Should You Show Prices on Your Website?
Why One Pricing Experiment Does Not Tell the Whole Story
If you’re wondering, should you list prices on your website, James, a designer, shared an experiment where he listed his prices on his website and got fewer leads. He began to panic, put his prices back down, and believed listing prices publicly was the reason his leads dried up. That conclusion may be right or wrong, because there are lots of variables and business variables behind experiment results. One post cannot explain the whole picture, especially when lead generation, potential clients, customer perception, and value perception can all change the outcome.
I understand that fear because I have had the same fear. Putting a big number on a page, especially after getting paid double digits per hour in a past life, can feel scary when total strangers can judge whether you are worth it. That feeling is valid, but it can also become an uncomfortable part of learning better pricing, price transparency, public pricing, website pricing, and a stronger pricing strategy. My thoughts are simple: use the data from your own conversation with potential clients rather than assuming another person’s experience applies to everyone.
What James’s Experiment Really Shows
James, a designer, tested pricing by adding a base price for his cheapest logo package and an inquiry button for his other two tiers. The goal was to list prices and filter out people who were not in the right budget range, so neither the designer nor potential inquirers would waste time on a call. Before the prices were added, he was getting five or six leads a week. Afterward, he got one lead in two months, and that one lead fell through while his bills were still due on a regular basis.
He reacted after four weeks by lowering the floor price, changing the entry package to basically logo files, and testing paid ads on Google and Facebook. The advertising did not work either, so he changed the navigation link from “prices” to “packages” and returned to an inquiry-only model. His takeaway was that listing prices hurt his business, but the data does not prove that pricing alone caused the change.
A better pricing strategy should look at several factors before making a knee-jerk reaction to one experiment. For example:
- 1: Compare leads before and after price visibility.
- 2: Review pricing, tiers, and budget together.
- 3: Check the quality of inquiries, not only their number.
- 4: Consider business impact alongside customer filtering.
- 5: Test packages and messaging before removing prices completely.
Table of Contents
3 Common Fears About Listing Prices on Your Website
1: New Website Builders Worth Watching 
James’ numbers highlight one of the three specific fears that can affect pricing decisions: competitors may undercut you. I hear this concern from clients across different industries, but knowing competitors’ prices does not mean they can easily copy your business. Target knows Walmart’s prices, while Coach knows what Chanel charges. They still compete through their own pricing, customer experience, personality, niche, and brand. A competitor can copy a price or underprice you, but that does not automatically give them your competitive advantage.
From my experience, trying to compete only by being cheap is the easiest strategy in the world to replicate. Someone can simply charge less, lower the number, or slash a dollar amount. But your personality, process, results, experience, and expertise are much harder to duplicate. If a competitor can only compete by making their price cheaper, that says something about their offer, not necessarily yours. Letting this fear control your business decisions can become exhausting because there will always be people who charge less. You cannot control what other people put out there; you can control your own price, value, and positioning.
Fear #2: I'll Miss Small Budget, High-Exposure Jobs
James mentioned a small job for a motorcycle club that came through Reddit. The client had not seen his prices, so the opportunity worked out well. But projects like this can still come through different channels, including referrals, Reddit threads, DMs, and people who never visit your website. In my experience, having prices listed publicly does not mean every good opportunity disappears.
The bigger question is whether those jobs are actually worth taking. A fun, potentially high-exposure, low-budget gig can still cost you more in time, stress, and resentment than it is worth. The fear of missing smaller projects should not make you hide prices from every good client who is ready to pay what you need to charge.
You also do not want the wrong inquiries filling your inbox while the right people leave because the pricing transparency they needed was missing. If you want to keep attracting smaller, scrappier projects for high exposure purposes, I would handle them separately as part of the experiment.
For example, create a separate sales page or standalone service offer with a clear starter option, such as a design day or one-hour session. You could offer a discount in agreement for backlinks, mentions, or interviews. This gives those types of inquiries their own space while keeping higher package rates for other businesses. Clear messaging lets you have both transparency and flexibility.
Fear #3: Clients Will Use My Prices to Undercut Other Designers
The super uncomfortable truth is that this is completely and utterly outside your control. People who designer shop for the best prices can still compare your price information after a discovery call where you shared prices. It is a shitty thing when someone wastes everyone’s time just to pick the lowest number, but hiding information cannot prevent it. Even if you charge fairly, someone may still compare your pricing with competitor pricing before making their purchasing decisions.
My recommendation is tough love: do not solve other people’s potentially bad behavior by making your business less accessible to good clients. You cannot control whether people hire you regardless of price, but you can make it easier for the right clients to decide whether you are the right fit. Clear pricing and sensible price comparison can help good clients understand your offer without making your business harder to approach.
