What Should a Contractor Website Cost in 2026?

You asked three people what a website costs. Your nephew said he'd do it for pizza. A guy at the supply house said he paid $1,500. An agency sent a quote for $9,000 with a line item called "discovery."

All three are real prices, for three different things. Here's how to sort them out before you pay.

The short answer: four price tags

There are four ways a local trade gets a website, and each has its own price.

The builder and project numbers come from the companies that sell them. Wix says its paid plans start at $17 a month, that a freelance designer typically runs $500 to $10,000, and that an agency can cost $3,000 to $10,000 or more.¹ Squarespace lists its cheapest plan at $19 a month billed yearly, or $25 month to month.²

Building it yourself: cheap in dollars, not in hours

A builder is the cheapest way in. You get a template, hosting and a place to type.

What you don't get is the work. Somebody still has to write what you do, pick the photos and set up the call button. That somebody is you, after a ten-hour day.

Be honest about whether you'll finish it. A half-built site with "Your tagline here" still on it is worse than no site.

Hiring a freelancer: where the range gets wide

The $500 freelancer and the $10,000 freelancer are not doing the same job.

At the low end, you're getting a template with your name on it and text you supplied. At the high end, you're getting custom design, written copy, and someone who has built sites for trades before.

What matters is what's on the quote. Before you compare prices, send every bidder the same questions.

A vague answer on number three or five is your warning.

Hiring an agency: what the big quote covers

An agency quote is bigger because more people touch the job. For a company with five crews and a showroom, that can be worth it.

For a two-truck outfit, most of it is overkill. Your customer wants to know what you do, where you work, whether other people liked you, and how to call. That doesn't take $9,000.

The costs nobody puts on the quote

The build price is only the first bill. Ask about these before you sign anything:

• The domain. Your web address is rented, not bought. GoDaddy says to expect around $20 a year.³ ICANN, the group that oversees domain names, says registrations run in one-year increments, up to ten years at a time.⁴ Let it lapse and your site goes dark.
• Hosting. Builders and monthly services include it. With a freelancer or agency, ask who pays and how much.
• Changes and fixes. A new phone number, a photo of last week's job, a page that breaks. Some builders charge by the hour for every edit.

Make sure the domain is in your name, on your account. If your web guy registers it under his and then stops answering, you're stuck asking permission to use your own business name.

What a local trade actually needs to pay for

Pay for the basics done well:

• A site that works on a phone. Pew Research found that 91% of U.S. adults own a smartphone.⁵ That's where customers look you up.
• A call button you can't miss. One tap and your phone rings.
• Your services and your towns in plain words. Not "solutions." Water heaters. Roof repair. Round Rock.
• Real photos of real jobs. Yours, not stock.
• Your reviews, where people can see them.

What you can skip: animations, a ten-page site map, and anyone charging extra to "guarantee" a spot on Google. Google says it plainly: there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.⁶

If you're still deciding whether you need a site at all, start with do I need a website if I get all my work from word of mouth?

Where a monthly service fits

The fourth option is a flat monthly fee to have someone build the site, host it and keep it running. No big check up front, but you keep paying for as long as you use it.

That's what we do at AtlasBooked, so weigh our opinion accordingly. Ours is $297 a month with no contract. We build a free preview within 2 business days, walk you through it on a 15-minute call, and have you live in 7 to 10 days. The price also covers missed-call text back and review requests, which a website alone doesn't do.

It's not the cheapest way. A builder is. It makes sense when you'd rather be on a roof than in a template editor.

How to decide

• You'll really build it and keep it updated: use a builder and save the money.
• You have a few thousand dollars and someone you trust: hire the freelancer, with the six answers in writing.
• You want it handled: compare monthly services on what's included and whether you can leave when you want.

Whatever you pick, measure it the way you'd measure paid leads: by the jobs it books, not by how it looks. And make sure the phone number on it gets answered. See what happens when you miss a call from a new customer.

The bottom line

A website for a local trade should cost between a few hundred dollars a year and a few thousand, depending on how much of the work you hand off. Past that, you're paying for things your customers won't notice.

Get the price and the yearly costs in writing. Keep the domain in your name. Then get back on the ladder.