A $500 site or a
$1,000 site?
A $500 website is almost always a template, bought through a marketplace freelancer or bundled free with a hosting or domain deal. That is not automatically a bad thing — if the site only needs to exist, $500 can be the right spend. Where it usually falls over is structure and support: one page pretending to be a website, no real on-page SEO, and nobody to call when something breaks. Our floor is $1,000, the Trade Starter tier, and this page says honestly what that extra $500 buys — and when it does not matter to you at all.
Side by side
| A $500 website | A $1,000 website | |
|---|---|---|
| What it usually is | A template from a marketplace, an offshore freelancer, or a "free site" bundled with hosting. | Our Trade Starter package: a properly built, mobile-first small site. |
| Who builds it | Often someone you deal with once, through a listing rather than a local business. | A local developer who answers the phone if something needs changing. |
| Pages | Usually one page doing the work of several, or a handful with little real difference between them. | 3–5 proper pages — home, services, about, contact. |
| On-page SEO | Rarely more than a default page title. Not built for search on purpose. | Basic on-page SEO included from the start. |
| Enquiry forms | Often a mailto link, or nothing more than a phone number in the footer. | A working quote form that actually lands in your inbox. |
| Mobile experience | Hit or miss. Templates vary a great deal in quality. | Mobile-first design, built for the phone your customers search on. |
| Support afterwards | Usually none included. Changing anything means a new listing or starting again. | A defined scope with a real handover, and someone to call. |
| A year later | Often replaced rather than extended, because the template was never meant to grow. | Built to be added to — a new service or suburb page slots in without a rebuild. |
A $500 website is the right spend when
- You are testing whether the business idea works at all, and cash matters more than polish.
- You already get all your work from referral, and the site only needs to exist for when someone Googles your name afterwards.
- You are comfortable replacing it in six to twelve months once you actually know what you need.
- You would genuinely rather build it yourself for less — see DIY versus hiring someone — because $500 only beats free if it saves you real time.
The $1,000 Trade Starter is the right spend when
- You want a properly structured small site, not one page stretched to look like several.
- You want basic on-page SEO built in from day one, rather than retrofitted later at extra cost.
- You want an enquiry form that actually reaches your inbox, not a dead mailto link.
- You want a local person to call when something breaks, not a marketplace listing that has since gone quiet.
- You would rather pay once for something built to last than pay $500 twice.
Our honest take
If the honest answer is that your website just needs to exist while referrals carry the business, do not let anyone talk you out of the cheap option — that includes us. Where $500 stops making sense is the moment the site actually has to do something: rank for a search, take an enquiry reliably, or represent the business to someone who has never met you. That is what the extra $500 buys, and it is a genuine floor rather than a marketing number — see the full range on pricing. If you want the complete picture across all our tiers rather than just these two, we wrote that up separately: how much a tradie website actually costs in Perth.
Common questions
Do you build $500 websites?
Is a $500 website actually worth it?
What am I actually missing at $500?
Should I just build it myself for free?
Still not sure?
Tell us what you are trying to achieve and we will tell you which way we would go — including if that is not with us.
Prefer to talk? Call 08 6323 2970