Should you put your prices on your website?

This is the question owners argue about most, and the argument usually splits the same way. One side says publishing prices scares people off and invites competitors to undercut you. The other says hiding them wastes everyone's time. Both are describing something real, which is why the argument never resolves.

The useful answer is not yes or no. It is that silence about price is itself an answer, and usually not the one you intended.

What happens when there is no price

A visitor who cannot find a price does not conclude that your work is premium. They conclude one of three things: that it is expensive, that it is complicated, or that they are about to be sold to. All three cost you the enquiry, and none of them is what you meant.

The people most likely to leave are the ones who were nearly ready to buy. Someone comparing three businesses at nine in the evening is not going to send three enquiry emails and wait. They will use the two that published something and skip the one that did not.

Hiding prices does not remove the question. It moves the question to a phone call that many people will not make.

When publishing a fixed price is right

If the work is genuinely standard, publish the number. A haircut, an oil change, a standard boiler service, a one-hour lesson. The price is the same for nearly everyone, so withholding it only creates friction.

Publishing here does more than inform. It filters. Someone who sees your price and books anyway has already accepted it, so the conversation starts past the awkward part. That is worth more than the handful of price shoppers you lose.

When a range is the honest answer

Most trade work is not standard. A bathroom depends on the room, a rewire depends on the house, a garden depends on the ground. A fixed number would be a lie and a quote is genuinely needed.

A range still beats silence. "Most bathrooms we fit come in between $6,000 and $12,000, depending on tiling and whether the layout moves" tells a reader three useful things: roughly what to expect, that you are not hiding it, and what actually drives the cost.

That last part is what separates a helpful range from a vague one. Explaining what moves the number is what makes it credible.

The objection about competitors

The worry that competitors will undercut you is real but smaller than it feels. Your competitors can already find out what you charge by asking for a quote, and most of them already have. The people genuinely in the dark are your customers.

The deeper problem with pricing against competitors is that it makes price the only thing anyone compares. If your page shows the work, the reviews and how you actually do the job, the number stops being the only variable. A page with no prices and no proof leaves the reader nothing to judge except who is cheapest, which is the fight you least want.

What to do if you truly cannot publish

Some work genuinely cannot carry a number. Say so, in one sentence, where the price would have been.

Explain what a quote involves, how long it takes and whether it costs anything. "Every job is different, so we look at it first. A visit takes about twenty minutes, the quote is free, and you get it in writing the same day." That answers the real question underneath the price question, which is what am I committing to by asking.

The rule underneath all of this

Publish the most specific thing that is true. A fixed price if the work is fixed. A range if it varies, with the reason it varies. An honest explanation if neither is possible.

What loses you work is not a number a reader finds too high. It is a page that answers nothing, from a business that seems reluctant to say.

The Instinctor team