Three in four contractor sites show no price at all

Two surveys asked contractors directly. They got the same answer.

Every other finding in this study is our own measurement, which is a reason for caution. This one is not alone. Two trade publications surveyed contractors about exactly this, by asking them rather than by reading their pages.

Different method, different sample, different people, and both within six points. Two instruments agreeing is the best evidence available that this measures the trade rather than our own code. It is also the figure that never moved: 75 percent survived three runs and two rounds of bug fixing that changed almost everything else on this site.

And it is probably too kind

Our check credits a site with showing a price the moment it finds a dollar sign and a digit. We went back and read what those figures actually were on a sample of sites we had passed: about half were coupons, financing terms or company statistics rather than the price of doing a job. "Save $150", "$0 down", "we have saved homeowners $1 million".

Counted strictly, in other words, rather more than three in four of these sites leave a visitor unable to learn what work costs. We have left the looser definition in place because it is simple, reproducible, and errs against us.

What the homeowners say

Roughly three in four homeowners want a number. Roughly three in four contractors do not give them one. Nobody is confused about what the customer wants; the industry has simply decided not to answer.

The quietest trade is not the one you would guess

Electricians are the quietest about money. More than four in five give a visitor nothing. HVAC is the most open, and it is also the trade where the published homeowner research is strongest, which may not be a coincidence.

Roofing is the interesting one. Roofers are far and away the best trade at telling you the estimate is free, ahead of the next by thirty seven points, and 81 percent of them still will not put a number near it. They have learned the first half of the sentence and not the second.

Almost nobody is doing the thing everyone is afraid of

The argument against showing prices is usually an argument against publishing one fixed number and being held to it.

So we counted. Reading the pricing pages of 88 home service businesses gave 311 published prices: 77 percent were a range, 14 percent a starting price with "from" in front of it, and only 9 percent a single fixed figure.

One business in eleven. The rest publish a shape rather than a promise, and a shape is enough for a homeowner to decide whether to pick up the phone.

Full breakdown in should you put your prices on your website.

What the silence costs, in money you already count

Most contractors know their cost per lead, because most are buying leads. For example, the lead brokers RankWeld and Stork Leads each advertise 2026 rates by trade: exclusive leads at $55 to $180 for plumbing, $55 to $200 for HVAC and $75 to $250 for roofing, with storm-damage roofing leads at $150 to $400.

As an illustration, take a site doing 500 visitors a month at the low end of the usual 2 to 4 percent conversion band. These are sample figures, not a measurement of anyone.

Same ads, same spend, same van. The difference is whether the people already on the site could tell what the work costs.

The 2 to 4 percent band is an industry benchmark, not a measurement of ours. We read what is on the pages; we cannot see a stranger's analytics. Read the sum as a sense of scale, not a forecast.

The three objections

"My competitors will undercut me"

They can already ring and ask, and the ones who care have. What a published range does is set the frame before somebody else sets it. A customer who has seen your numbers judges the next quote against yours, instead of against the cheapest advert they saw that week.

"Every job is different"

True, and it is exactly why 77 percent of published prices are ranges. The question was never whether the work varies. It is whether you can name the band it varies inside, and if you genuinely cannot, that is worth knowing about your own pricing before a customer finds out for you.

"I will get time-wasters"

This one is real. A number does attract price shoppers. It also turns away the people who were never going to afford the work, before they take an hour of your Tuesday. Whether that trade is worth it depends on whether your problem is too few enquiries or too many bad ones.

Questions people ask

What percentage of contractors show prices online?

In our study of 2,000 contractor homepages, 25 percent showed some form of pricing and 75 percent showed none. Two independent trade surveys found much the same by asking contractors directly: ACHR News put HVAC at 31 percent listing prices, and a 2025 roofing survey put roofers at 24 percent.

Do homeowners actually care?

Two independent surveys say yes. 70 percent told ACHR News they are more likely to call an HVAC contractor who is open about pricing; 78 percent told Roofing Contractor the same about roofers.

Does publishing a price lock me into it?

Only if you publish a fixed figure, which is about 9 percent of what actually gets published. 77 percent are ranges and 14 percent are starting prices. A range with its conditions written next to it opens a conversation rather than closing one.

Which trade is worst at it?

Electricians. 83 percent of the 307 electrical sites we read showed no price anywhere, against 63 percent for HVAC, the most forthcoming trade in the sample.

Is the price sometimes on an inner page instead?

Almost never. We followed a pricing link from the homepages of 28 flagged sites: none had a price one click away, and 25 did not even offer such a link.