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How Much Does a Painter Website Cost?

By Ansh Singh · Updated November 8, 2026 · 8 min read

Short answer: A painter website costs about $17 to $50 a month if you build it yourself on Wix or Squarespace, on yearly billing. A freelancer typically costs about $1,500 to $5,000, and an agency about $5,000 to $15,000 or more. Those last two are our estimate, not a survey. Pages and photos matter more than price.

Key facts

Wix plans start at $17.77 a month and Squarespace at $19 a month on yearly billing, checked 8 November 2026.
A freelancer costs about $1,500 to $5,000 for a small site, our estimate, not a survey.
An agency costs about $5,000 to $15,000 or more, our estimate, and often adds monthly fees.
Free builder plans do not let you use your own domain.
The hidden cost is your time: plan on a few weekends to write pages and upload photos.
Get in writing that the domain is registered in your name, with your login.

There are three ways to get a painting company website: build it yourself on a website builder, pay a freelancer to build it, or hire an agency. The cost grows with how much of the work someone else does. This guide gives real prices for the builders, labels our own estimates, and lists the extras that painters run into.

We also sell a done-for-you plan, so we are not a neutral judge. We will not quote our own prices here. You can ask for a free demo site on our home page and compare it with the options below.

What do the DIY builders cost?

A website builder is a tool you pay for monthly or yearly. You choose a template, type in your text, upload your photos and publish. The prices below come from each company's own page, checked on 8 November 2026.

Builder	Plans and monthly price	Custom domain on the free plan?
Wix	Light $17.77, Core $29.77, Business $39.77, Business Elite $159.77 (yearly billing) (Wix)	The plans page FAQ says a paid plan is needed to connect your own domain
Squarespace	Basic $19, Core $29, Plus $49, Advanced $99 on annual billing, or $25, $39, $65 and $139 on monthly billing (Squarespace)	No free plan on the pricing page we checked. Annual plans include a free domain for the first year, on available domains
WordPress.com	Free $0, Personal $4, Premium $8, Business $25, Commerce $45, billed yearly (WordPress.com)	No. Paid plans allow a custom domain, free for one year on annual plans

A few notes on these numbers:

Wix says prices vary by location and exclude tax. Squarespace says a free domain renews at the standard rate after year one. Check your own checkout page before you pay.
WordPress.com is a hosted service with its own plans. The WordPress software itself is a separate option you host on your own account, and hosting costs vary.
A custom domain, such as smithpaintingco.com, is worth having. The free plans use the builder's own address, which looks less trustworthy on a truck door or an estimate.

For a painter, the middle plans cover what most small companies need: a page per service, a photo gallery, a contact form and a domain. The bottom plans may cap features, so read what each plan includes before you buy. For a closer look at the options, see our guide to the best website builder for a painting business and the hub guide on website builders for contractors.

The cost that builder prices hide is your time. Plan on a few weekends to write the pages, shrink and upload photos and set up the domain. If you charge $60 an hour in busy season, ten hours is $600 of your time. Painters usually feel this most in spring and summer, when the phone rings and the ladder calls.

What does a freelancer cost?

A freelancer is one person who designs and builds the site for you, often on WordPress or a builder. Our estimate is about $1,500 to $5,000 for a small site of 6 to 12 pages. It is our estimate, not a published price list, and quotes vary with the person and what you ask for.

What you get for that: someone else sets up the design, domain and basic pages. What you often still do: write the text, supply the photos and keep it updated. Ask who owns the domain and the login, and whether you are charged for edits later.

What does an agency cost?

An agency is a company with a team: designer, writer, developer, sometimes a marketer. Our estimate is about $5,000 to $15,000 or more, and agencies tend to bill for monthly work on top. Judge that against your own books, since a small crew has to earn it back in jobs. Ask what you get each month, what you own if you cancel, and how long the contract lasts.

What is the full cost to run a painter website?

The sticker price is not the whole bill. Here are the pieces.

