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Key takeaways
- Published 2026 New Zealand guides put a small business brochure site at roughly $1,500 to $6,000 plus GST, with simple trade sites quoted lower and content-heavy builds higher.
- Page count is what moves the price most, and it is also the thing that decides whether the site can rank.
- A website that cannot add pages easily is the expensive mistake, because service and suburb pages are the whole point.
- You still need a website even with a strong Google profile. The profile wins the map pack, the site decides what else you rank for.
Published New Zealand price guides in 2026 put a professionally built small business website at roughly $1,500 to $6,000 plus GST, with simple one-page trade sites quoted below that and content-heavy builds running well above it. The range is enormous for what looks from the outside like the same product, and the difference is almost never the design.
Take those figures as market context rather than a quote. What matters more is understanding what you are actually paying for, so you can tell a cheap site from a bad one.
What changes the price?
- Page count. The single biggest factor, and the one most often quoted low and then charged for later.
- Whether the content is written for you. Design quotes frequently assume you supply the words, which is the part most business owners never get around to.
- Custom design versus a template. A well-chosen template is not a compromise for a trade business.
- Functionality. Booking, payments, a customer portal or a job form that talks to your job management software all add real work.
- Whether it is built to add pages. Cheap builds are often structured so that adding fifty service and suburb pages later means rebuilding.
What does a tradie website actually need?
Less than most quotes assume, and more of one specific thing. What it needs is the ability to carry a page per service, and then a page per service in each area you work. That structure is what lets you rank for the searches that actually convert, and it is the thing that separates a site that produces work from a brochure.
| Type of build | Typical NZ range, plus GST | What you get, and what it costs you later |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself on a site builder | $20 to $40 a month | Live quickly, but usually no page structure and no real SEO foundation |
| Simple template build | Roughly $1,000 to $2,000 | Looks professional. Check it can add pages without a rebuild |
| Small business brochure site | Roughly $1,500 to $6,000 | The common range. Confirm whether copywriting is included |
| Content-led build | Higher again | Built to carry service and suburb pages from day one |
Do I need a website if I have a Google Business Profile?
Yes, and they do different jobs. The profile wins the map pack near your pin. The website is what Google reads to decide whether you should rank across the wider city and for the specific searches people type when they are ready to book. A profile with a thin three-page site behind it hits a ceiling quickly, and no amount of profile work lifts it.
The argument in full, with what happens when everything sits on one services page, is in why a single services page is costing your business jobs.
What are the ongoing costs?
The build price is the part people compare and the running cost is the part that surprises them. None of these are large individually, but they are permanent, so they belong in the decision.
| Item | Typical NZ cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name (.co.nz or .nz) | Roughly $25 to $40 a year | Register it in your own name, not your developer's |
| Hosting | From about $10 to $50 a month | A brochure site does not need expensive hosting |
| SSL certificate | Usually included | If you are being charged separately, ask why |
| Maintenance and updates | Varies widely | Only worth paying for if something is actually delivered |
| Content and new pages | The real ongoing cost | This is what makes the site rank, and it never finishes |
That last row is the one that matters. A site is not a fixed asset you buy once. The businesses that get work from their websites are the ones still adding pages two years later, which is why the ability to add pages cheaply matters more than the look of the original build.
Should I use a site builder or get one built?
Build it yourself on Wix or Squarespace if cash is genuinely tight and you need something live this month. It is far better than no website, and you can move later.
Get it built when the site needs to carry a real page structure, when you want the content written properly, or when your time is worth more than the difference. The honest test is whether you will actually sit down and build it. A half-finished site builder account that has been three weeks from launch for a year has cost you more than a paid build would have.
What should I never pay for?
- A site you do not own. Make sure the domain is registered to you and you have the logins. This is the most common trap and the most expensive to unwind.
- Ongoing fees with nothing attached. Hosting and maintenance are legitimate. A monthly fee with no deliverable is not.
- A rebuild you do not need. Plenty of sites need pages and content, not a new design.
- Traffic guarantees. Nobody can promise rankings, as covered in can you pay Google to rank higher.
Read next: why a single services page costs you jobs and how to write blogs that rank in AI search.
