What a tradesman website really costs

1. A DIY builder, about £10 to £30 a month

   Wix or Squarespace plus a domain and a business email. Cheapest to start and you build it yourself, which is the real cost: a weekend you do not have, and a site that looks like the template it came from. Over three years, roughly £360 to £1,080, and it stops working the day you stop paying.

2. A freelancer, about £1,000 to £3,000 once

   One person builds you a site and hands it over. You own it, which matters. The risk is what happens in month seven when you need a change and they have taken a full time job. Ask who holds the domain and the hosting before you pay a deposit.

3. An agency, £2,500 upwards

   A studio with a designer and a developer. Genuinely good work at the top end, and London firms charge the most. For a sole trader chasing local jobs it is usually more site than the job needs, and the lead time is measured in weeks.

4. A monthly rental, £79 to £199 a month

   This is the one to read carefully. No setup fee, a site in days, and unlimited edits. The arithmetic is the part the sales page leaves out: at £99 a month you have paid £3,564 after three years, and you own nothing. Stop paying and the site goes off. Ask one question before signing, which is whether you can take the site with you.

5. What FORGE charges, £174.99 once

   A real multipage site built by our agents in hours, and you own it outright. No monthly fee to keep it online, no lock in, and the domain is registered in your name at your registrar, never ours. The optional monthly packs are for ongoing marketing work, never for keeping your own site switched on.

The honest summary is that almost any of these can be the right answer, and the rental is the one that needs the arithmetic doing first. Whatever you choose, ask the two questions that decide it: what have I paid after three years, and what do I own when I walk away.