonder whether to pay one larger sum up front or go monthly. Both have their place, and it depends on your model.

• One-off purchase: you pay a lot once and the site "belongs" to you. Sounds good, but maintenance, hosting and updates usually still come on top as ongoing costs - and without maintenance a site dates faster than you'd like.
• Monthly model: low entry, predictable costs, and maintenance is built in. You treat the website like electricity or insurance - a manageable line item that simply runs.

For most trades businesses the monthly model is the more relaxed one, because you never again face the question "who actually looks after the site?". That's already handled.

The thinking trap with the cheap site

The most common mistake is seeing the website as a cost rather than an investment. People who look only at the price quickly land on the cheapest option - and only notice months later that almost nobody enquires through the site.

Think of it like a work van: the cheapest van is rarely the most economical if it's constantly in the garage. With a website it's the same. The question isn't what it costs, but what it earns for you. A site nobody finds is too expensive even at £200.

What to check when comparing prices

Before you sign anything anywhere, clear up these points:

1. Are hosting, maintenance and updates included in the price, or added on top?
2. What does a change cost when your opening hours or services change?
3. How fast does the site load and is it cleanly built for Google?
4. Do you own the site, or are you locked into a system you can't leave?
5. How much time do you have to invest yourself?

A good provider answers this openly. Anyone who talks around it often has something to hide. It's also worth thinking about whether you even need clunky WordPress or a modern website instead.

Bottom line

A tradesman website can cost anywhere from nothing to ten thousand pounds - the range alone tells you nothing. What counts is the full picture of setup, ongoing costs, your time and, above all, what the site brings back in jobs.

For most local businesses, a specialised service with a clear fixed price, maintenance included and minimal effort is the most sensible route. Take a look at what we do or book a quick 15-minute call, and we'll work it out honestly for your case.