Piece	Typical cost	Notes
Builder plan or hosting	Builder prices above	Monthly or yearly
Domain name	Free first year on some plans, then the standard renewal	Squarespace states the renewal rate is standard after year one
Photos	Your phone is fine	A tidy before and after set matters more than a pro camera
Writing the pages	Your time, or a writer	Service pages, process, towns, about page
Updates	Your time or a monthly fee	New jobs, season notes, review quotes
Review tools or texts	Often free to start	You can send a link yourself

Google's help page says you can ask customers for reviews by sending a Google link or having them scan a QR code (Google Business Profile Help). Our guide on review request texts for painters has wording to start with.

What do painters need that other trades do not?

The cost does not change much by trade. What changes is where the money and time go.

Photo galleries. Painting is visual. You want an organized set for interior, exterior and cabinets. Check that your plan allows enough photos, and that images are resized so the page loads fast on a phone.
A cabinet page. If cabinet refinishing is a main service, it needs its own page, its own photos and its own text. See cabinet painting marketing.
A lead-safe notice. If you work on homes built before 1978, EPA says paid work that disturbs paint requires certification, sole proprietors included (EPA RRP program). Your site should say whether you hold it. Our guide on showing lead-safe status on your site shows how.
Your license number, where your state asks for one. California's board says work of $1,000 or more needs a license and has a painting class, C-33 (CSLB). Florida lists paint work as not needing a state license, but says a licensed contractor's website must show the number (Florida DBPR FAQ). See our California page for how it plays out.
An estimate form with photo upload, so you can give a rough range before a visit.

Our guide on what a painting company website should include covers each item.

Is the cheapest option good enough?

Often yes, if you do the work. Google says there are no extra requirements to show up in its AI Overviews and AI Mode, and no special markup is needed (Google Search Central). So a plain, fast site on a mid-priced builder can show up as well as an expensive one, provided it has real pages and reviews and that its pages can be indexed. Google's page on AI features does not tie results to how much a site cost.

Where cheap goes wrong:

A free plan with a builder address and ads on it.
A site built by someone who owns the domain and will not hand it over.
A template that blocks search crawlers. OpenAI says sites opted out of its search crawler will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links (OpenAI crawler docs).
Thin pages with only a few lines about each service.

How do I choose between DIY, freelancer and agency?

Ask yourself three things.

Do I have the time? If you can give a few evenings, DIY on a builder costs the least.
Do I have the words and photos? If yes, a freelancer can build it for you quickly. If not, someone has to write them, and that costs more.
Do I want it kept up? A site that never changes slowly falls behind. If you do not want to update it, plan for monthly help.

Whichever way you go, get these things in writing:

The domain is registered in your name, with your login.
You can take your text and photos with you if you leave.
What monthly fees cover and how to cancel.
Who answers when the site breaks.

For the hub view across all trades, see how much a contractor website costs.

What should I spend to start?

If you have no site now, a middle-tier builder plan and a weekend of work beats waiting. You can upgrade later. If you are in the busy season, a freelancer may be worth the cost because your time earns more on the job than on the site. Our guide on whether you need a site at all, do I need a website for my painting business, covers the very first step.

Common questions

What is the cheapest way to get a painter website?

The cheapest real route is an entry paid plan on a builder, about $17.77 a month on Wix or $19 on Squarespace with yearly billing, plus the domain renewal after year one. WordPress.com's paid plans start lower, at $4 a month billed yearly. Free plans cost nothing but do not let you use your own domain.

Do I have to pay for hosting separately?

On Wix, Squarespace and WordPress.com, hosting is part of the plan. If you use the free WordPress software on your own, you pay a host. Ask any freelancer or agency whether hosting is included in their price, and who owns the hosting account.

Are monthly fees from agencies normal?

Some agencies charge a monthly fee for hosting, updates and search work. That can be fair if you know what you receive each month and can cancel. If a quote is vague about what the fee covers, ask for a written list.

Does a more expensive site get more calls?

We found no source showing that price alone drives calls. Reviews, a complete Google profile, real photos, and pages that answer questions matter more. Google says standard search practice, with no special add-ons, applies to its AI features.

Sources

About the author

Ansh Singh runs Contractor Websites. He builds websites for electricians, plumbers, roofers and other home service trades, and writes the guides on this site. More about Ansh Singh.

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