The short answer
A tree service website can cost close to nothing if you build it yourself, a few hundred to a few thousand dollars if you hire a freelancer or agency for a one-time build, or a small monthly fee if you go with a website subscription. The upfront price is only part of it. What matters is the total over a year, including hosting, updates and your own time.
The four ways tree companies usually get a website
1. Build it yourself with a website builder
Website builders charge a monthly subscription, usually in the tens of dollars a month once you want your own domain and no builder ads. The software is cheap, but your time isn't. Expect to spend evenings choosing a template, writing text and resizing photos. Many owners start one, get a few pages in, and never finish.
Good fit if: you enjoy computer work and have the time. Watch out for: a site that looks unfinished, which can cost you more trust than having no site at all.
2. Hire a freelancer for a one-time build
A freelancer will usually quote a one-time fee, commonly somewhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on the size of the site. Hosting is often extra, and so are changes after launch. Ask who fixes the site if something breaks in a year, and what each update will cost.
Good fit if: you want to pay once and rarely change anything. Watch out for: freelancers who move on, leaving you with a site nobody can update.
3. Hire a marketing agency
Agencies tend to sell bigger packages: a website plus ads, SEO and monthly reporting, often with a contract. That can make sense for a larger company with a marketing budget. For a small crew, it's often more than you need, and the contract can be hard to get out of.
4. A website subscription
Here you pay a monthly fee and the provider designs the site, hosts it, keeps it secure and makes small updates. There's little or nothing to pay upfront. The trade-off is that you're paying every month, so check what happens if you stop: who owns the domain, and whether you can take your site with you.
Whatever you choose, register the domain name in your own name. Your domain (yourbusiness.com) is your address online. If someone else owns it and you part ways, you can lose it, along with every link and listing that points to it.
Costs people forget
- Domain name. Usually somewhere around $10 to $25 a year for a .com, paid to a domain registrar.
- Hosting and security. Your site needs somewhere to live and an SSL certificate (the padlock in the browser). Some options include this, others charge separately.
- Updates. New photos, a new service, storm-season hours. Find out whether updates are included or billed per change.
- Your time. The cheapest option on paper can be the most expensive if it eats your evenings.
What a tree service website actually needs
You don't need thirty pages, a blog or flashy animations to win tree work. You need a site that does a few things very well:
- A tap-to-call button at the top of every page on a phone
- A quote form where customers can attach photos of the tree
- Your services: removal, trimming, stump grinding, storm cleanup, whatever you offer
- The towns and counties you cover
- Real photos of your jobs and your Google reviews
- Your insurance or certification details, if you have them
If someone quotes you thousands of dollars, ask which of these you're paying for, and what else is in there.
What it costs with Weblit Studio
We work on the subscription model, with no upfront cost. We build you a free mockup first, so you can see your site before paying anything. If you go ahead, the first month is free, then it's $19 a month for the website, or $29 a month with basic automation (an instant reply to every new enquiry, lead alerts and leads saved to a Google Sheet). Hosting, security and one small update a month are included. There's no contract. Your domain is registered in your name and you pay for it directly.
See what that looks like for a tree company on our tree service website design page.
Five questions to ask before you pay anyone
- Can I see a design before I pay?
- Is hosting included, and what does it cost after the first year?
- Who registers the domain, and in whose name?
- How do I ask for changes, and what do they cost?
- What happens to my website if I stop paying?
Any honest provider, including us, should answer all five in writing before you start.