UK trade website companies compared

Seven companies that build and run websites for tradespeople, checked against their own live pricing pages on 4 August 2026.

Companies checked7
Publish a clear price3 of 7
Publish ownership terms2 of 7
Cheapest month one£39/mo
Cheapest over 3 years£1,320
Crossover pointMonth 21

I sat down and checked the live pricing page of seven UK companies that sell done-for-you websites to tradespeople. Three of them publish a clear monthly figure. One advertises a build from £999 and stops there. Two have no public pricing page at all, so the only way to find out what a website costs is to ring up and ask. That is a strange state of affairs for an industry selling to people who quote their own work in writing, on the doorstep, before they start.

There is no shortage of articles comparing Wix against Squarespace, or Checkatrade against MyBuilder. There is almost nothing comparing the companies that actually build trade websites for you. So here is that table. I run one of these businesses, which I will be straight about: Sitework is in the list, and it does not win every column.

Key takeaways
3 of 7 publish a priceTwo UK providers have no public pricing page at all.
Cheapest month one is £39TradeBolt, on a monthly plan with no upfront fee.
Nobody charges upfront nowEvery one of the seven starts at £0, so compare the exit, not the entry.
Only 2 state ownership termsOne hands over files at 12 months, not before.
Ask four questions in writingDomain owner, three-year total, cancellation, minimum term.
Quick answer

Of seven UK done-for-you trade website companies checked in August 2026, monthly plans start at £39 a month (TradeBolt) and £49 a month (Digital Tradies, MyTradeSite), and £50 every four weeks from Sitework, which is £650 a year. Nothing is payable upfront on any of the seven, so the entry price no longer separates them. Only two of the seven state in public what happens to your files if you leave.

The seven companies, and what they actually charge

Published pricing across seven UK trade website companies in August 2026 runs from £39 to £69 a month with nothing upfront on any of them, which means the headline figure now separates these providers far less than the contract terms beside it do.

Company Upfront Ongoing Who keeps the files
SiteworkNo build fee£50 / 4 weeksYou, after 12 months
Digital Tradies£0£49 or £79/moYou, after 12 months
MyTradeSite£0, 14 days free£49/moNot stated
TradeBolt£0, 14 days free£39/mo or £390/yrNot stated
iTradesFrom £999Not publishedNot stated
SwiftLeadNot publishedNot publishedNot stated
BUILT for TradesNot publishedNot publishedNot stated

How this was checked: each figure comes from the company's own live pricing or service page on 4 August 2026, not from a directory or a review site. Prices change and offers come and go, so check the current page before you decide. Sources: Digital Tradies pricing, TradeBolt, MyTradeSite and iTrades.

Two of them will not tell you the price

SwiftLead and BUILT for Trades both had no public pricing page in August 2026, so a tradesman cannot compare them against anything without booking a call first.

This is not automatically a stitch-up. Agencies that build bigger, more bespoke sites often genuinely cannot quote without a conversation, and both of those companies run substantial marketing operations that go well past a website. But it does put you at a disadvantage. You end up on a call, with a person whose job is selling, comparing a number you have just heard for the first time against numbers you looked up in your own time. Ask for the figure by email before the call and see what comes back.

What happens to the website when you stop paying

Digital Tradies publishes that the website files are yours to keep after 12 months, and that if you cancel before then it does not hand the files over, which is the clearest published cancellation term of any of the seven.

Credit where it is due: they say it out loud, on the pricing page, in plain English. Most companies in this trade do not. TradeBolt's page says that if you do not upgrade after the 14-day trial, access is paused until you do. MyTradeSite includes a free .co.uk domain that is registered and managed by them, which is a detail worth understanding properly, because the domain is the one asset that carries your Google history.

The pattern across UK providers is that the monthly model and the ownership question are joined at the hip. Nothing upfront has to be paid for somehow, and it is usually paid for by the site staying on the provider's side of the fence for a while. That is a legitimate business model, not a scandal. It just needs to be a decision you made on purpose, the same way you would want a customer to understand a staged payment on a bathroom.

If your provider has gone quiet rather than gone bust, that is a different and more common problem, and it is covered in what to do when your web designer stops replying.

Three years in, what has each one left you holding?

Over 36 months the cheapest published plan costs £1,404 and Sitework costs £1,950, so the cheap plans win on cash and the only thing left to compare is what you own when you stop paying.

Three years, real published figures

£39/mo plan, 36 months£1,404
£49/mo plan, 36 months£1,764
Sitework, £50 every four weeks£1,950
Difference over three years£546

Sitework is thirteen payments a year rather than twelve, so £650 a year and £1,950 across three. It is the most expensive row in this table and there is no point pretending otherwise. All three assume the monthly price holds, which is worth asking any provider about, because a rolling plan can be repriced.

So the honest version is this. If the only thing being compared is what leaves your account, take the £39 plan. What the extra £546 over three years is meant to buy is a stated transfer of the website and the domain to you after twelve months, no exit fee, and a first payment that comes back if you do not like the finished site. Whether that is worth £15 a month is genuinely your call, and it is a much smaller question than the one this article used to pose. For the nine-provider version of this comparison with the year one totals worked out, see who builds websites for UK tradesmen.

