Buyer’s guide · Websites

Website options for contractors, compared (2026)

A contractor can get a website six ways: build it on a DIY builder, use the one that comes with your job software, hire a freelancer, hire a contractor marketing agency, let an AI tool draft it, or use a service that builds and updates it for you. Which one fits depends less on features than on one question: who’s going to keep it current a year from now? This guide compares 18 options on first-year cost, ownership and upkeep, using each company’s own pages.

By Eric Smith, founder of Outfitter AI and a former general contractor · Prices checked October 4, 2026

The short answer: what fits your shop

Why it matters at all: 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, and after reading them, 54% then go check the business’s website [1]. The site is where a good review turns into a phone call. AI search is pulling from websites too. BrightLocal found 45% of consumers now use ChatGPT and other AI tools when sizing up local businesses, up from 6% the year before [1], and that ChatGPT Search shows business websites for 58% of its local search sources [2]. Yet only 40% of small businesses say they have a dedicated website [2].

One more thing before the details. Any of these can build a site you’d be happy to put on your truck. A contractor site isn’t complicated. What decides it is what the site looks like fourteen months from now, after two new services, a price change, a new phone number and a review you meant to add in March. Most dead contractor websites weren’t badly built. They were built fine and never touched again. So the real question is who’s doing the updating, and whether that person will actually have the time, again and again.

What to check before you pay for a contractor website

Every option here can put five pages and a phone number online. The differences that cost you money show up later: when you want to leave, when the renewal bill comes, when nobody has updated the site in a year. Check these ten things before you pay anyone:

• The domain is in your name. Your web address should be registered to you, on your email and your card. If a builder or agency registers it for you, you’re renting your own name. Annual builder plans usually include a .com free the first year, then about $13 to $25 a year [9].
• Who owns the site, and can you move it? Most DIY builders don’t spell out export terms on their pricing pages. Agencies vary: some say plainly you own the site, others keep it on their platform so leaving means rebuilding. Self-hosted WordPress moves anywhere. Remember that Google turned off the free websites it used to build from Business Profiles in March 2024 and sent visitors to the profile instead [6]. A site on someone else’s platform lasts as long as they want it to.
• It’s fast on a phone. About half of US web traffic is on phones: 49.1% in September 2026 [3]. Google found that as a mobile page’s load time goes from 1 to 10 seconds, the chance a visitor leaves rises 123% [4], and its older research found 40% of people leave a page that takes more than three seconds [5]. Test your site on your own phone on cell data, not the office Wi-Fi.
• Service pages and service-area pages. One page for each service you want more of, and pages or sections for the towns you actually work in. A homepage that says “we do it all” doesn’t tell Google, or a homeowner, much of anything.
• Click-to-call and a request form. The phone number should be tappable at the top of every page, and the form should be short: name, address, what’s wrong, best time to call. Send yourself a test request and make sure it lands where you’ll see it.
• Your reviews are on it. Real Google reviews, not three quotes you typed in. Some options pull reviews in or send review requests for you; on a DIY builder, you set that up yourself.
• It links to your Google Business Profile, and the profile links back. The profile is often the first thing a homeowner sees. It should point to your site, and your site should point to it.
• The renewal price, not just the intro price. Several builders advertise a first-year rate. Free domains usually last one year. Ask what year two costs before you pay for year one.
• Who updates it. Be honest. If it’s you, will you actually do it in July? If it’s someone you pay, what does a change cost and how fast does it happen? Upwork puts ongoing website maintenance at $50 to $200 a month [8].
• Contracts and cancellation. DIY builders sell monthly or prepaid plans, and Hostinger’s intro price means paying four years upfront. Some agencies are month to month; others typically require a 12-month contract [15]. Read what happens to the site, the domain and the phone number on it when you cancel.

All 18 compared

Here are 18 options in six groups: do-it-yourself builders, websites from job software, contractor agencies, freelancers, AI builders and ours. The columns are the ones that decide it for a small shop: price, who builds it, who keeps it updated and who owns it.

