should you show prices on your website? the honest case for and against

business · Oct 5, 2026 · 5 min read

every service business asks this question, and almost everyone answers it with fear. the fear has two faces: "my competitors will copy my prices" and "clients will see the number and leave". both fears are real. both are also smaller than the cost of hiding.

what hiding prices actually does

a site without prices does not remove the price conversation. it moves it. the conversation happens later, on the phone or in the inbox, with a person who has already invested time in you, and who is now more annoyed than curious, because they had to chase a number that exists and is being withheld.

price-hiding filters nobody. it delays everyone. and it puts the first real information about how you work behind a form, which teaches the visitor that working with you starts with friction. that is not the lesson you want your first page to teach.

the fear, examined honestly

"competitors will copy my prices." they can see them anyway: they can call you, they can ask a shared client, they can watch what you quote. competitors who compete by copying prices were going to undercut you regardless of what your site says. your defense is not secrecy. your defense is being able to explain what the number includes. a price with a reason is hard to copy. a hidden price is easy to undercut.

"people will see the number and leave." some will. those people were going to leave after the phone call too. the only difference is how much of your week they consume first. the visitor who leaves at the price is not a lost client. they are a client you never had, discovered for free, at zero minutes of your time. that is the kindest way anyone will ever reject you.

what to actually show

you rarely need exact numbers. you need a band. "showcase sites in this studio run 1500-5000 euro, depending on content and structure" filters everyone correctly: it excludes the person expecting to pay 300, it excludes the person expecting a 20000-euro agency process, and it invites the person whose budget and expectations actually match what you do.

a band works when two things travel with it:

  • what the band includes. how many pages, who writes the text, what happens after launch. a range without contents is a lottery ticket, and people do not trust lotteries.
  • what moves the number. the variables you would ask about anyway. saying "it depends on X and Y" while showing the band is more honest and more useful than saying nothing at all.

the checked ranges for websites, by the way, are written down in quanto costa un sito web: builder 0-300 euro a year, template 300-1000, freelance 1500-5000, agency 5000-20000+. those bands took research to verify, and they are exactly the kind of thing a visitor cannot find anywhere else on your market. that is the point: the price page most businesses are afraid to write is the page their competitors refuse to write, which makes it the easiest page to be the best at.

when hiding prices is the right call

there is one honest case: work where scoping is the product. complex integrations, long retainers, projects where the same number would be wrong for almost everyone who reads it. even there, hiding everything is laziness. show a starting figure, or a recent project range, or at minimum what drives cost up and down. "price on request" with zero anchors is not discretion. it is the visitor doing your homework.

FAQ

is not the price what loses the sale?

what loses the sale is the gap between the price and the visible value. a number next to nothing loses to silence. a number next to what is included wins, because the visitor can do the only math that matters: is what i get worth what i pay.

what if my prices change often?

then say the band and say it moves. changing a number on your own site should take minutes. if updating your own price page requires a phone call to your developer, that is a different problem, and it is worth fixing before the next price change.

where do i put them?

on the page where the visitor is already convinced enough to wonder, usually the service page, near the end, next to what is included. a prices-only page in the menu is for businesses that compete on price. if you are reading this post, you probably do not.

the deeper reason

a price on a page is a statement of self-respect: i know what my work costs, and i am not afraid of the question. the businesses that hide prices are usually not hiding them from clients. they are hiding from having decided them.

deciding is the hard part. once it is decided, publishing takes a minute.

if you are a studio or a professional near Parma deciding what your price page should say, that is a conversation i do every week:

and if you are not near Parma: write the band, write what it includes, publish it, and let the phone ring less and ring better.