Websites and technical SEO
What a home service website should cost
How much does a website cost a plumber, roofer or HVAC company? Anywhere from a monthly builder subscription to a five-figure custom build. Here is what actually moves the number, what you get at each level, and the ongoing costs most quotes leave out.
Short answer It depends on who builds it and how many pages it needs. A DIY builder costs a monthly subscription plus your time. A template site costs more up front. A custom build costs the most. WebFX’s 2026 pricing guide puts professional web design at $1,000 to $30,000+, driven by page count, copy, design and features.
How much does a website cost? The three ways to get one
Most contractor websites come from one of three routes. They differ less in how the homepage looks and more in who does the work: who writes the pages, who takes the photos, who makes it fast, and who fixes it when it breaks. Price follows labor.
| Route | What you pay for | Who does the work | Fits best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY website builder | A monthly or yearly subscription, plus add-ons like a domain, booking or email | You: writing, photos, layout, updates | You are just starting, run one trade in a small area, and have evenings to spare |
| Template site built by a freelancer or small shop | A one-time setup fee, plus hosting and occasional updates | The builder handles setup; you usually still supply copy and photos | You need something credible fast and your service list is short |
| Custom site from an agency or experienced developer | A larger project fee, often with a monthly plan for hosting, care and changes | The builder plans pages, writes copy, designs, builds and sets up tracking | You run several trades or crews, cover a big part of DFW, and want the site to bring in calls on its own |
None of these is wrong. A two-truck lawn crew in Mesquite and a roofing company covering all of Collin County need different sites. The mistake is paying custom prices for a template with your logo swapped in, or running a growing company on a DIY site nobody has touched in three years. If you are choosing a platform, our WordPress vs Wix for contractors guide covers that decision in detail, so we won’t repeat it here.
What the public pricing data says
Very few web designers publish prices, and the ones that do sell web design, so treat any published range as a starting point. The most detailed public breakdown we know of is WebFX’s guide “Web Design Pricing: How Much Does Web Design Cost in 2026?” (opens in new tab). WebFX is a large marketing agency, and its page mixes its own estimates with survey responses from marketers. Here is what it reports:
- Overall: web design commonly costs $1,000 to $30,000+, with very large sites going well past that.
- Site size: it lists $1,000 to $3,000 for sites of up to 75 pages, as a separate line from style, copy and features.
- Copywriting: $60 to $300 per page, with around $300 typical for a standard page and the low end for short ecommerce product pages.
- Small business design style: $2,000 to $5,000 for a basic custom look.
- Yearly spend: among micro businesses (1 to 10 employees) in its survey, the most common yearly web design spend was $501 to $1,000.
These are commonly quoted industry ranges from a named public source, not our prices. We quote a website after looking at your current site, your trades and your service area on a discovery call.
Notice how those line items stack. A cheap headline number often covers the build only. Copy, photos, booking tools and tracking get added later, one invoice at a time.
The cost drivers that matter for a contractor site
Website cost for small business owners swings so widely because two quotes rarely cover the same work. These are the pieces that move the price, roughly in order of how much they matter for a home service company.
How many pages you need
This is the biggest driver. A brochure site has five pages: home, about, services, reviews, contact. A site that brings in calls from search usually needs a page for each service you want booked (water heater repair, drain cleaning, sewer line replacement) and, where there is real demand, for the cities you cover. That can mean 20, 40 or more pages. Each one has to be planned, written and built. Be careful here: piling on thin city pages can cost you rankings rather than win them. Our guide to city pages that actually rank explains how to decide which ones earn their place.
Who writes the copy
Copy is the line item owners most often forget. If you write your own service pages, you save money and spend weekends. If the builder writes them, you pay for that time, and it is worth asking whether the writer knows your trade. A page about tankless water heaters written by someone who has never heard of one reads that way to homeowners and to Google.
Real photos
Stock photos are cheap and every homeowner can spot them. Photos of your trucks, crew and finished jobs build more trust, but someone has to take them. That might be a photographer for half a day, or you collecting good phone shots from jobs for a month. Either way, budget the time.
