In short and in plain language
This article looks at whether prices belong on your website. Many small firms ask themselves this.
A page with no price at all can do harm. You get requests that do not fit the budget. Other customers simply look elsewhere.
There are many ways to show a price. You can use a fixed price, a range, packages or an example.
Once a price is on the page, rules apply. For private customers, the price with tax usually counts. Extra costs go right next to it.
Also say when your prices were last updated. We help you put your prices on the page in a clear way.
The question comes up in almost every first conversation, usually towards the end: should the prices go on the website or not? Two worries sit behind it, and they contradict each other. One: anyone who sees the price will not get in touch at all. The other: anyone who finds no price assumes the business is expensive and keeps looking. Both worries are reasonable, and no blanket answer fits every service. The available studies paint a clear picture: in a study of 500 tradesperson websites from five trades in five major cities, around 88 percent (Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung) gave no price at all, and only some 8 percent (Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung) offered a price calculator for an initial estimate. At the same time, research into purchase abandonment shows how sensitive people are to unclear costs: 40 percent (Baymard Institute) of those who abandoned an order name extra costs for shipping, taxes or fees that were too high as their reason. This article answers the question in a differentiated way: which price format fits which service, what German price indication rules require as soon as a figure appears on your page, and how to word prices and adjust them later without losing trust. We practise what we recommend - our prices are openly on the site, a fixed price from 290 euros net and a subscription from 39 euros a month.
Key takeaways
- A page without any figure filters nothing: it attracts enquiries whose budget was not a fit from the start, and at the same time loses prospects who do not want a drawn-out quoting process.
- There are more than two options: a fixed price, a starting price, a price range, package tiers, an hourly rate with a typical duration, or a worked-through price example - decided per service.
- As soon as a figure appears on the page, German price indication rules apply: the total price including value added tax for consumers, extra costs right beside it, starting prices only if they genuinely exist.
- Prices change: anyone who keeps the price date current, names an effective date and puts an expiry on quotes can raise prices without it looking arbitrary.
Why this question runs through almost every first meeting
Two contradictory worries sit behind the question. The first: a visible price puts people off before a conversation even starts. The second: without a price the business feels unapproachable, and anyone who wants to compare simply clicks on. Both observations are correct - they just apply to different people. Someone working to a tight budget looks for the figure and leaves without it. Someone who values careful work also looks for a point of reference, because they want to know whether they are in the right ballpark here. A page with no figure at all therefore hits both groups: it attracts enquiries whose budget did not match the offer, and it loses prospects who do not want to go through three phone calls and a site visit just to learn a rough number. How differently billing models come across is already clear from the comparison between a fixed price and an hourly rate: the fixed price takes the uncertainty off the customer, the hourly rate hands it to them. That uncertainty often decides who gets in touch - and who does not.
Time spent on enquiries without a budget
Every enquiry costs attention: reading it, calling back, arranging a date, writing a quote. If the budget was not a fit from the start, the work is done before the conversation begins.
Prospects who want a reference point
Many visitors are not looking for an exact figure but for an order of magnitude. Those who find it stay and get in touch. Those who do not carry on comparing on the next site.
The price pre-sorts before you do
A figure on the page takes over the pre-selection you would otherwise make on the phone. Fewer enquiries remain, but they match your offer far more often.
Some services barely allow a fixed figure: renovating an older building, an individual expert report, consulting with an open scope. Even there, a reference point helps. What drives the price, what range do comparable jobs fall into, what is included in the base scope, what may be added? For the reader, the difference between a curt “price on request” and an explained way of pricing is enormous: one feels like a closed door, the other like an invitation to talk. And the more clearly the service page describes what the amount covers, the fewer follow-up questions arise - an effect we regularly observe on our own package pages.
What the figures on price transparency say
The starting point is well documented. In a study of 500 websites from five building and finishing trades, around 88 percent (Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung) contained no price information whatsoever, only some 8 percent (Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung) offered an initial estimate or a simple price calculator, and just 15 percent (Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung) answered typical customer questions anywhere on the site. So anyone who gives a solid price figure already stands out in many regions. Usability research provides the counter-check: users rate price information as particularly helpful, and missing prices are among the most frequent complaints about business websites (Nielsen Norman Group). In online retail the same mechanism can even be quantified: 40 percent (Baymard Institute) of those who abandoned during checkout name extra costs such as shipping, taxes or fees that were too high as their reason, with multiple answers allowed; the abandonment rate averaged across some 50 studies sits at around 70 percent (Baymard Institute). Translated to a service page: it is not the base price that drives people away, it is what only gets added at the end. How strongly verifiable statements pay into trust is also shown in the article on customer reviews as proof of trust.
