Free guide
What a tradesman website really costs
Ask four companies what a website costs and you get four numbers and no way to compare them. The number that matters is not the price on the page. It is what you have paid after three years, and what you still have when you stop paying. Here is the market with the arithmetic done, every price taken from a published source on 29 September 2026.
| Route | Up front | Monthly | After three years | What you keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wix Light, paid yearly | Nothing | £9 1 | £324 | Your domain, if it is registered in your name. The site cannot move to another host 2 |
| Squarespace Basic, paid yearly | Nothing | £12 3 | £432 | Your domain, if it is registered in your name |
| A freelancer, medium site | £1,000 to £3,000 4 | Hosting on top | From £1,000 | Usually the whole site: ask before the deposit |
| An agency, small site | £2,000 to £7,000 4 | Hosting and changes on top | From £2,000 | Usually the whole site: ask before the deposit |
| A monthly website rental | Nothing 5 6 | £49 to £99 | £1,764 to £3,564 | Depends on the provider: read the terms |
| FORGE LAUNCH | £174.99 | Nothing | £174.99 | Everything. The site and the domain are yours |
| FORGE GROW+, with the Agentic Concierge | £499.99 | £59 | £2,623.99 | Everything. The monthly fee is for ongoing work, never for keeping the site online |
Three years is the monthly price times 36, plus anything paid up front. Builder and rental prices are as the providers or UK price guides published them on 29 September 2026, and prices change: check before you buy. A domain and business email come on top of every route; Google Workspace Business Starter, for one mailbox, is £5.90 a month plus VAT on a yearly plan 7.
A website builder: cheapest to start, and the work is yours
Wix Light is £9 a month paid yearly, or £11.50 paid monthly 1. Squarespace Basic is £12 paid yearly, or £16 monthly 3. Over three years that is £324 to £432 on the yearly plans. The real cost is time: you build it, write it, photograph it and keep it working, and it looks like the template it came from. And it stays where it was built. Wix says a Wix site cannot be exported to another host 2, so leaving means starting again.
A freelancer or an agency: you pay for the work once
A UK freelancer typically charges £300 to £1,000 for a small site and £1,000 to £3,000 for a medium one; an agency £2,000 to £7,000 for a small site 4. You usually own what they build, which matters. The risk with a freelancer is month seven, when you need a change and they have moved on. The risk with an agency is paying for more site than a local trade needs, and waiting weeks for it. Either way, ask who registers the domain and who holds the hosting before you pay a deposit.
A monthly rental: read the terms, then do the arithmetic
Rentals built for tradespeople ask nothing up front and charge a monthly fee instead: £49 a month at one 5, £99 at another 6. Both let you leave on notice. The arithmetic is the part a sales page leaves out: £49 a month is £1,764 after three years, and £99 is £3,564. What you keep differs between providers. One says your domain stays yours whatever happens 6; another offers to sell you the site outright 5. Before you sign, ask the question that decides it: if I stop paying, does the website come with me, or only the name?
What it costs to have a site that does not work
In our study of London trade websites, 14% of Google Maps results that link a website of their own lead to one that does not load, and 5.7% of those websites sit on a domain that no longer exists at all. A lapsed payment or a forgotten renewal does not warn your customers. They tap your website on your Google listing, get nothing, and ring the next trade.
What FORGE charges
LAUNCH is £174.99 once: a real single page site built by our agents, checked by a person, and yours outright. No monthly fee keeps it online, and the domain is registered in your name at your registrar, never ours. GROW+ is £499.99 and then £59 a month, which pays for the Agentic Concierge answering your enquiries and for the site being kept running, never for keeping your own site switched on.
Almost any of these can be the right answer. Whatever you choose, ask the two questions that decide it: what will I have paid after three years, and what do I keep if I walk away.
Sources and method
Prices are the providers' own published prices, or UK price guides that say they checked the provider's UK pricing page, as they stood on 29 September 2026. Where a source gives prices without VAT we say so. Three year totals are the monthly price times 36 plus anything paid up front.
- Wix pricing UK: all plans, fees and hidden costs, ExpertSure, prices verified against Wix's UK pricing page in July 2026. Checked 29 September 2026.
- Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere, Wix Help Center. Checked 29 September 2026.
- Squarespace pricing UK: plans, fees and true costs, ExpertSure, prices verified against Squarespace's UK pricing page in July 2026. Checked 29 September 2026.
- Website design price guide, Bark. Checked 29 September 2026.
- Websites for trades and tradesmen, Storebuilder, its own published price. Checked 29 September 2026.
- Websites for UK tradesmen, set up for you, MyTradeSite, its own published price. Checked 29 September 2026.
- How much does Google Workspace cost a UK small business in 2026, Happy Webs, published 7 September 2026. Checked 29 September 2026.
Website packages
Want this done for you instead?
Read the guide and do it yourself, and it stays free either way. If you would rather we built it, these are the packages, and you own the site at the end of every one of them.
LAUNCH
Get online fast
- Audited single page site
- Logo and asset pack
- Booking calendar
GROW
The automated business engine
- Multipage site and brand kit
- Your social profiles set up right
- Enquiry dashboard
GROW+
The autonomous sales engine
- Everything in GROW
- Agentic Concierge, 24/7
- Quote pipeline
SCALE
Premium bespoke brand
- Everything in GROW+
- Bespoke visuals and motion
- Human design pass
Fully booked. Every SCALE build includes a design pass done by hand, and that diary is full.
Watch BEACON in action →Short on time?
See yours before you decide.
Tell us your trade and we build a real preview of your site. No card, no call.
- 01
Tell us your trade
A few quick questions, one at a time. Your trade, your area, where to send it.
- 02
We build your preview
A real site with your name on it, researched for your local market.
- 03
Like it, go live
Pick a package and it goes live. You own every page of it.
Free to see. No card needed.
Get found.
Get booked.
Tell the Concierge about your business. A person follows up.
Let's have a chatEvery site is checked against our own launch audit before it goes live, or we do not ship it. FORGE is ICO registered (ZC176397). Prefer email? sales@forgeisagentic.tech and a person will answer.