If you ask 10 website providers what a tradie website costs, you’ll get quotes from $0 (Wix) to $15,000 (full agency). It’s confusing, intentionally opaque, and usually built to upsell you into something you don’t need.
Here’s what every price point actually delivers — and what a working Australian tradie actually needs.
$0 — DIY on Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify
What it costs: $0 upfront, typically $18-32/month (annual plan) or $25-45/month.
What you get: A functional website template you populate yourself. 5-15 hours of your time to set up.
What’s missing:
- Australian business-specific templates (most are US/European-focused)
- Local SEO optimisation (generic templates, no suburb pages)
- Trade-specific features (no service calculators, booking flows)
- Professional copywriting (you’re writing your own copy)
- Ongoing maintenance (you fix everything yourself)
Who it works for: Very early-stage businesses testing whether they want to take it seriously. Side hustlers. Tradies doing <5 jobs a month.
Why it usually fails: A tradie’s time is worth $60-120/hour. 15 hours building a website costs $900-1,800 in lost revenue. The $0 website is not actually free.
$300-800 — Fiverr or Upwork freelancer
What it costs: $300-800 one-off.
What you get: A 3-5 page site built on Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress. Templated design with your logo and colours. Basic content.
What&rsquo>s good:
- Better than DIY (someone else does the setup)
- Cheap upfront
What&rsquo>s missing:
- No ongoing support (you’re on your own the day after launch)
- Generic templates not optimised for tradie conversions
- Overseas freelancers often don’t understand Australian business context
- No hosting, no security updates, no edits included
- Highly variable quality
Who it works for: Tradies who are comfortable with WordPress admin and happy doing their own edits.
Hidden cost: Once it’s built, you need hosting ($15-30/month), you’ll pay for edits ($50-100 each), and you’ll spend another $100-300 within 6 months when something breaks.
$1,200-2,500 — Local small business web designer
What it costs: $1,200-2,500 one-off + $30-80/month hosting.
What you get: A custom-ish WordPress site with 5-10 pages. Designer meets with you, builds it over 4-8 weeks, hands over.
What&rsquo>s good:
- Local understanding of your business
- Professional appearance
- Some customisation
What&rsquo>s missing:
- Hit-and-miss quality of builder
- Usually no ongoing SEO or content work
- Edits cost extra ($80-200 each)
- 6-8 week turnaround
- No SMS automation, no review requests, no advanced features
Who it works for: Tradies who want a one-off job done and don’t mind managing ongoing work themselves.
$4,000-8,000 — Mid-tier agency
What it costs: $4,000-8,000 upfront + $100-250/month ongoing.
What you get: Properly designed site. Multiple rounds of revision. Brand strategy conversations. Copywriter involved. 10-20 page site. Ongoing retainer optional.
What&rsquo>s good:
- High quality design
- Thoughtful copywriting
- Project management
What&rsquo>s problematic:
- 8-14 week timeline
- Lots of meetings about brand, strategy, values — most of which a trade business doesn’t need
- Expensive edits ($150-300)
- Often over-designed for trade customers (who just want to see reviews and a phone number)
Who it works for: Tradies with annual revenue $500k+ wanting a premium presence, or commercial-focused businesses marketing to other businesses.
$10,000-25,000 — Full agency
What it costs: $10,000+ upfront + $500-2,000/month ongoing.
What you get: A complete brand refresh, strategy work, multiple rounds of design, copywriting, photography, sometimes video content, ongoing retainer for updates and SEO.
Who it works for: Commercial trades, multi-location businesses, franchises, B2B trades with complex sales cycles.
What you’re really paying for: Process, account management, strategy documents. The actual website isn’t $10k of value — it’s $3-5k of website plus $7-20k of consulting services.
What an Australian tradie actually needs
Honest opinion after 147 builds: a working local service website needs:
- 5-10 pages (home, services, about, contact, 3-5 service-specific pages)
- Mobile-optimised (70% of tradie enquiries are on phone)
- Contact form with SMS notification
- Trust signals: reviews, licence, ABN, insurance
- Google Business Profile integration
- Local SEO basics (schema, meta, suburb pages)
- Fast load times
- Ongoing updates and hosting
That’s it. You don’t need a brand workshop. You don’t need a content strategy document. You don’t need animated hero videos. None of these things increase phone calls.
The subscription model
A subscription model ($199 setup + $99-249/month) works out at $1,387-3,187 for the first year, $1,188-2,988 for each year after. That’s cheaper than a one-off agency build for ongoing coverage, and cheaper than DIY once you value your own time.
The maths for our $199 Starter tier:
- Year 1 total: $1,387
- Year 3 total: $3,763
- Includes: full build + hosting + edits + support + security + backups
Compare to paying a local designer $1,800 + $40/month hosting = $2,280 year 1, $2,760 year 3 — without edits or support.
The only price comparison that matters
Your website is an investment, not an expense. The question isn’t “how much does this cost?” — it’s “how much work does it bring in?”
A site that generates 5 extra jobs per month at $400 average = $24k/year. At $1,387/year, that’s a 1,700% ROI.
If your current site generates less than 2 enquiries per month and your competitors are out-ranking you, you’re losing $20-40k/year to a cheap or broken website. Fixing it pays for itself in 2 months.
See all three tiers or start your build — 7 days, $199 upfront.