Run the numbers for one of your own weeks
An honest assessment belongs here: prices on the website do not automatically increase the number of enquiries. In some cases the number even falls, because part of the readership sorts itself out. What does change, in our experience, is the mix: fewer first conversations that lead nowhere, more conversations about scope and scheduling rather than about whether you are a fit at all. Whether that effect appears in your market depends on the competitive situation, your range of services and your target group, and it cannot be quantified in general terms. If you want to test it, start small: one price range on your most important service page, watch it for three months, then decide whether it becomes a full price page.
Six ways to show a price
The decision is not “a full price list or silence”. Several formats sit between the two, and they suit different services to different degrees. Standardised work tolerates a fixed price, individual jobs a range or a worked-through example. What matters is that the format you choose matches your costing and that you can stick to it: a figure that your quotes regularly exceed does more damage than no figure at all. So check for each service which of the following six formats holds up - a website may well combine several of them.
A fixed price for clearly defined work
When scope and effort are settled, the fixed price is the strongest format. It ends the uncertainty on both sides and makes your offer immediately assessable.
A starting price as an entry point
“From 290 euros” works if that entry point genuinely exists and the conditions stand right beside it. Otherwise the starting price turns into disappointment in the first meeting.
A price range from and to
For jobs with a varying scope. Name both ends, the typical case and the two or three factors that decide where within the range a project lands.
Package tiers with a clear scope
Three tiers with a named scope of work. The middle one is chosen often because it simplifies the comparison - so describe contents rather than adjectives.
An hourly rate with a typical duration
An hourly rate on its own says little. The usual duration makes it tangible: “85 euros per hour, a service visit typically takes two to three hours.”
A worked-through price example
A real reference project with line items and a total. That gives orientation without committing you to a fixed figure for every future job.
If “price on request” is here to stay
Price indication rules: what the law requires
As long as no figure appears on the page, price law asks nothing of most businesses. As soon as you advertise with prices or offer services while stating prices, however, the German price indication regulation applies (Preisangabenverordnung). Its core is quickly told: towards consumers you have to state the total price, meaning the amount including value added tax and all other price components (Preisangabenverordnung). A pure net amount on a page aimed at private customers is therefore open to challenge - even if a note about value added tax appears somewhere in the footer. For goods, the obligation to state freight, delivery and shipping costs is added, along with the unit price by weight or volume for prepackaged goods (Preisangabenverordnung). Individual sectors have their own requirements, such as displayed price lists in hospitality and accommodation. Breaches are no trivial matter: price advertising is among the topics regularly objected to in competition practice (Wettbewerbszentrale), and misleading price statements are also a case for the German act against unfair competition (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb). Which mandatory details belong on every business site is covered in the article on the legal notice requirement.
- Total price towards consumers: one figure including value added tax, no arithmetic left to the reader
- Extra costs right beside it: travel, shipping, disposal, materials or flat fees named where the price appears
- Unit price for goods by weight or volume, so different quantities remain comparable
- Discount claims with a reference: for price reductions on goods, the lowest total price of the past 30 days belongs with them
- Net prices only in a purely business-to-business context, and clearly marked as net amounts there
- Small businesses under the German VAT exemption: prices without value added tax shown, plus a short note about the scheme
Starting prices need a real case behind them
If your offer is aimed exclusively at business customers, you may state net prices. In that case a clear note belongs with them, such as “all prices are net and exclude statutory value added tax”. It becomes tricky with mixed target groups, and for small businesses that is the normal case: as soon as the same page also addresses private customers, the consumer requirements apply. In practice we solve this with two figures in the same row - the amount including value added tax as the total price, the net amount in brackets for trade customers - or with separate pages, each addressing one target group. What matters is that the reader does not have to do the maths and that website, quote and invoice carry the same figure.
Small businesses using the German VAT exemption follow their own logic. Anyone using the scheme under section 19 of the German VAT act shows no value added tax; since 2025 the relevant thresholds have been 25,000 euros (Umsatzsteuergesetz) of turnover in the previous year and 100,000 euros (Umsatzsteuergesetz) in the current one. On the website that means the amount stated is the final amount, and an addition such as “plus 19 percent value added tax” would simply be wrong. A short sentence under the price table works well, for example “as a small business under section 19 of the German VAT act we do not show value added tax”. Anyone who shows it anyway owes the amount shown (Umsatzsteuergesetz) - an expensive mistake that clean wording avoids. If you also sell goods, the specifics are covered in the article on the small online shop for small businesses.