How Hiding Your Prices Can Affect Your Conversion Rate
James had some useful data that was easy to overlook because of the fear around his pricing. During those two months, traffic increased by 30% while his pricing was listed. That means there was no simple traffic problem. More people were finding his website and seeing his pages, but they were not converting into inquiries. His diagnosis was that clients saw a big number before they understood his goals, experience, and the value of his work. Without that context, they did not reach out or submit inquiries. He even described the situation as a broken sales funnel, and I think that part of his thinking was fair.
The mistake, in my view, was removing the prices instead of fixing what happened around them. If people land on a prices page and immediately leave, the amount you are charging may not be the real problem. They may simply need more trust and context before they see the price. That is often a messaging problem and a sign that the rest of the site is not doing its job. I think of it like renovating a house: if the kitchen cabinets look bad, you do not cover them with drywall and pretend the issue is gone. You repaint, remove, or replace the cabinets and then reassess the room.
Why “Inquire for Pricing” Can Push Potential Clients Away
A better approach would be to restructure the services sales page so value and trust are built before the price is shared. Lead with what you do, who you do it for, and what the results look like, then show the prices when the visitor has enough context to understand them. If you offer different packages or tiers, list them strategically so people can properly compare them. This gives you better variables to test. Removing prices completely and returning to an inquiry-only model is a full retreat because too many things changed at once, making it difficult to know which change caused the outcome.
From my own experience, a potential client can be genuinely interested in hiring a copywriter but still need basic pricing information before agreeing to a call. When I was researching a copywriter for sales copy and website copy, I found someone whose brand voice felt like a great match, but there were no prices on the website. I had a small budget and suspected the rates might be high, yet I still decided to reach out. Instead of giving me even a ballpark, a team member asked me to book a call. I simply wanted to avoid wasting time if we were in completely different price ranges, so I never heard back. Almost ten years later, I still have no idea whether that sales page would have cost $3,000 or $30,000 per word. The lack of a clear indication of pricing made the inquiry feel less important than it should have.
This is why I think pricing transparency matters. I was not scared off by a potentially high price; I wanted to check the price before making a commitment and respect everyone’s time. When pricing becomes a mystery, it can feel exclusive or premium, but it can also become frustrating and inconsiderate. The clients you most want may be the people who research before contacting you, respect your time, arrive at calls prepared, and are ready to talk. If your website does not build know, like, and trust while also giving them enough pricing context, those clients may simply choose not to reach out.
How to Display Prices on Your Web Design Website
If listing prices is worth doing, I recommend starting with starting prices because they give potential clients useful information without forcing them into a full conversation. If you have one main service package, something as simple as “Packages start at $____” on your sales page can help someone self-qualify. It quickly tells them whether your service is wildly out of their league price-wise. A starting price is not as helpful as a price range, but it is still a good first step.
Start With Starting Prices
AI is now part of the website-building experience, whether you enjoy using it or are tired of hearing about it. Most platforms have some form of built-in AI, while more AI-powered systems can build websites based on prompts. AI-powered website builders, SEO tools, and content creation tools have moved beyond being purely gimmicky and can be genuinely useful. Still, I would not choose a platform simply because it has impressive AI capabilities. The website-specific capabilities should come first, with AI integration treated as an extra part of the overall user experience.
Use Tiered Packages
Tiered packages can work even better when you have package options at different price points. Low, mid, and high options give people a spectrum where they can place themselves based on their budget and needs. Your low option does not have to be your hourly rate. It could be a Design/VIP day, a paid work session, or another lighter-scope project option that requires less commitment. This also shows the kinds of work you take and gives your service more flexibility instead of forcing everyone into one single option.
Try a Price Range
A price range can give potential clients more context than a single Starting at price. The lowest end should be your absolute base rate, meaning the amount below which you simply cannot take the project. The highest end can sit above what you would charge for your most complex project. This creates wiggle room for a custom quote when a project inquiry comes in, while potential clients can look at the range and decide if it is within their realm of possibility before reaching out. That is the real goal of showing a range.
The price itself is not doing the selling. It is simply information. Your website still needs to focus on building trust, demonstrating expertise, and showing why you are the right person for the project. When someone understands your value before reaching the amount, the price can land well instead of triggering them to cringe and leave. If they trust you enough, they may reach out even when the price is a stretch because they want the conversation first.
That is where the discovery call becomes important. A potential client who already trusts your work can arrive half-sold and be ready to discuss scope, budget, fit, and payment plans. But this only happens when the rest of your website has already done its job before someone reaches the pricing section of the sales page for the service they want.
Your Homework
Your homework is simple: open your website and look at it as a total stranger who knows nothing about web design. Ask yourself whether the page creates enough trust. Do you have testimonials? Is there a photo of you? Would a video intro help someone see that you are a real human being? Think about whether your personality comes through strongly enough for someone to trust you with their business or livelihood.
A price shared in isolation, without context, trust-building, or personality, is always going to land cold. That does not necessarily mean you have a pricing problem. It may actually be a messaging problem. Your job is to check whether the website is communicating the value behind that amount effectively.
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