What should a website cost a tradesperson in 2026?

The short answer

A simple trades website of four to six pages should not cost you thousands. Ours is £499 to build, then £199 a year for the hosting, the domain and small changes, with VAT on the invoice. Whoever you go with, judge the quote on its three-year total and on whose name the domain is in.

What a trades website actually has to do

Start with the job before the price. Someone in Wigan with a tripping fuse box searches on their phone and finds you. They want to know whether you do the work and cover their area, then how to ring you.

A site that does that well is small. You need a home page, a page on what you do, photos of your work, your reviews and a contact page with a big call button. That comes to four to six pages. It has to work on a phone first, because a customer with a leak is rarely sat at a desk.

What it does not need: a blog you will never write, an online shop, fancy animations, or twenty pages about every town in Greater Manchester. Every extra page costs money to build and time to keep up to date. So when a quote looks big, ask what is in it page by page, and whether you need each bit.

Doing it yourself on a website builder

The big website builders let you pick a template, drop in your photos and go live in an evening. They charge a monthly or yearly plan. Prices change often, so check the provider’s own pricing page on the day you sign up. Check whether the price you see is an introductory one, and what the same plan costs from year two.

What you get is full control and nobody to chase. The cost is your own time. Writing the words, sizing the photos, connecting the domain, setting up email and fixing whatever looks wrong on a phone all land on you. For a sole trader on the tools all day, that one evening can turn into a month of Sundays.

Before you start, ask the builder what happens to your site and your domain if you stop paying or want to move elsewhere. Some people are handy with a laptop, enjoy it and have the time. For them this can be the cheapest route. Just count your hours as part of the cost.

Paying a freelancer

This might be a local web designer, or a mate of a mate who builds sites. Quotes vary a lot, and that is fine on its own: you are paying for someone’s skill and time. What you need to pin down is everything after launch. Who hosts it, who renews the domain, what a change costs when you add a service or get a new number, and what happens if they move on.

The risk with this route is a site that sits in the freelancer’s own account, on a domain registered in their name. It works fine until they stop answering, and then you cannot get in to change your own phone number. Get the domain in your name from day one, and get the logins written down.

Paying a firm

An agency or a digital firm, like us, does the lot for you: the words, the build, the hosting and the changes. Some sell fixed packages and some quote job by job. You check the same things as with a freelancer, plus the contract.

If a firm bundles the site into a monthly fee, ask three things before you sign. How long is the term, what does it add up to by the end, and do you own the site when it finishes? A low monthly figure over a long term can come to far more than the site cost to build.

The yearly costs nobody mentions up front

Whichever route you take, a website has running costs. Get each one in writing before you agree to anything.

• The domain name, which is your address on the web. It renews every year or every few years.
• Hosting, which keeps the site online. On a builder it sits inside the plan.
• Email on your own domain, if you want an address at your firm’s name rather than a Gmail one. This is often charged separately.
• Changes. A new service, new photos, a new area you cover. Ask whether small changes are included or charged per job.
• Renewal prices. The first year’s price is only part of the story, so ask what year two costs.

Then do the sum that matters: the build plus three years of running costs. Say a joiner in Bury has two quotes. One looks cheap on day one and turns out dear by year three. The other looks dear up front and works out level or cheaper by the end. Compare the three-year totals, never the day-one figures.

What we charge, and what is in it

Our website package is £499 to build. You get four to six pages (home, what you do, your work, reviews, contact), built for phones first, with a tap-to-call button, a WhatsApp button and a quote form. The domain is registered in your name, so the site is yours. We host it and keep it working for the first year. After that it is £199 a year, which covers the hosting, your domain and small changes. The full detail is on our packages page.

It does not include taking new photos or videos for you. Send us what you have got. Decent job photos off your phone usually do the job.

Over three years ours comes to £499 for the build plus £199 for each of years two and three: £897 before VAT. We are VAT registered, so VAT goes on the invoice, which makes it £1,076.40 with the VAT on. If you ever want to stop, give us notice before the yearly fee is due and we hand everything over.

Is that the cheapest website you can get? No. A builder you set up yourself can cost less in money and more in evenings. What you get from us is a fixed price for a proper site you own, with year two priced on the page before you start.

VAT and the tax side

Ask every supplier one question: is that price plus VAT? GOV.UK gives the standard rate as 20%, so the answer changes the figure you are comparing.

Whether that VAT is a real cost to you depends on whether you are registered. GOV.UK says you must register once your taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, so plenty of sole traders are not registered. If you are not, the VAT on a website is money you do not get back. If you are, GOV.UK’s guidance says you can reclaim VAT on items you buy for use in your business, and you must have valid VAT invoices to do it.

On income tax, GOV.UK’s page on expenses for the self-employed lists “advertising or marketing, for example website costs” among the allowable expenses. How that applies to your build and your yearly fee is a question for your accountant. It can differ if you trade as a limited company, so ask them to confirm it for your case.

Do you need a website at all?

Not always. If word of mouth keeps you busy as a sole trader, a properly filled-in Google Business Profile and a tidy Facebook page may be enough for now. Google says you can add or claim your business at no charge, so that is the first job whatever you decide. Our guide to claiming your Google Business Profile walks you through it.

A website earns its keep when you want work from people who do not know you yet. It also helps you look like a settled firm when a customer is weighing you up against two others. If that sounds like you, the next question is the price, and you now know what to ask.

Red flags in a website quote

• No price given for year two onwards.
• The domain registered in the seller’s name instead of yours.
• A long contract at the end of which you still do not own the site.
• No clear answer on who updates your phone number when it changes.
• A promise of page one on Google. Google’s own guidance says no one can guarantee a top ranking, and our piece on cold callers promising page one explains why that promise should end the call.

What to do next

Line up every quote you have, ours included, and write down two things for each: the three-year total with VAT, and whose name the domain is in. That usually makes the decision for you. If you are still not sure you need a site at all, send us the free check-up form and we will tell you straight.