Prices are the lowest plan each company lists on its own pages, checked October 4, 2026, before taxes and add-ons. Many are intro prices that go up at renewal. “Not listed” means we couldn’t find it on the company’s own pages, not that it doesn’t exist. “Quote only” means you have to call. Ownership terms are what each company publishes; get them in writing before you sign.

What the first year actually costs

Monthly prices hide a lot: billed yearly or monthly, intro or regular, domain included or not. Here is the same thing priced every way we could: the first year of a 5-page contractor site on your own domain, using each company’s listed price.

An example, not a quote: the first year of a 5-page contractor site on your own domain, using each company’s listed price. It leaves out taxes, add-ons and your time. Where a domain isn’t included, we say so; budget about $10 to $20 a year. Several intro prices go up in year two. Options that don’t publish prices aren’t shown.

The DIY builders are the cheapest way to a site on your own domain. Wix’s Light plan is $17 a month billed yearly [10] and Squarespace’s Basic plan is $19 [11], both with the domain free the first year. Jobber’s site shows up at $348 only because that’s the cheapest Jobber plan [13]; if you already pay for Jobber, the site costs you nothing extra. Outfitter Professional, at $79 a month after 30 days to try it, comes to $869 in year one [16]. That’s roughly four times Wix or Squarespace. What the extra pays for is not doing the work: the site is built for you, changes happen by text, and review requests and Google posts go out automatically. If you’ll do that work yourself, the DIY builder is the better deal, and we’d tell you so.

Year two is where the real comparison happens. Hostinger’s $2.99 intro rate renews at $10.99 a month [12]. 10Web’s first year is half its regular price. Free domains usually turn into $13 to $25 a year [9]. Outfitter Professional would be $948 for a full year at $79 a month. A freelancer is a one-time build instead (Thumbtack puts the national average for website development at $1,057 [7]), but you still pay for hosting, and for changes unless you make them yourself. And none of these numbers include your own hours, or the content: the service descriptions, the towns, the photos of your work. Every option needs those from you in some form.

Each option, in plain terms

Do-it-yourself website builders

Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, Hostinger and WordPress give you the tools and hosting for roughly $50 to $350 the first year, and most now draft the site with AI. The catch is that you write the service pages, add the photos and keep it current. Watch intro prices: some more than triple at renewal.

Websites from your job software

Jobber includes a website builder in every plan, and Housecall Pro sells a done-for-you site (price not listed). They make sense if you already run your shop on that software. We didn’t find a website product from ServiceTitan or Workiz on their own pages.

Contractor marketing agencies

Specialists who build the site and usually run SEO, reviews and ads too. Published prices run from $249 a month to $12,000 and up for a build; the biggest firms quote only and may require a 12-month contract. Before you sign, ask in writing who owns the site and what happens if you leave.

Local or freelance designer

A one-time build, usually about $600 to $8,000 depending on who you hire, plus hosting and someone to make updates. You can own it outright if the domain and hosting are in your name. Quality varies a lot, so look at sites they’ve built for other contractors.

AI builders and chatbots

Durable and 10Web generate a site in under a minute for about $120 to $270 the first year, and ChatGPT can now build and host one. They’re fast and cheap, but the first draft is generic, and you’re still the one who buys the domain, fixes the details and keeps it updated.

Outfitter AI

Our own product, listed so you can compare. A free site in about 5 minutes on our address, or $79 a month for your own domain with Google review requests and posts handled automatically. You make changes by text. It won’t match a custom agency site for design control.

Building it yourself with ChatGPT, Claude or an AI builder

Plenty of owners now ask: why pay for any of this when ChatGPT or Claude can write a website? It’s a fair question, and for the right owner it’s a fine answer. Here is what these tools do well, and what they leave with you.

What they do well. A general AI chatbot can write a decent contractor site fast: the pages, the copy, even the code. ChatGPT now goes a step further. Its Sites feature, in public beta, creates, hosts and publishes a site on Plus, Pro and workspace plans [14]. Claude Pro, at $20 a month, can write the site’s code and copy, though its pricing page doesn’t offer website hosting. The builders have caught up too: Wix’s Harmony editor, Squarespace’s Blueprint AI and GoDaddy’s Airo all draft a first version for you, Durable generates a full site in about 30 seconds, and 10Web builds one on WordPress.

