If you've looked into getting a website for your contracting business, you've probably seen a huge range of prices. Some agencies quote $5,000 to $15,000. DIY builders like Wix and Squarespace advertise $16/month. Your nephew says he'll do it for free.
So what does a contractor website actually cost? And more importantly, what should you be paying?
Let me break down every option honestly, because most of the information out there is written by people trying to sell you one of these options.
Option 1: DIY Website Builders ($16–$50/month)
Platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy let you drag and drop a website together yourself. Sounds easy. Here's the reality:
What you get: A template website you build and maintain yourself. You pick a template, swap in your photos and text, and publish.
What it actually costs: The advertised price is always the lowest tier, which usually has ads on your site and a branded domain (yourname.wixsite.com - not professional). A real business site runs $25–$50/month. That's $300–$600 per year, every year, forever. Over five years, you've spent $1,500–$3,000.
The hidden cost: Your time. Most contractors I talk to spend 10–20 hours trying to get their DIY site to look right - and most of them still aren't happy with it. That's 10–20 hours you could have spent on a paying job. If you bill $75/hour, your "free" website just cost you $750–$1,500 in lost income.
The real problem: You don't own it. Stop paying the monthly fee and your site disappears. All your content, all your photos, all your SEO rankings - gone. You're renting, not owning.
Option 2: Freelance Web Designer ($1,000–$3,000)
Hiring a freelancer gets you a custom-designed site without the agency price tag.
What you get: A professional-looking website, usually built on WordPress, that someone else designs and hands off to you.
What it actually costs: $1,000–$3,000 for the initial build. Then $100–$300/year for hosting. Then WordPress needs updates, plugins need patches, and eventually something breaks. Many freelancers charge $50–$100/hour for ongoing maintenance - or they disappear after the initial build and you're stuck figuring out WordPress yourself.
The upside: Better design than DIY, customized to your business.
The downside: WordPress sites require maintenance. Plugins conflict. Security vulnerabilities pop up. If your freelancer moves on and you don't know how to update WordPress, your site slowly degrades until it becomes a liability instead of an asset.
Option 3: Web Design Agency ($5,000–$15,000+)
Agencies are the premium option. Big team, polished process, project managers, the whole thing.
What you get: A fully custom website with professional copywriting, photography direction, and ongoing support contracts.
What it actually costs: $5,000–$15,000 for the build. Then $200–$500/month for hosting, maintenance, and support contracts. Some agencies also take a percentage of your leads or charge per form submission.
Over three years, you could easily spend $15,000–$30,000. For a contractor doing $200K–$500K in annual revenue, that's a serious chunk of your marketing budget - especially when your real lead source is word of mouth.
When it makes sense: If you're a large operation doing $1M+ in revenue with multiple crews and a real marketing strategy, an agency might be worth it. For a solo contractor or small crew? It's overkill.
Option 4: One-Time Payment, You Own It ($200–$1,000)
This is what I do at Reasonable Tech Dad. You pay once. You own the site. No monthly fees. No maintenance contracts. No surprises.
The Essentials package ($200–$500): A clean, single-page website with your services, photos, reviews, and contact info. Delivered in 48 hours. Mobile-first design. Basic SEO. Everything a contractor needs to convert referrals into calls.
The Elite package ($1,000): A multi-page site with a blog, portfolio gallery, quote request form, and deeper SEO. Built for contractors who want to grow their online presence, not just have one.
What you own: The code, the domain, the content - everything. If you want to move to a different host or hire someone else to make changes later, you can. No lock-in.
How is this possible? I keep overhead low, I use modern tools that don't require expensive hosting, and I don't pad projects with unnecessary features. A contractor doesn't need a $10,000 website. You need something clean, fast, and professional - and that doesn't cost $10,000 to build.
The Comparison at a Glance
Here's what each option costs over three years:
DIY Builder: $900–$1,800 in fees + 10–20 hours of your time. You don't own it.
Freelancer: $1,500–$4,000 total (build + hosting + occasional fixes). You own it, but you maintain it.
Agency: $12,000–$30,000+ (build + monthly contracts). You own it, but you're paying for a lot more than you need.
Reasonable Tech Dad: $200–$1,000 one-time. You own it. No ongoing costs except ~$15/year for your domain.
What Actually Matters
Here's what I tell every contractor who asks me about pricing: the cost of the website is not the important number. The important number is what a website costs you when you don't have one.
If you lose even one $3,000 job because a customer Googled you and found nothing convincing, that's more than any website would have cost. Read more about why contractors need a website in the first place - the math on lost referrals is eye-opening.
Your website doesn't need to be expensive. It needs to exist, it needs to load fast, it needs to show your work, and it needs to make it dead simple to contact you.
Everything else is extra.
Ready to Stop Overthinking It?
If you've been putting off getting a website because the prices seem all over the map, I get it. That's exactly why I built a simple, flat-price option for contractors.
See the pricing or contact Ryan directly - I respond same-day and there's no sales pitch. Just an honest conversation about what your business needs.