What a website really costs

For a local service business, a professionally built site that books work generally lands between $1,000 and $5,000 up front, plus a monthly fee if someone maintains it. Mine start at $1,500 to build and $150 a month for the system that answers your phone and texts customers back. Under $1,000 usually buys a template with your name on it. Five figures buys custom work most one-truck businesses don't need yet.

Because an honest price depends on the job. A one-page site for a detailer and a booking system for a shop with four bays are different amounts of work. A builder who quotes one flat price either pads it to cover the worst case or cuts corners when your job turns out bigger. "Starts at $1,500" means simple jobs cost that; if yours needs more, you hear the real number before you pay anything.

$500 typically buys a template: your logo dropped into a design used by hundreds of other businesses, no booking, no follow-up. Around $1,500 you should get a site built for your trade with one job — turning a visit into a booked appointment — plus the technical basics search engines require. $10,000 agency work adds custom design, content campaigns, and account managers; it makes sense once you have crews and a marketing budget, not before.

You can, and for some businesses it's the right call — if you have the evenings to learn it and nobody's calling yet. What the free builders don't do: answer your phone, text back a missed call, or book jobs while you're under a sink. You also carry the technical side — search setup, speed, mobile — yourself. If the site's job is to look alive, DIY works. If its job is to book work while you work, that's what you're paying for.