What you still own. The AI writes. You run it. Specifically:

• The domain. You buy it and keep it in your name. To put a custom domain on a ChatGPT site, you edit the DNS settings yourself [14].
• Hosting. ChatGPT Sites hosts what it builds; its help article doesn’t say how you’d export it. If Claude or another chatbot writes the code, the code is yours to host anywhere, which means you pick the host, upload it and keep it running.
• Updates. A chatbot doesn’t remember to update the site when you add a service, change your number or start working a new town. You have to come back, ask, check and republish.
• Your Google Business Profile and reviews. A chatbot won’t set up or manage your profile, and it won’t ask your customers for reviews.
• The facts. A first draft from any AI is generic until you add your real services, photos and towns. Read every line before it goes live, especially anything about licenses, warranties or pricing.

There’s also a reason to get the words right no matter what builds the site. With 45% of consumers using AI tools to check out local businesses [1] and ChatGPT Search showing business websites for 58% of its local sources [2], the site has to say plainly what you do, where you do it and how to reach you. Fancy design doesn’t help there. Clear, specific pages do.

Who it fits: an owner who already uses ChatGPT or Claude, is comfortable with domains and DNS, and doesn’t mind being the webmaster. If that’s you, it’s a cheap, capable route. We walk through it step by step in can I build my own website with an AI tool?

What every contractor website needs, whoever builds it

Whichever route you pick, the finished site needs the same few things. We’ve covered each one on its own page, so here’s the short version with the links:

• The basics on every page. Your trade and towns in the headline, a tappable phone number, a short request form, real reviews, photos of your own work, and your license and insurance where it matters. The full list is in what should a contractor website include?
• A realistic budget. What a site costs depends on who writes the copy and who updates it, not just the builder. See how much a contractor website costs.
• A Google Business Profile that points to it. The profile and the site do different jobs, and you want both. See Google Business Profile vs. a website.
• Something you control besides Facebook. A Facebook page is useful, but it’s not a website and it isn’t yours. See is a Facebook page enough?
• A way to be found. If you have a site and still don’t show up, the cause is usually your profile, your pages or your reviews, not the builder. See why your business isn’t showing up on Google.
• An honest DIY plan. If you’re building it yourself with AI, read can I build my own website with an AI tool? first.

Common questions

Sources and how we compared

We compared the routes a 1 to 25 person home-service company realistically takes to a website: DIY builders, websites from job software, contractor marketing agencies, freelancers, AI builders and chatbots, and our own. Prices, plans and terms come from each company’s own pricing, feature or help pages, opened October 4, 2026. Freelancer and self-hosted WordPress costs come from Thumbtack, Upwork and Hostinger cost guides. Where a company doesn’t publish something we say “not listed”. First-year costs are examples for a 5-page site, not quotes. We didn’t find a website product from ServiceTitan or Workiz on their own pages, so they aren’t included. This guide replaces our older answer page on website builders.

1. BrightLocal: Local Consumer Review Survey — 2026; marketing-software vendor research
2. BrightLocal: Local SEO statistics — marketing-software vendor
3. StatCounter: Desktop vs mobile vs tablet market share, United States — September 2026
4. Think with Google: Mobile page speed industry benchmarks
5. Think with Google: Mobile page speed and load time — 2016
6. TechRadar: Google is shutting down websites made with Business Profiles
7. Thumbtack: Website development prices — marketplace cost guide
8. Upwork: How much does it cost to build a website? — freelance marketplace cost guide
9. WordPress.com: How much does a website cost? — October 2, 2026; website-builder vendor
10. Wix: How much does Wix Harmony cost? — updated September 10, 2026
11. Squarespace pricing
12. Hostinger Website Builder
13. Jobber pricing
14. OpenAI Help Center: Creating and using ChatGPT sites
15. Scorpion: Home services marketing
16. Outfitter AI pricing

Last updated October 4, 2026. Prices change; if something here is out of date, call or text (507) 628-0400 and we’ll fix it.

Related: All contractor guides · Contractor website answers · Answering services for contractors, compared · Outfitter AI website