Key takeaways
- A contractor website builder handles hosting, security and templates well. It does not write your service area pages, route your quote form or fix your speed.
- Trade sites get stuck in four places: service area pages, quote forms that reach a phone, the Google Business Profile tie-in and mobile speed.
- Count your hours. At an assumed $75 an hour, DIY costs more over 36 months than the low end of every other path, even though it has the lowest cash cost.
- If you already pay for field service software like Jobber, check whether a site comes with your plan before you buy anything else.
- Decide on what the site has to do and the hours you have, then run the 36-month math with your own numbers.
The short answer
A contractor website builder is the cheapest path in cash and the most expensive in your time. Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy handle hosting and templates well, but you still build the service area pages, route the quote form to your phone, connect your Google Business Profile and keep the site fast. If you have the hours and enjoy it, build it. If those hours belong on estimates and crews, pay someone, and compare every path on three-year cost, not the first month's price.
What a contractor website builder handles well
Give the builders credit. They solved the hard technical parts a decade ago.
Hosting and security. You never touch a server. The plan includes hosting and an SSL certificate, and the builder patches its own software.
Templates that look professional. A Frisco remodeler can pick a clean template on a Sunday afternoon and have a homepage, an about page and a contact page that look better than most trade sites from 2015.
Editing without a developer. Change your hours, swap a photo, add a holiday closure banner. Drag, drop, publish.
Low monthly cost. Current plans, billed annually: Wix runs $17 to $39 a month for its Light, Core and Business plans. Squarespace runs $19 to $49 a month for Basic, Core and Plus, or $25 to $65 billed monthly. GoDaddy advertises a lower first-year price that steps up at renewal, so read the renewal line before you compare it.
If you need a five-page brochure site that says who you are and how to call you, a builder does that job.
Where it wins
- Hosting and SSL included
- Professional templates
- Edit text and photos yourself
- Low monthly cost
Where it falls short
- Service area pages you have to write
- Quote forms that default to email
- No check that your Google Business Profile matches
- Speed drops as you add apps and photos
Where trade owners get stuck
The builder gives you the frame. A trade site has four jobs the frame does not do for you, and they are the jobs that turn a visit into a call.
Service area pages. Homeowners search "water heater repair McKinney," not "water heater repair." If you work Plano, Allen, Frisco and McKinney, you want a real page for each city with the services, a few local job photos and the reviews from that area. Builders let you add pages. They do not write them, and one page copied four times with the city name swapped is thin content that rarely ranks. This is where DIY sites usually stall.
A quote form that reaches a phone. A form that sends an email to the address you signed up with is a form you check at 9 p.m. The homeowner who filled it out at 10 a.m. called the next company on the list by lunch. The form needs to text you or land in your CRM, and it needs to ask the questions that let you price the job: address, service, timeline, photos.
The Google Business Profile tie-in. For a local trade, the map listing and the site work as a pair. The site and the profile have to agree on your business name, phone number, address and service areas, and the site should link to your reviews. A builder will not check that your service areas match your city pages.
Mobile speed. A lot of trade traffic arrives on a phone, often from a driveway. Every app, animation and full-size photo you add slows the page down. Run your site through Google's PageSpeed Insights on the mobile setting. If the score is red, the template is not your problem. The extras are.
- Service area pages for Plano, Frisco and McKinney
- Quote form that texts the owner's phone
- Google Business Profile link and reviews
- Loads fast on a phone over a cell connection
Your hours are part of the price
The pricing page shows dollars. It does not show the weekends.
A first build on a builder takes real time: picking a template, writing every page, sizing photos, setting up the form, connecting the domain, learning the editor. Then the site needs upkeep. New job photos, a new service, a seasonal promo, a review widget that broke after an update, a domain renewal notice in a spam folder.
None of that is hard. All of it competes with estimates, crews and invoices. The sticker price is the smallest number in this decision. The real question is how many hours you will give the site over three years and what those hours are worth to you.
“The sticker price is the smallest number in this decision.”
Three-year cost of each path
Here is the 36-month math for four common paths. Cash comes from current plan prices and 2026 market ranges. Hours are assumptions, listed in the note under the table, so you can swap in your own. For the full breakdown of build prices, see how much a contractor website costs.
DIY builder. Wix or Squarespace on an annual plan, $19 to $39 a month, plus a domain renewal after the free first year. Lowest cash. Most hours, because you write and maintain everything.
Trade platform. Field service and quoting tools now bundle a website. Jobber includes one on every plan, starting at $49 a month, with online booking. Let's Get Quoted starts at $0 a month plus a 1.25% platform fee, or $39 a month on its Solo plan with a lower fee. Housecall Pro lists a website it builds and manages among its plan features, with plans from $59 a month billed annually. If you already pay for one of these to run your schedule, the site adds almost nothing to your cash cost.
Freelancer. A one-time build plus hosting and upkeep. 2026 pricing guides put a freelance build at $1,500 to $8,000 and ongoing maintenance at $50 to $200 a month. You spend fewer hours, but every change goes through an email and a wait.
