Should I show my prices online?

Almost every business that hides its prices gives the same two reasons: every job is different, and competitors would see them. Both are true and neither survives contact with what customers actually do, which is close the page and message someone who told them.

What silence actually costs

Price is the first thing a customer wants and the last thing most businesses give them. When it is absent, four things happen, all bad:

• People assume the worst. No price reads as expensive. Not mysterious, not premium — expensive.
• You get enquiries you do not want. Without a filter, everyone asks, including people whose budget is a quarter of your minimum. Every one of those costs you a reply, sometimes a visit.
• You lose people who would have bought. A large share of buyers will not ask. They shortlist from what they can see and you were never on it.
• It reads as evasive. Fairly or not, a hidden price suggests it depends on what the customer will bear.

Meanwhile the competitor argument is weaker than it feels. If a competitor wants your prices they will ask for a quote, or send someone who will. Publishing costs you almost nothing there; it just feels risky because it is public.

The filter is the point

The strongest argument for publishing is not that it wins more enquiries. It is that it wins better ones. Someone who has seen "from £2,400" and messages anyway has already accepted the range. That conversation starts halfway to a yes.

Fewer, more serious enquiries is a better outcome than more enquiries, especially for a business of one where every reply comes out of your evening.

Four ways to publish when a fixed number is impossible

"Every job is different" is a reason not to publish a single figure. It is not a reason to publish nothing.

1. A starting price. "From £95 for a standard service." Sets the floor and filters out the people who were never going to book.
2. A range with what moves it. "Most kitchens come in between £4,000 and £9,000, depending on size, whether we move plumbing, and the units you choose." The explanation is what makes the range credible rather than evasive.
3. Worked examples. Two or three real jobs — what it was, what was involved, what it cost. Far more persuasive than a rate card, because people match themselves to the closest one.
4. The unit price. Per hour, per square metre, per head, per hour of cover — with an honest note about what a typical job comes to.

All four give the reader something to judge with. Any of them beats "contact us for a quote".

When not showing them is genuinely right

There are real cases, and they are narrower than most people think:

• Tendered or contract work priced per client on volume and terms.
• Anything where the price depends on the customer's own numbers, not on the job — commission structures, insurance-linked work.
• Where publishing would breach a partner agreement.

Even then, publish the shape: what the pricing is based on, what a typical engagement looks like, what the minimum is. Explaining how you price is almost always possible when publishing a number is not, and it removes most of the same friction.

Say what is included

A number alone invites the wrong comparison, because the reader has no idea what the cheaper competitor left out. A price with two lines of what it covers — and what it does not — converts better than a lower number with no explanation.

Be explicit about VAT, and about call-out or minimum charges. A customer discovering a minimum charge after they have called has had a worse experience than one who never called.

Keep them current, or take them down

An out-of-date price is worse than none, because it becomes the number you are argued down to. Put a date on the page — "prices correct as of March" — and diary a reminder to review it. If you cannot keep it current, publish a range rather than a figure.

And nothing published should ever be a price you would be unhappy to honour. If you would wince at someone booking at that number, it is the wrong number.

The bottom line

Publish something — a from-price, a range with what moves it, worked examples, or a unit rate. Hiding prices does not protect your margin; it hands the enquiry to whoever was willing to say a number, and fills your inbox with people who were never going to book. See also how to price your work and what a small business website should include.