Call three website companies as a contractor and you'll get three different numbers with almost no overlap. That's not because anyone's lying to you — it's because "website" means something different at each price point, and nobody explains that up front.
I covered the general small-business version of this question in how much should a small business website cost in 2026. This one is specifically for contractors and trades — because the math and the must-haves are a little different when the job that pays your bills is a flooded basement at 9pm, not a browsing decision.
The four price tiers, trades edition
1. Website builders — Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy
$16–$49 per month, forever. You're renting the software and doing the design work yourself, from a template that wasn't built for a trade. Three years on a $23/month plan runs past $800, and you still had to figure out where to put your service area, your license number, and an after-hours quote form — none of that comes built in.
2. A cheap freelancer or gig-site builder
$100–$1,000, quality entirely dependent on who you find. Some contractors get a solid site for a few hundred dollars. Others get a half-finished template with stock photos of the wrong trade and a phone number that isn't tap-to-call. Worth trying if you have specific referrals — risky if you're picking blind off a gig marketplace.
3. Hiring an agency
$2,500–$10,000+ upfront, sometimes much more for multi-location or franchise builds. You get custom design, copywriting, and often SEO work bundled in. That's real value if you're running a large operation with several crews and need something bespoke. Most single-crew and small-team contractors are paying for far more customization than they'll ever use.
4. A done-for-you trade template
A one-time $44–$54, no subscription, built for your specific trade from the start. An HVAC template already has a service-area section, licensing badges, and a quote form where a generic template has none. You edit the text and photos and launch — no design decisions, no monthly bill.
Three-year total cost, side by side.
Builder at $23/mo ≈ $828, still climbing · Freelancer ≈ $100–$1,000, one-time but variable · Agency ≈ $2,500–$10,000+ · Done-for-you trade template ≈ $44–$54, once.
Why "cheap" isn't the same as "right" for a trades business
A contractor site has one job most other small-business sites don't: capturing the emergency lead that comes in after hours, when your phone rings out. If a customer with a dead furnace or a burst pipe lands on your site at 9pm and can't find a tap-to-call number or a way to request a quote without waiting until morning, that job goes to whoever's site made it easy. I wrote about this in more detail in the seven things every home-services site needs to book more jobs — the short version is that price only matters once the site can actually catch the lead.
That's the piece a $23/month generic builder template usually leaves out, and it's why we build trade templates — plumbing, electrician, roofing, construction, handyman — with a 24/7 quote assistant, service-area section, and trust signals baked in from day one, regardless of the low price. See the full breakdown of what you get at each tier in the builders-vs-templates-vs-agency comparison.
What a contractor site should never skip, at any price
- Tap-to-call number in the header — a real
tel:link, not text someone has to copy. - A quote or booking form that works at 2am — because half your best leads happen when your office is closed.
- Your service area spelled out — towns, counties, or zip codes, in plain text, not implied.
- License, insurance, and years in business — above the fold, where a nervous homeowner sees it immediately.
- Fast mobile load — because these searches happen on a phone, often on a bad connection, mid-emergency.
Any site — builder, freelancer, agency, or template — should hit all five. Plenty of expensive sites don't.
So what should you actually pay?
For most single-crew and small-team trades businesses in 2026:
- Running several crews or locations and need something fully custom → an agency is the right call, budget permitting.
- Have a trusted freelancer and tight specs → it can work, at $100–$1,000.
- Want a professional, lead-capturing site built for your trade, live this week, no monthly bill → a done-for-you trade template is the best value by a wide margin.
Not sure which template fits your trade? Start with the best home-services website templates roundup, or just browse all 34 templates by industry.