Wording that works in the price block
Most price pages fail not on the amount but on the language around it. “Attractive prices”, “fair terms” or “individual offers” say nothing while costing space and credibility. A good price statement answers four questions in one go: what does it cost, what is included, what may be added, and what happens next? The comparison below shows typical wording from practice and, in each case, a version that actually helps the reader. If you want to match the tone of your own pages, the basics are in the article on writing clear website copy; we write the price table itself as part of our website copywriting service on request.
| Instead of this wording | Better like this | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Prices on request | From 290 euros net, typical projects land between 290 and 790 euros | The reader can place themselves and gets in touch with realistic expectations |
| Attractive prices for every budget | Five pages, copy entered, contact form: 490 euros | Verifiable details replace a phrase that every provider uses |
| from 39 euros | From 39 euros a month, 12-month term, hosting and maintenance included | The reference and the term prevent follow-up questions and disappointment |
| plus travel costs | Travel within a 15 kilometre radius included, beyond that 0.50 euros per kilometre | Extra costs stand where the price stands - as the price indication rules require |
| Prices incl. | All prices include 19 percent value added tax | The total price is unambiguous and the reader does not have to calculate |
| Special price: 99 instead of 149 euros | Promotional price 99 euros, lowest price of the past 30 days: 129 euros | Discount claims stay verifiable and hold up under the price indication rules |
That leaves the most common objection: “then my competitors see my prices”. True - they see them anyway. Anyone who wants to know what you charge sends an enquiry, asks a shared customer or reads your quote on their desk. The price is rarely the secret it is taken to be. The reverse is more interesting: an explained price forces clarity about your own costing and makes the value of the work visible. Anyone who charges 490 euros and writes beside it what that produces is selling on scope rather than on price. The same openness helps with hiring, by the way: job adverts that state a salary tend to attract more suitable applications, as the article on the careers page for small businesses shows.
A price on the website answers the question every prospect asks anyway - only earlier, more cheaply for both sides, and without anyone having to pick up the phone for it.
Raising prices without losing trust
Anyone who shows prices has to maintain them - and that is the point where many hold back. Yet the adjustment is less delicate than the state that precedes it. Consumer prices rose by 6.9 percent (Statistisches Bundesamt) in 2022 and by 5.9 percent (Statistisches Bundesamt) in 2023, while inflation stood at 2.2 percent (Statistisches Bundesamt) in 2024. An amount that has stood unchanged on the page for four years is therefore usually no proof of constancy but of neglected upkeep - and, in case of doubt, a misleading statement as soon as a different figure turns up in the quote. Customers take a well-founded increase calmly, in our experience, as long as it is announced, has an effective date and does not apply retroactively to jobs in progress. It gets delicate where the website carries one figure and the quote another.
- Set an effective date: a date from which the new prices apply, with enough lead time for quotes already out there
- Put an expiry on quotes: a line such as “this quote is valid for 30 days” belongs in every document from now on, and the increase then carries itself
- Tell existing customers first: a short message with the reason and the effective date, before the new amount appears on the page
- Give the reason in one sentence: higher material or energy costs, an extended scope of work - specific rather than general
- Change every place at once: price page, package page, forms, quote templates and printed notices all carry the same figure
- Make the price date visible: a note such as “as of August 2026” under the table takes the sting out of the question of how current it is
Whoever maintains the figures decides on the effect
How we get your prices onto the page
We build websites at a fixed price and stick to our own recommendation: what we charge is on the price page - a fixed price from 290 euros net, a website subscription from 39 euros a month, each with the scope of work beside it. For your site that means we first clarify which price format matches your costing, build a price table or a package block from it, and word the notes so that they meet the requirements of the price indication rules. Which packages work as a basis, and what each one contains, is set out in the overview. The copy around the figures - descriptions of the work, conditions, examples - is written as part of our website copywriting service, and later adjustments run through our website maintenance.
- Review the costing: what does a typical service cost, which factors drive the price, where is your lower limit
- Choose the format: fixed price, range, package tier, hourly rate with a duration or a price example - decided per service, not across the board
- Build the price block: a table or package cards with the scope of work, extra costs and a clear next step
- Add the legal notes: total price, value added tax, extra costs, the small business note and the price date in the right place
- Connect the enquiry route: a short form directly under the table, so that orientation turns into an enquiry
- Agree on upkeep: who changes the figures, how often the price date is checked, who signs it off
An honest assessment
Sources and Studies
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