Most small business owners have asked themselves "should I show prices on my website?" and then quietly left the pricing page off. Fear of competitors, fear of scaring people away, fear of the one customer who needs something unusual. The question deserves a straight answer, because the choice affects how many enquiries you get, how good they are, and, since April 2025, whether you stay on the right side of UK consumer law.
This guide covers when to publish prices, when a range or "from" price works better, what the CMA's rules mean in practice, and how to test the change on your own site.
Should I show prices on my website at all?
Think about how you shop yourself. You land on a plumber's site, a wedding photographer's site, or a bookkeeping firm's site. If there is no price anywhere, you have two options: fill in a form and wait, or open the next tab. Plenty of people open the next tab.
Showing a price does three jobs at once. It filters out people who were never going to afford you. It reassures people who can that they are in the right place. And it signals confidence, because businesses that hide prices are often assumed to be expensive or awkward to deal with.
The honest trade-off is that some visitors will see your number and leave. That is fine. Those were enquiries you would have spent time quoting and then lost anyway.
What does the evidence say about hidden prices?
The cleanest data on this comes from online checkouts, where behaviour can be measured precisely. Baymard Institute's cart abandonment research puts the average documented abandonment rate at 70.22%, drawn from 50 studies. Among US shoppers who abandoned for reasons other than browsing, 40% blamed extra costs such as shipping, tax and fees, and 12% said they could not see or calculate the total cost up front.
These figures come from US ecommerce, not UK service businesses, so treat them as a direction rather than a forecast for your site. The direction is clear, though. People want to know what they will pay before they commit time, and every unanswered price question is a reason to stop.
Is hiding fees or prices legal in the UK?
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 gave the Competition and Markets Authority direct enforcement powers over consumer law. The CMA's price transparency guidance (CMA209), first published on 18 November 2025, describes drip pricing as prices being added as consumers proceed with a transaction, and lists mandatory fees, taxes and charges among the costs that belong in the price people see.
This is not theoretical. On 15 April 2026 the CMA fined the AA £4.2 million because its driving schools left a mandatory £3 booking fee out of the upfront price. More than 80,000 learners were affected, and the AA was ordered to refund over £760,000. The CMA's chief executive said a mandatory fee "must be included in the price from the very start."
When should I use a price range instead of a fixed price?
Fixed prices suit products and tightly defined services: an MOT, a 60-minute massage, a logo package. Ranges suit work with real variables: a bathroom refit, an accountancy retainer, a website build.
A useful pattern is the worked example. Rather than "kitchens from £X", write "a typical galley kitchen in a 1930s semi falls between X and Y. Bigger rooms, moving plumbing and premium worktops push it higher." The visitor learns the price and the logic behind it.
Keep "from" prices honest. If almost nobody pays the starting figure, it will feel like a bait and switch on the phone, and under the CMA's approach a headline price that misleads can still be a problem.
What if my competitors copy my prices?
The fear of being undercut is understandable, but price is rarely the only reason someone picks a supplier. Reviews, response time, examples of past work and how clearly you explain the job carry weight too. If you are worried about being judged on price alone, put the number next to the proof. Showing reviews on your website near the pricing section helps visitors justify the spend.
How should I present prices so they help conversions?
A few practical rules that hold up on small business sites:
- Lead with the outcome. "Boiler service, including flue gas analysis and safety certificate" reads better than "Boiler service £X".
- Show inclusions and exclusions. A short "not included" line prevents awkward calls and protects you against claims that a price was incomplete.
- Include VAT clearly for consumers. If you are VAT registered and selling to the public, the price people see should be the price they pay.
- Put the call to action under the price. A visitor who has just accepted your number is at their most ready. Do not make them scroll back up.
If you sell online, the same logic extends to checkout. Delivery costs and fees should be visible early, and people who still leave can be brought back with well-timed abandoned cart emails.
Are there times when not showing prices makes sense?
If you leave prices off, replace them with something useful. "Most projects we take on fall into three sizes" with a description of each, a typical turnaround for a written quote, and a short explanation of what you need from the customer to price the job. That keeps the visitor moving rather than wondering.
Some businesses use an on-site assistant to answer pricing questions out of hours. If you are considering that route, read whether an AI chatbot is worth it for a small business first, because a bot that dodges price questions frustrates people more than a clear page does.
How do I test whether showing prices works for my business?
Start with your highest-traffic service page. Add a range or "from" price with inclusions. Then track three things: enquiries, the proportion that become quotes, and the proportion that become paid work.
Small sites rarely get enough traffic for a statistically clean split test in a few days, so be patient. Our guide to A/B testing for UK small businesses explains how to run a fair comparison without enterprise traffic levels.
Write down your baseline before you change anything. Without it, you will only have a feeling about whether the change helped, and feelings are a poor basis for pricing decisions.
What is the quickest first step today?
That single change answers the question most visitors arrive with. It also brings your site in line with the CMA's expectations if you sell to consumers. Then measure, adjust and expand to your other service pages once you can see the effect on real enquiries.
Should You Show Prices on Your Website? UK Guide — FAQ
Should I show prices on my website if every job is different?
Usually yes, in some form. If every job is quoted, publish a 'from' price, a typical range, or two or three worked examples such as 'a three-bed semi rewire typically lands between X and Y'. That gives visitors enough to decide whether you are in their budget before they call. Explain what moves the price up or down, such as access, materials or urgency. You still quote properly after a site visit. The aim is not a fixed menu. It is to stop people leaving because they assume you are either too expensive or hiding something, and to stop you spending time on enquiries that were never going to fit the budget.
Will showing prices put people off?
It puts some people off, and that is often the point. Visitors who cannot afford you leave before they fill in a form, so the enquiries you do get are better qualified. The bigger risk is the opposite. Baymard Institute's checkout research found that 12% of US online shoppers who abandoned an order did so because they could not see or calculate the total cost up front. Hidden pricing creates doubt, and doubt stops people acting. If you are worried about scaring people off, show a range alongside what is included, so the number arrives with its justification rather than on its own.
Is it illegal to hide fees until checkout in the UK?
For consumer sales, adding unavoidable fees late is now a real legal risk. The CMA's price transparency guidance (CMA209), first published on 18 November 2025, lists mandatory fees, taxes and charges among the things that must be included in the price consumers see. In April 2026 the CMA fined the AA £4.2 million over a £3 booking fee that was left out of the upfront price. The CMA can fine up to 10% of global turnover, or £300,000 if that is higher. This does not force you to publish prices, but any price you do show must be the full price.
Should B2B service businesses show prices too?
Often, yes, though the format differs. Business buyers research quietly and compare suppliers before they ever speak to anyone, so a page with no indication of cost tends to get skipped in favour of one that does. Packages with a starting price, a typical monthly retainer range, or a short 'what affects the price' section all work. The consumer drip pricing rules apply to consumer contracts, so B2B firms have more freedom, but the same logic holds. If you choose not to publish figures, say why and explain exactly how a quote is produced and how quickly it arrives.
How do I test whether showing prices helps my website?
Pick one high-traffic service page and add a price range, a 'from' price, or a short pricing section. Track enquiry form submissions, calls and, more importantly, how many of those enquiries turn into paid work. Run the change for long enough to collect a meaningful number of leads, which for most small sites means weeks rather than days. Compare against the same length of time before the change. Do not judge on raw enquiry volume alone, because fewer but better-qualified leads can mean more revenue and less time lost on quotes that go nowhere.