Done-for-you plan. A monthly fee instead of a big build invoice. Most pay-monthly plans run $50 to $250 a month, and plans that include the build, hosting, updates and SEO run $99 to $500. The table uses the second range because it covers the same jobs as the other paths. Fewest hours. You never own a big upfront bill, and you pay every month.
| Path | 36-month cash | Owner hours over 36 months | Hours at $75 | 36-month total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder Lowest cash | $700 to $1,400 | 138 | $10,350 | $11,100 to $11,800 |
| Trade platform | $1,400 to $1,800 | 64 | $4,800 | $6,200 to $6,600 |
| Freelancer | $3,300 to $15,200 | 44 | $3,300 | $6,600 to $18,500 |
| Done-for-you plan Fewest hours | $3,600 to $18,000 | 22 | $1,650 | $5,200 to $19,700 |
Hours and hourly value are assumptions, not data: swap in your own. Assumed setup and upkeep: DIY builder 30 hours to build plus 3 hours a month; trade platform 10 hours plus 1.5 a month; freelancer 8 hours plus 1 a month; done-for-you plan 4 hours plus 0.5 a month. Owner time valued at $75 an hour. Cash: DIY uses Squarespace Basic ($19/mo) to Wix Business ($39/mo) billed annually plus about $20 a year for domain renewal in years 2 and 3; trade platform uses Let's Get Quoted Solo ($39/mo) to Jobber Core ($49/mo) plus domain, before platform fees; freelancer uses a $1,500 to $8,000 build plus $50 to $200 a month upkeep; done-for-you uses $99 to $500 a month. Prices checked 2026-10-03.
Read the table two ways. On cash alone, DIY wins. Once your hours count, DIY costs more than the low end of every other path. One estimate, built on the table's assumed hours: compare Wix Core at $29 a month with a $99-a-month done-for-you plan, and DIY comes out ahead over 36 months only if your hour is worth less than about $21. Change the hours and that line moves.
The spread on the freelancer and done-for-you rows is wide on purpose. A $1,500 freelancer and an $8,000 freelancer are not selling the same site, and a $99 plan and a $500 plan are not either. Ask each one which of the four jobs from the last section they handle.
Plumbing and electrician website builders: what changes by trade
Search "plumbing website builder" or "electrician website builder" and you get the same builders with a trade template on top. The template matters less than the features your trade needs. Check these before you pick.
Online booking for service calls. HVAC and plumbing shops that run on scheduled service calls benefit from a site that books straight onto the calendar. Trade platforms like Jobber build booking in because the booking lands on the same schedule your techs work from. A general builder can show a form. A form is not a booked slot.
An emergency call button. A burst pipe at 11 p.m. does not fill out a form. Plumbing, HVAC and electrical sites need a click-to-call button that stays on screen as the visitor scrolls on a phone. Most builders can do it. Few templates do it by default.
Project galleries. Roofing, fencing, remodeling and general contractors sell with photos. You want before-and-after galleries sorted by service and city, with photos compressed so they do not wreck your mobile speed.
License display. In Texas, plumbing companies must show the license number of their Responsible Master Plumber on all advertisements, whatever the media. Electrical contractors carry a TECL number on their trucks and invoices, and the site footer is an easy place to show it too. A homeowner in Arlington checking you out will look for it. Put it in the footer of every page.
The best website for contractors is the one that handles these for your trade. A beautiful template without a booking path or a call button loses to a plain site that has both.
How to decide
Skip the "which builder is best" question and run these steps in order.
- Step 1List what the site must doService area pages, a quote form that reaches a phone, booking, license display, galleries.
- Step 2Count your hoursSetup time plus monthly upkeep for each path, using the assumptions in the table or your own.
- Step 3Price your hourWhat one hour on estimates or in the field earns your business.
- Step 4Check what you already pay forField service software like Jobber may already include a site.
- Step 5Run the 36-month mathCash plus hours for each path over three years.
- Step 6Pick the path that does the jobThe lowest total that still handles every item on your list.
If the site has to do more than a brochure does, and your hours are better spent on estimates and crews, pay someone. If the site is a brochure and you like building things on a Sunday, build it yourself and give the four jobs above your full attention.
Colin has spent five years building and running the CRM inside a major Dallas–Fort Worth general contracting firm. He started Conduit to bring the same systems to owner-operated trades and contractors.
More from ColinFrequently asked questions
Should I make my own website or hire someone?
Make it yourself if the site only needs to say who you are and how to reach you, and you have the hours to keep it current. Hire someone if it needs service area pages, a quote form that reaches your phone and booking. Count your hours at what they earn you, and the cheaper choice usually becomes clear.
Is it better to build your own website or use a website builder?
For most trade owners, building your own means using a builder. Coding a site from scratch makes sense only if you already write code. A builder like Wix or Squarespace handles hosting, security and templates, so your hours go into the pages that win calls: services, cities, photos and reviews.
How much does it cost to hire someone to build a Wix website?
2026 pricing guides put a freelance website build at about $1,500 to $8,000, and a build on Wix often lands toward the lower end because the template and hosting come with the plan. You still pay Wix directly for the plan, currently $17 to $39 a month billed annually for Light, Core or Business.
Is Wix the best website builder for contractors?
Wix is a capable general builder with plans from $17 to $39 a month billed annually. Whether it is the best fit depends on the job. If you want online booking that lands on your crew's schedule, a trade platform like Jobber includes a site with booking. If you want a brochure site you edit yourself, Wix or Squarespace works.
What is the best website platform for contractors?
The best platform is the one that handles your trade's jobs: service area pages, a quote form that reaches a phone, a click-to-call button, project galleries and your license number. General builders, trade platforms, freelancers and done-for-you plans can all get there. Compare them on 36-month cost including your hours, not on the first month's price.