Design: template or custom
A template is a ready-made layout with your colors and logo dropped in. It is cheaper and faster, and for many small companies it is enough. Custom design costs more because someone is working out where the call button goes, how reviews sit next to it, and how the site works one-handed on a phone. For contractors, that layout work is usually worth more than visual polish.
Features and integrations
Online booking, financing applications, call tracking numbers, CRM or field-service software connections (the job management tools many trades use), quote request forms with photo upload: each adds setup time. Some carry their own monthly subscription on top of the website.
Speed and technical setup
A fast site takes deliberate work: compressed images, few scripts, decent hosting. Google measures real-user loading and responsiveness with its Core Web Vitals. A builder who skips this saves time up front, and you pay for it in visitors who give up and call the next company. Our site speed optimization page covers what that work involves.
Moving off an old site
If your current site ranks for anything, the new one has to redirect old addresses to new ones. Google’s Search Central documentation on site moves with URL changes (opens in new tab) lays out the steps. Skipping them is one of the most common reasons a contractor’s calls drop after a redesign. A quote that doesn’t mention redirects either assumes there’s nothing to move or plans to skip it.
Ongoing costs after launch
The build is a one-time cost. The website is not. Plan for these every year:
- Domain name. A small yearly renewal. Make sure it is registered in your name, not the designer’s.
- Hosting. Included in builder subscriptions; billed separately for WordPress and custom sites. Cheap shared hosting is often why a site feels slow.
- Maintenance and security. Software, plugin and theme updates, backups and security fixes. Owners can do this, but it is easy to forget until something breaks.
- Changes. New services, a price change, seasonal offers before HVAC or hail season, new job photos. Some builders include a set amount of edits each month; others bill each change.
- Tools. Booking, call tracking, chat or review widgets that charge monthly.
When you compare quotes, add up the first year in full: build fee plus twelve months of everything above. A cheap build on an expensive monthly plan can cost more than a pricier build you own outright.
Contractor website cost questions to ask before you sign
- How many pages are included, and who writes them? Get the page list in writing.
- Who owns the domain, the site and the content? You should be able to leave with all three.
- What happens to my old URLs? Ask for the redirect plan.
- What is the mobile load target, and how is it measured?
- Is call and form tracking set up at launch? Without it you can’t tell which pages bring in jobs.
- What does the monthly fee cover, and what costs extra?
The cheapest site is the one that pays for itself. Before judging a quote, work out what one extra booked job a month is worth to you. For most trades, a site that brings in a few more calls covers its cost quickly, and a pretty site with no calls is expensive at any price. Once a site is live, conversion rate optimization is how you get more calls from the same visitors.
How we quote websites
We don’t sell websites off a price list. A painter covering Richardson and Garland needs a very different site from a remodeler working from Southlake to Frisco. On a discovery call we look at your current site’s speed and call flow, which pages already bring in traffic, and the services and cities you want more work in. Then we send a written scope with the page list, so you can line it up against any other quote. See what our contractor website design includes, or contact us to ask for a quote.
Website cost questions
Is it cheaper to build a website myself?
In cash, yes. A builder subscription costs far less than hiring someone. The real cost is your time: writing every service page, taking photos, getting it fast on a phone and keeping it updated. For a new one-truck business that trade can make sense. Once your time is worth more on jobs, paying someone usually wins.
How much does it cost to maintain a website each year?
Expect a domain renewal, hosting, software and security updates, and any tools like booking or call tracking. Builder plans bundle hosting into one subscription; WordPress and custom sites bill it separately. In WebFX’s 2026 survey, the most common yearly web design spend for businesses with 1 to 10 employees was $501 to $1,000. That is an industry figure, not our price.
Why do website quotes vary so much?
Because they rarely cover the same work. One quote may be five template pages with your copy pasted in. Another may include 30 service and city pages written for you, real photos, call tracking and redirects from your old site. Ask every builder for the page list, who writes the copy, and what the monthly fee covers, then compare.
Do I own my website if someone else builds it?
You should, but check the contract. Some builders keep the domain in their name or build on a platform only they can edit, which makes leaving expensive. Ask for the domain, hosting account and site files to be in your name, and get admin access at launch.