A contractor website costs one of four ways. A DIY builder runs $16 to $49 a month and you build it yourself. A freelancer charges $1,000 to $5,000 once. An agency charges $5,000 to $10,000 and up. A done-for-you service like Mirin is $199 a month with the build, hosting, and updates included.
That is the honest answer most pages bury under a thousand words of throat clearing.
The number you actually pay depends on one thing. Not how many pages. Who does the work, and who keeps doing it after launch.
Want to know if your current site is worth keeping before you spend a dollar? Run it through the free Mirin scorecard. Sixty seconds, no signup.
Four ways to get a contractor website
What a contractor website should actually cost
Here are the four real options, with real 2026 prices, in one table.
Every number below is a market rate you can verify, not a sales figure.
| Option | Price | Who builds it | Who keeps it updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace) | $16 to $49 per month | You | You, forever |
| Freelancer | $1,000 to $5,000 one time | A hired designer | You, or pay again |
| Agency | $5,000 to $10,000+ one time | A team | Retainer or you |
| Done-for-you (Mirin) | $199 per month | Mirin | Mirin, included |
Squarespace starts at $16 a month and Wix plans run from $17 to $159 a month. That is the cheapest sticker price. It is also the option where you are the web designer now.
A freelancer for a contractor site typically runs $1,000 to $5,000 one time, with hourly designers charging $30 to $200 an hour. An agency for the same work is $5,000 to $10,000 or more, and custom builds climb past $30,000.
Why quotes vary so much
Two contractors ask for the same website and get quotes $8,000 apart. Both quotes are honest.
The spread is not about quality. It is about scope creep you did not ask for.
An agency quote bundles strategy calls, a custom design system, a booking integration, an SEO retainer, and a content plan. A freelancer quote is a designer and a template. A builder subscription is you and a weekend. Same three words, "I need a website," four wildly different bills.
The median small business spends around $5,000 on a website, according to a Clutch survey. For a contractor, most of that median goes to things that do not book a single job.
What contractors actually need, and overpay for
Across the contractor sites we have built at Mirin, the pages that generate calls are boring.
A phone number that follows the visitor down the page. A clear service-area list. Real photos of real jobs. Reviews with first names. A short form for people who do not want to call.
That is the list. It fits on one page and it wins quotes.
Here is what contractors routinely pay four figures for and rarely use: an animated hero video, a custom online booking system, a fourteen-page service tree, and a blog nobody reads. The call comes from the phone number and the job photos. It almost never comes from the animation.
So the expensive quote is often expensive for the wrong reasons. You are not buying more customers. You are buying more website to maintain.
See what your current site is worth before you spend.
Send Mirin your site. We grade the pages that actually book contractor jobs, phone, service area, proof, and tell you what to fix first.
Run the free scorecard- Paste your site URL
- We grade it in seconds
- You see the gaps
- You decide
The hidden cost: keeping it updated
The build price is the part everyone quotes. The upkeep is the part that actually adds up.
A one-time site is only current on launch day.
Your service area grows. A price changes. You add a crew, drop a service, finish a job worth showing off. Every one of those is an edit. On a DIY builder you do it yourself at night. On a freelancer or agency build you email, wait, and get an invoice. Ongoing maintenance and support for a small business site runs $1,000 to $6,000 a year.
The real cost is the upkeep
So add the second year before you choose. A $3,000 freelancer site plus a year of edits can cost more than it looked. The cheap builder is only cheap if your time is free.
This is the number the agency blogs leave out. The sticker is the smallest part of the story.
What you get for $199 a month
Done-for-you is the fourth option, and it is the one that folds the build and the upkeep into one predictable line.
For $199 a month, Mirin builds the site, hosts it, and makes the changes for you. You never touch a dashboard.
You tell Mirin what changed in plain language. New service area, new price, a job worth showing. Mirin makes the edit, shows you a preview, and publishes it. No invoice per change. No weekend rebuilding a page. The math is simple: two years of Mirin is about $4,800, roughly what an agency charges for the build alone, except the updates are already included.
It is not the cheapest sticker. It is often the cheapest real cost, because the upkeep is where the other three quietly bill you. See the full breakdown on Mirin pricing, or how the handled model works on the Mirin platform page.
How to pick the right number for you
Match the option to your honest capacity, not to the lowest price.
If you enjoy building things and have the evenings, a DIY builder is real money saved. If you want it built once and you have someone to maintain it, a freelancer is a fair trade. If you are a larger firm that needs custom systems, an agency earns its quote.
But if you are a contractor who wants a site that stays true without becoming your second job, the done-for-you line is usually the honest pick. Before any of that, make sure your current site is not already good enough, or already costing you jobs. A contractor site has one job before the quote, and most fail it for reasons that cost nothing to fix.
See your contractor site rebuilt before you pay.
Send Mirin your current site. We will shape a preview around the pages that book jobs, so you can compare the real thing to any quote you are weighing.
Get my preview- Send your current site
- We shape a preview
- You compare it to quotes
- You decide, live in days
The repeatable rule: price the second year, not just launch day. The cheapest website is the one that stays true without becoming another job you did not sign up for.
