Websites for tradespeople: one fixed price, and the site is yours to keep

If you mean places to find work, the well-known ones are Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Rated People and TrustATrader, and our Checkatrade alternatives guide compares them honestly. If you mean the best kind of website for a trade to have, it's one you own outright, where your number is one tap away, your accreditations are shown and linked, each service and town has its own page, and your reviews sit on the page rather than on someone else's profile. The live client sites further up this page show what that looks like.

There are three routes: a DIY builder such as Wix or Squarespace if you have the time and don't need proper service-area pages; a pay-monthly builder aimed at trades, where the fee never stops and you should check who keeps the site and the domain if you leave; or a one-off build by someone who does trades, which costs more up front and is yours from day one. Ours is the third route. Whichever you pick, compare the total over a few years and the ownership terms, not the headline.

Before you pay anything. After a short call about your trade, your patch and what you've got online now, you get one fixed price for a written scope, and it doesn't grow once the work starts. The pricing page lists what's in both packages — Essentials from £595, Business from £995 — and our cost guide explains what trade websites cost across the UK market and why quotes vary so much.

You do. The build is paid for once and the site belongs to you from the day it goes live: the domain is registered in your name, and the files, words and photos are yours to take anywhere. The only monthly plan is hosting and care, and if you leave it you keep the site, which is the difference from pay-monthly builders where the site is rented and goes dark when the payments stop.

A directory sends you leads while you pay for it, and on the same screen the customer can see your competitors. Your own site works alongside it: it's where a recommendation gets checked, where Google sends people searching for your trade in your town, and where the only number on the page is yours. Keep the listing if it pays for itself, and read our guide on whether Checkatrade is worth it before you renew.

You get the timescale in writing with the price, before any deposit; what stretches it is almost always waiting on photos, a scan of a certificate or a yes on the design, not the build itself. Once the site is live, calls and quote requests come straight to you, the domain and site are yours, and you can add the hosting and care plan so updates, backups and small edits are handled for you. SEO is a separate monthly plan if you want more of the work to come from Google.