Guide · Costs
How much does a tradesman website cost in the UK? (2026 guide)
The honest answer is anywhere from a few pounds a month to several thousand pounds up front. What matters is what you get for the money, and what you keep paying after the site goes live.
Ask five web designers what a tradesman website costs and you will get five numbers, none of which include everything. This guide sets out the realistic price ranges for the four ways a UK tradesman can get a website in 2026, the costs that tend to be left off the quote, and how to decide which route makes sense for a plumber, electrician, builder or any other trade with a van and a phone.
The short answer
| Route | What it commonly costs | What you usually get |
|---|---|---|
| DIY website builder | Roughly £10 to £30 a month, plus your own time | A template you fill in yourself. Typically 3 to 6 pages. |
| Freelance designer | Commonly quoted from a few hundred pounds to £2,000 or more, one-off | A custom design, typically 5 to 10 pages. Hosting and changes usually extra. |
| Agency | Commonly £2,000 to £5,000+ to build; SEO retainers can be £1,000 to £3,000+ a month | Professional design with ongoing marketing, priced for larger firms. |
| Subscription (Tradesmen's Websites) | £59 a month, £0 setup fee, cancel at any time | Up to 12 service pages, 20 area pages and up to 240 service-area pages, with hosting, SSL and a .co.uk domain included if needed. |
Those ranges are broad because "a website" can mean anything from a single page with a phone number to a hundred-page site with a marketing plan behind it. The sections below explain what sits behind each number.
DIY website builders
The well-known drag-and-drop builders are cheap on paper and genuinely fine for a one-page "here is my number" site. The real cost is time. Choosing a template, writing the words, resizing photos and working out why the menu looks wrong on a phone can swallow several evenings, and most tradesmen stop at four or five pages because there is always a job to quote.
That is the limitation. A DIY site rarely ends up with a page for each service, and almost never with a page for each service in each area, because nobody has the hours to build and maintain 240 pages by hand. It can look tidy and still be invisible for the searches that matter. Watch out, too, for the free or entry-level tiers that put the builder's advertising on your site or give you a domain ending in their name rather than your own.
Freelance web designer
A good freelancer will build you something that looks like your business rather than a template, usually for a one-off fee that is commonly quoted somewhere between a few hundred pounds and two thousand or more depending on size and experience. That price normally covers the design and a fixed number of pages. Things to ask before you agree:
- Who hosts the site afterwards, and what does that cost per year?
- Is the SSL certificate included, or is it an extra?
- What happens when you add a service or a new area? Is that a new invoice?
- Who updates the software behind the site so it does not get hacked or stop working?
- If the freelancer moves on, can you still access and move the site?
None of these are reasons to avoid a freelancer. They are reasons to work out the three-year cost, not the day-one cost.
Agency build
Agencies bring designers, developers and copywriters, and charge accordingly. Builds commonly start at £2,000 to £5,000 and go up from there, and the ongoing search marketing that makes the site earn its keep is often sold as a retainer, where SEO agencies can charge £1,000 to £3,000 or more a month. For a firm with several vans and an office, that can be a sensible investment. For a sole trader it is usually more than the website will return, at least in the first year.
Subscription website
The subscription model spreads the cost and bundles the things that are normally extras. With Tradesmen's Websites it works like this:
- £59 a month, with the first £59 covering your first month. There is a £0 setup fee.
- No long-term contract. The subscription is monthly and you can cancel at any time.
- Hosting, SSL and platform updates included. Nothing to renew, nothing to patch.
- A .co.uk domain supplied free of charge if you do not already have one, or your existing domain connected.
- Up to 12 services and 20 areas, which generate up to 240 dedicated service-area pages, plus a page for each service and each area.
- Live Google rating and review count pulled from your Google Business Profile, and your accreditations displayed where you genuinely hold them.
- Typically live within 7 days once we have your completed information.
The trade-off is that the design follows a proven structure rather than being drawn from scratch, and the site is built for local search rather than as a portfolio piece. For most tradesmen that is exactly the point. You can see how it looks on our live demo website and the full breakdown of what is included is on our pricing section.
The costs that are not on the quote
Whichever route you choose, these are the items that tend to appear afterwards:
- Hosting. Where the site lives. Commonly a monthly or annual fee if it is not bundled.
- SSL certificate. The padlock in the browser. Browsers flag sites without one as "not secure", which is not a good look for a tradesman.
- Domain renewal. A yearly fee, and a nasty surprise if the person who registered it has vanished.
- Email. An address on your own domain usually costs extra with DIY builders and freelancers.
- Changes. A new phone number, a new service, a price change. Some providers charge per change.
- New pages. Adding an area you have started covering can mean a new invoice.
- Photos and words. Someone has to write the page for each service. Good freelancers charge for copywriting, and rightly so.
- Maintenance. Sites built on popular content systems need regular updates or they become a security risk.
What "cheap" really costs: 5 pages versus 240
The biggest cost of a website is not the invoice. It is the work you do not get because the site never appears for the searches your customers make. A five-page site has a home page, a services list, an about page, a gallery and a contact page. It has one page that might match "electrician Wilmslow" and no page at all that matches "EV charger installer Wilmslow" or "EICR Knutsford".
A site with a page for each service in each area has up to 240 pages that each match a real, specific local search. That does not guarantee anything, and no ethical provider will tell you otherwise, but it gives the business far more opportunities to appear when someone nearby is looking for exactly what you do. Our guide to getting found on Google locally explains why that structure matters, and our comparison with Checkatrade, MyBuilder and Bark puts the cost next to what many tradesmen already pay for leads.
Which option suits which tradesman?
- You just need somewhere to send people who want your number: a DIY builder or a single-page site will do, as long as you keep it up to date.
- You want something distinctive and have a budget for it: a freelancer, with the ongoing costs agreed up front.
- You run a multi-van firm with an office and a marketing budget: an agency may well pay for itself.
- You want to be found in the towns you cover, for the jobs you want, without a large upfront bill: a subscription website built around your services and areas.
Still not sure whether you need a website at all? Our guide on whether tradesmen still need a website gives an honest answer, including the cases where you probably do not.
Frequently asked questions
Is £59 a month expensive for a website? +
Compared with a DIY builder, yes. Compared with a freelancer or agency build once hosting, SSL, domain, email, updates and new pages are included, it is usually cheaper over three years, and it includes the service-area pages that most other routes never deliver. Compared with what many tradesmen pay each month for directory listings and leads, it is modest.
Is there a setup fee? +
No. The setup fee is £0. The first £59 you pay is your first month's subscription.
What happens if I cancel? +
The subscription is monthly with no long-term contract. Your website remains available until the end of the paid period. A domain supplied as part of the subscription is handled as set out in our terms and conditions.
Do I have to pay extra for hosting or SSL? +
No. Hosting, SSL and ongoing platform maintenance are included in the £59 monthly price.
Can I add a service or an area later? +
Yes. The platform is designed so your selected services and the areas you genuinely cover can be updated as the business grows, within the limits of 12 services and 20 areas.
Next step
The quickest way to judge value is to see it. Enter your services and areas, look at a preview of your own website, and pay £59 for your first month only if you are happy to go ahead. There is no setup fee and no long-term contract.
Ready when you are
See a preview of your own website before you pay anything.
Tell us your trade, the services you offer and the areas you cover. We build a preview you can look at first, then you pay £59 for your first month only if you are happy to go ahead. £0 setup fee, no long-term contract and you can cancel at any time.