Illustrative photo.
There's no single honest answer to "how much does a website cost," and any business that gives you one number without asking what you need is guessing. But there are real, publicly documented ranges worth knowing before you start comparing quotes.
For a standard small-business website in Canada, industry pricing research generally puts a professionally built site in the $2,500–$10,000 range, with full-service or boutique agency builds running $6,000–$35,000 and up depending on scope. Where a specific project lands in that range depends far more on what's actually being built than on which agency builds it.
For a trade business specifically, a few things tend to push the number up from a baseline brochure site: multiple distinct service pages (each service, done properly, is its own page for both users and search visibility), a real service-area section if you cover more than one town or region, a before/after photo gallery, integration with a scheduling or CRM system if you use one, and any online quote or booking flow beyond a basic contact form.
A few things tend to keep the number reasonable: a focused scope (a handful of pages done well, not twenty pages of thin content), reusing real photos and information you already have rather than needing new photography or copywriting from scratch, and skipping features you won't actually use — a booking system nobody will maintain isn't worth paying for.
Ongoing costs are worth budgeting for separately from the build itself. Hosting, security updates, and periodic content changes (a new service, an updated service area, a seasonal promotion) are real, recurring needs — some agencies fold this into a monthly care plan, others charge per request. Ask which model a quote assumes before comparing it to another.
The honest way to get a real number: describe your actual business — how many services, whether you need a booking flow, whether you have existing photos and content — and get a scoped quote against that, not a generic package price. That's the only number that means anything for your specific project.