Most contractors get quoted a website price with zero context for what it actually means. You end up comparing a $900 Squarespace build against a $6,000 custom site and have no real way to know if the gap is justified. This guide breaks down what each tier actually delivers, where agencies pad their margins, and what a fair price looks like for a trades business in Vancouver in 2026.
The Vancouver web design market splits pretty cleanly into three tiers. Template shops charge $700 to $2,000. You get a pre-built theme with your logo and colours swapped in, maybe some basic copy. The site loads slowly, ranks poorly, and looks almost identical to half the other contractor sites in the city. Not worthless, but not an asset either.
Mid-tier custom work runs $2,500 to $6,000. This is where most of the legitimate work happens. You get a site designed and built specifically for your business, with real performance optimization, schema markup, and local SEO foundations built in from the start. A solid mid-tier site should hit 90+ on Google Lighthouse and be live within 5 to 10 days.
Established agencies charge $5,000 to $15,000 or more for work in the same category, but with longer timelines and account management overhead baked into the price. For a trades business trying to generate leads in Metro Vancouver, you are paying for infrastructure you genuinely do not need.
Page count is the main driver. A 5-page site (home, about, services, contact, and one location page) takes 3 to 5 days to build. A site with 8 to 10 pages including individual service pages, multiple city pages, a portfolio, and a blog setup takes 5 to 7 days. At 15 or more pages with integrations like booking systems or estimate calculators, you are looking at 10 to 14 days.
Integrations add cost because they add real complexity. A Jobber booking integration, a quote calculator, or a before-and-after gallery each add several hours of development work. Those are legitimate costs, not padding.
Design quality matters more than most clients expect. A site that looks premium converts better. The photography, the typography, the spacing, the small animation details: these are what separate a site that earns trust on first impression from one that makes visitors quietly wonder if you are the right call.
The default assumption is that WordPress is the affordable option. In practice, a properly built custom Next.js site is often cheaper to run over time and performs significantly better.
WordPress sites built with page builders like Divi or Elementor average 3 to 6 second load times on mobile. A statically generated Next.js site on Vercel loads in under 1 second. Page speed is a direct Google ranking factor. For every extra second of load time, conversion rates drop roughly 7 percent. For a trades business where most searches happen on mobile, that math matters a lot.
WordPress also carries ongoing costs that never show up in the original quote: premium plugin licenses, security monitoring, update maintenance, and eventually a full rebuild when the theme goes stale. A custom site costs more upfront and less over time.
Our pricing is fixed, no hourly billing. A basic 5-page site starts at $2,000 CAD and goes live in 3 to 5 days. A standard 8 to 10 page build with service pages, location pages, and a gallery runs $3,500 CAD. Advanced builds with booking integrations, unlimited location pages, or e-commerce start at $5,000 CAD.
Every build includes custom design with no templates, Next.js 15 with TypeScript, 90-plus Lighthouse score, LocalBusiness schema markup, contact form, Google Analytics 4 setup, Google Search Console setup, sitemap, and deployment on Vercel. Monthly retainers start at $200 for hosting and maintenance, with optional SEO monitoring at $500 per month.
You own the code. Cancel the retainer anytime. No contracts.
Ask every agency or freelancer three questions before you commit. First: what is the Lighthouse score on your last 5 projects? Anything below 80 is a red flag. Second: do I own the code and the domain, or is it locked to your platform? If they cannot give you a straight answer, walk away. Third: what is included in the monthly fee and is it actually required? A legitimate agency will let you host elsewhere and manage the site on your own if you want to.
Get everything in writing before you pay a deposit. Scope, timeline, what is included, what is not, and what the revision process looks like. A fixed-price quote from a reputable shop is the safest place to start.
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