How much does a website cost for a tradie?
A DIY site can start around $300. Australian-built sites usually start around $1,000 and rise from there. Here is what each price buys and what to check before you sign.
Prices for tradie websites vary a lot, so a single number is not much use. These are rough ranges based on what we see in quotes. Your own quotes will differ, and the point of this guide is to help you read them.
The short answer
- Do it yourself on a website builder: from around $300 in the first year, plus your own time.
- Offshore builder: usually between $500 and $1,000.
- Australian-built: usually from around $1,000, and higher depending on who builds it and how.
Those are starting points. A five-page site with your photos and a quote form sits near the bottom of each range. A larger site with service pages for each suburb, booking or custom features sits higher.
What each price usually gets you
Do it yourself, from around $300
You pick a template, write the pages and add your photos. The cost is low and you control it, but the work takes evenings and weekends, and many DIY sites end up with thin pages and no search setup. It suits a tradie who is just starting out and has more time than money.
Offshore, $500 to $1,000
You get a finished site for a modest price, usually from a template. The problems we hear about most are communication across time zones, writing that does not sound Australian, missing licence and service-area details, and unclear ownership of the site afterwards. Some offshore builders do good work. Ask to see live sites they have built and speak to the person who will do the job.
Australian-built, from around $1,000
You deal with someone in your time zone who understands local search, suburbs and trade licensing. What you pay depends on the provider and how the site is built. Some use templates, some use WordPress and some write custom code. Those choices change both the price and what the site costs to keep running.
Template, WordPress or custom code
Templates and WordPress are cheaper to start. They also need plugin and theme updates, and out-of-date plugins are how many small business sites get hacked. Custom-coded sites cost more to design and have fewer moving parts, so there is less to update and less to break. Whichever you pick, ask who handles updates and security after launch, and what that costs. Our post on WordPress security and custom-coded websites goes into the detail.
What a tradie site actually needs
You do not need fifty pages. You need a site that loads fast on a phone, shows a tap-to-call number, says what you do and where, and makes it easy to ask for a quote. Licence numbers, photos of your own jobs and real customer reviews help people trust you. The full list is in what a tradie website should include. Everything beyond that is extra, and extras are where quotes grow.
Check the quote, not just the total
- Which pages and features are included, listed one by one
- Who writes the text and who finds or takes the photos
- Domain, hosting and licence costs, and who pays them each year
- Whether you own the domain, the hosting account and the code
- Whether it works properly on a phone
- What happens if something breaks after launch, and what that costs
- How many rounds of changes are included
If a provider will not say who owns the site if you stop paying, treat that as a reason to look elsewhere.
Will it pay for itself?
Take the average value of one job, then estimate how many extra jobs a better site could bring in a year. If an average job is worth $800 and the site brings in two extra jobs, that covers a $1,000 site. Use your own numbers. A site that does not help customers find you and call is expensive at any price, and one that brings in a few extra jobs is cheap at most prices.
Next step
For a wider view, see our guide to website cost in Australia, or read about website design for tradies. If you want a price for your own site, request a conversation and we will tell you what it needs and what it will cost.