You know you need a website. You have been putting it off because every time you look into it, the prices are all over the map. One guy on Fiverr says $200. A local agency says $5,000. Your buddy's nephew says he can do it for free if you buy him lunch. How much does a contractor website actually cost, and what are you getting for the money?
We are going to break down every option available to contractors in 2026, from free DIY to full-service agencies, with the real costs -- including the hidden ones nobody tells you about until you are three months in.
Option 1: DIY Website Builders ($0-$300/year)
Platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy Website Builder let you drag and drop your way to a website. On the surface, this seems like the obvious choice. You can start for free and upgrade to a paid plan for $12-$40 per month.
What you actually get:
- A template-based site that looks like every other DIY site on the internet
- Your domain (yourname.com) typically costs extra -- $12-$20/year on top of the monthly fee
- Limited SEO control -- these platforms restrict what you can optimize for search engines
- Slow page load speeds -- the builder's code runs underneath your content and adds significant overhead
- Hours of your time -- most contractors tell us they spent 10-20 hours trying to build their own site and were never happy with the result
Total real cost: $150-$500/year plus 10-20 hours of your time. If your hourly rate as a contractor is $75-$150, that "free" website actually cost you $750-$3,000 in lost billable time -- and you probably still do not love the result.
Option 2: WordPress with a Theme ($500-$2,000)
WordPress powers about 40% of the web, and there are thousands of contractor-specific themes available. You can buy a theme for $50-$100, install it on a hosting plan, and customize it yourself -- or pay someone to set it up.
What you actually get:
- More flexibility than a website builder, but also more complexity
- Hosting costs: $5-$30/month depending on quality (cheap hosting = slow site)
- Plugin costs: contact forms, SEO tools, security plugins, backup tools -- $100-$300/year for premium versions
- Ongoing maintenance: WordPress requires regular updates to core, themes, and plugins. Skip updates and you risk security vulnerabilities and broken features
- If you hire someone to set it up: $500-$1,500 for a freelancer, plus ongoing maintenance costs
Total real cost: $500-$2,000 upfront plus $300-$600/year for hosting, plugins, and maintenance. The hidden cost is maintenance -- most WordPress sites that are not actively maintained start having issues within 6-12 months.
Option 3: Freelance Web Designer ($1,500-$5,000)
Hiring a freelance designer gets you a custom website built to your specifications. You can find freelancers on platforms like Upwork or through local referrals in Los Angeles, Orange County, or Riverside.
What you actually get:
- A custom design -- but quality varies wildly depending on the designer
- A process that typically takes 4-8 weeks from kickoff to launch
- Multiple rounds of revisions and feedback (which means meetings, emails, and your time)
- Usually WordPress-based, which means the same ongoing maintenance costs as Option 2
- If the freelancer disappears (common), you are stuck with a site nobody else can easily update
Total real cost: $1,500-$5,000 upfront plus $300-$600/year for hosting and maintenance, plus 5-10 hours of your time in meetings and feedback rounds.
Option 4: Web Design Agency ($3,000-$10,000+)
A full-service agency gives you the most polished result. You get a project manager, a designer, a developer, and sometimes a copywriter. The site looks great, functions well, and is built to professional standards.
What you actually get:
- Professional quality design and development
- SEO-optimized content (sometimes -- many agencies upcharge for this)
- A timeline of 6-12 weeks
- Monthly maintenance and hosting packages: $100-$300/month
- Often locked into their ecosystem -- migrating away from an agency's setup can be expensive
Total real cost: $3,000-$10,000 upfront plus $1,200-$3,600/year in ongoing fees. For a mid-size contractor in LA pulling in $300K-$500K in revenue, this might make sense. For a two-truck operation, it is overkill.
Option 5: Productized Web Design ($497-$997)
This is what we do at CMMM Studios, and it exists because we saw a gap in the market. Contractors do not need a $5,000 custom website. They need a clean, fast, professional site that shows up in Google, displays their work, lists their service areas, and makes it easy for someone to call them. That is it. You can see real examples of what we deliver in our portfolio.
What you get with our approach:
- Starter Site ($497): Single-page website with all the essentials -- your services, service areas, contact form, phone number, Google Business Profile integration. Domain and first year of hosting included.
- Business Site ($997): Multi-page website with dedicated pages for services, about, gallery, contact, and service areas. Same deal -- domain and hosting included.
- Static HTML -- no WordPress, no plugins, no monthly maintenance. Your site loads in under 2 seconds
- Built and delivered in 5-7 business days
- No calls, no meetings -- you fill out a form, we build it, you approve it
- You own everything -- the code, the domain, the content
Total real cost: $497-$997 one-time, plus $75/year for hosting and domain renewal after the first year. No hidden fees, no monthly retainers, no maintenance contracts.
The Hidden Costs Nobody Mentions
Regardless of which option you choose, there are costs that rarely get mentioned upfront:
- Your time. Every meeting, every revision round, every email thread about font choices is time you are not spending on billable work. At $75-$150/hour, this adds up fast.
- Photography. Some agencies charge $500-$1,000 for a professional photo shoot. We work with whatever you have -- phone photos of your work are fine.
- Copywriting. If you cannot provide the text for your website, someone has to write it. Some designers charge extra for this. We include it.
- SSL certificate. Required for security and Google ranking. Free through Let's Encrypt (which we use), but some hosts charge $50-$100/year for it.
- Email setup. A professional email ([email protected]) costs $6-$12/month per user through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
What We Recommend for Most Contractors
If you are a contractor in Los Angeles, Orange County, or Riverside County and you need a website that works, our honest recommendation is this: do not overspend.
A $497-$997 website that loads fast, ranks in Google, and has your phone number front and center will generate more leads than a $5,000 WordPress site that takes 8 seconds to load on mobile and has not been updated since the designer handed it off.
The best investment is not the most expensive website. It is the one that actually gets built, goes live, and starts working for you.
Ready to stop overthinking it? See our packages or get started today. Your site will be live in under a week.