Three years is the right window for a trade website, not twelve months. Most of the sites I have built are still doing the same job in year three with a few hundred pounds of edits along the way. If you are weighing the website against the other places that money could go, the cost per job across trade lead channels puts all of it on the same scale, and a full breakdown of what a build should cost sits on the tradesman website cost page.

Where a monthly plan genuinely wins

A monthly plan with nothing upfront is the better call for a new sole trader whose cash position matters more than the three-year total.

If you registered with Companies House three months ago and every outgoing is being counted, the eleven pounds a month between £39 and £50 is not nothing. Take the cheapest plan that publishes its exit terms. A business in its first year should be optimising for survival, not for what it owns in year three, and it can move to something better once the work is steady. That is a straight answer and it goes against my own pricing, but it is the right one for that person.

There is a second case, and it comes up more than people expect. If you are testing something rather than committing to it, a new service line, a second town, a trade you are moving into, then renting the website for a year is the sensible way to find out whether the work is there. Paying to build an asset around a business decision you have not made yet is the wrong order. Rent it, see if the phone rings, and build properly once you know the answer. I have talked two people out of a build on exactly that basis.

Where the monthly model stops being the obvious call is the point at which the website is carrying real money. Once a meaningful share of your work arrives through it, the question changes from what does this cost a month to what happens to my enquiries if this relationship ends. That is a different question, and it is the one the cancellation terms answer.

Four questions to ask any of them

Domain ownership, the three-year total, the cancellation terms and the minimum term are the four answers that separate providers, and all four should be given in writing without hesitation.

Question 1Who is the registered owner of the domain?It should be you or your company. The domain carries your search history, so this is the answer that matters most.
Question 2What is the total cost over three years?Build fee plus every monthly payment. Ask them to write the number down.
Question 3If I cancel, what do I keep and when?Files, content, photos and domain. Get the timing, not just a yes.
Question 4Is there a minimum term?Cancel any time and a 12-month commitment are very different things, and both get described as flexible.

What I would actually tell a tradesman choosing

Pick on the three-year total and the cancellation terms, not the month-one price, unless cash today is the binding constraint.

The honest summary of the table is that these companies are not really competing on quality of website, because you cannot judge that from a pricing page. They are competing on how the money is structured, and the structure is the thing to read carefully. Nothing upfront is a genuine benefit with a genuine cost attached, and a one-off build is a bigger cheque that stops being one. Neither is a trick.

What I would not do is choose a provider that will not tell you the price until you are on a call with them, unless you already know you want a bigger piece of work than a website. If you want to see how the done-for-you model works in practice before you talk to anyone, what done-for-you actually means for a trade website walks through it.

See yours before you pay anything

I will build a free mockup of your actual business, your trade, your area, your photos, before any money changes hands. If you like it, it is no build fee and nothing to pay on day one, then £50 every four weeks covering hosting, SSL, security, domain renewal and unlimited small edits. Three months minimum then rolling, your first payment back if you do not like the finished site, and after twelve months the website and domain are yours with no exit fee. Sites are usually live in about a week. Apply at sitework.uk/#apply.

Trade website companies: FAQ

Which trade website company is cheapest in the UK?

On cash, the cheapest published monthly plans win and keep winning. TradeBolt publishes £39 a month and Digital Tradies and MyTradeSite both publish £49 a month, which is £1,404 and £1,764 across three years. Sitework is £50 every four weeks, thirteen payments a year, so £650 a year and £1,950 over three. Nobody pays anything upfront on any of them. The difference is not the price, it is what you are holding at the end.

Do you own your website with a monthly trade website plan?

Often not straight away, and the terms vary a lot. Digital Tradies states that the files are yours to keep after 12 months, and that if you cancel before then it does not hand the website files over. TradeBolt says access is paused if you do not upgrade after the trial. MyTradeSite registers and manages the domain. Ask any UK provider, including Sitework, to put the answer in writing before you sign.

Why do some trade website companies not publish prices?

Usually because the price is set per enquiry rather than per product. Of the seven UK companies checked in August 2026, three published a clear headline figure, one advertised a from price of £999, and two had no public pricing page at all. That is not automatically a bad sign, but it does mean you cannot compare them without a call, and you should ask for the ongoing cost in writing, not just the build fee.

Is a £49 a month website better value than a one-off build?

On cash, yes, and it stays cheaper. A £49 monthly plan is £588 a year against £650 for Sitework, and neither asks for anything upfront, which matters if you are a new sole trader in the UK watching every outgoing. The £62 a year difference buys you two things worth checking for on any provider: a stated transfer of the site and domain after twelve months, and no exit fee when you go.

What should I ask a trade website company before signing?

Four questions cover most of it. Who is the registered owner of the domain? What is the total cost over three years, including the monthly fee? What happens to the website files and content if I cancel, and when? Is there a minimum term? Get the answers by email rather than on a call. Any honest provider will put them in writing without hesitating.

Done-for-you · £50 every four weeks

See your site before you pay a penny

I build a free mockup of your actual business, your trade, your area, your branding. Like it? No build fee and nothing to pay on day one, then £50 every four weeks: I build it, host it and keep it ranking, with no per-lead charges. After twelve months the site and the domain are yours.