How many times have you wanted an answer to the question “Should my pricing be on my website?” 

The short answer to this question is this: It depends what would work for you and your audience. 

Despite what you might have been led to believe, there is truly no “right or wrong” way to do things when it comes to whether your pricing should be publicly displayed. 

At the same time, I know hearing that doesn’t help you one bit! So let’s dive a little deeper to help you make the decision that works best for you and your clients. 

Here are three different approaches you could take. 

Option 1: Don’t put pricing on your website. 

In this scenario, people need to make direct contact with you if they’re going to find out what your services cost. 

Pro: You get the opportunity to have a personal exchange with and nurture every potential client that comes your way. 

Con: It can be a lot of administrative work. You have to respond to every inbox inquiry you receive, even if those people are not your ideal client or do not have the budget to work with you. 

→ One workaround for this is to list a “Starting from” price on your website. It still requires you to respond to individual inquiries, but it can lessen the number you receive as people will self opt-out if they see your “starting from” price is not in alignment with their budget 

My thoughts: The biggest concern I hear about this approach is “But then my competitors will be able to see my pricing!” I say if your competitors really care about your pricing that much, they’re going to find a sneaky way to get it anyway—probably through an anonymous inquiry that you have to take the time to respond to! 

But also: Do NOT make a decision about your website based on how it will impact your competitors. Your website isn’t about your competitors, remember. It’s about your potential client and how you can best serve them. 

At the moment, I do not list my pricing on my website. I want the opportunity to engage with anyone interested in my services and decide whether we’re the right fit for one another. If we’re not, I equally like the chance to be able to refer them to another service provider in my network that might be able to support them. 

Option 2: Include a download option for people to get your pricing.

In this situation you would include an option for people to download your pricing list. You’d set it up like a Lead Gen where people enter their email address and then receive your Pricing via email. (There’s no point having a straight download button. The whole point is to capture their email address, otherwise you might as well just list the pricing directly on your site.

Pro: It eliminates the admin associated with Option 1 as delivery of your Pricing PDF would be an automated email. You still end up with their email address in order to follow up and nurture the lead if you wanted to. This could be a further automated email inviting them to schedule an inquiry call with you. Another bonus is you get to provide a little more of your brand experience through the design of the Pricing PDF (remembering, however, that they’re probably going to scroll straight to the numbers section!) 

Con: As you’d be asking people for their email address in exchange for receiving this information, you’re potentially going to end up with a lot of people on your email list that were either simply price shopping, or who do not have the budget to work with you. 

My thoughts: This is a great hybrid approach that eliminates some of your inquiry admin while still allowing you the opportunity to follow up and nurture a lead. This is also a great option if you provide the type of service that requires you to custom quote for each project. You could have a general Pricing PDF that provides your “starting from” rates for different services, and then have an automated email that invites the person to schedule a call or fill out an online form which would give you more information to prepare a more detailed quote specific to their needs. 

Option 3: Put your pricing on your website. 

Clean and simple — list your pricing on your website 

Pro: You’ll end up only receiving genuine inquiries from people who have the budget to work with you. You’re less likely to have people questioning your rates, as potential clients will already be aware of your pricing before you connect. You’ve established a clear line of communication with a potential client from the beginning of your relationship. 

Con: We know people don’t read the fine print, so sometimes just seeing a number without reading the context can lead to sticker shock. But that’s where your branding and reputation will hopefully have done a lot of the heavy lifting to help eliminate that type of response. 

My thoughts: If you have the type of business where you offer different pricing for different packages or tiers of service, this can sometimes be tricky to communicate on a website and might require a bit of strategising to get the messaging just right. But if you feel confident in your pricing (which you should!) and don’t have capacity to nurture individual inquiries, putting your pricing on your website is the way to go. 

There we have it; like I said — no right or wrong, just the right choice for your business. (Don’t buy into everyone else’s opinions!) 

Pick one and run with it. You can always change it later if you need to!