Why Hiding Your Prices Is Costing You Customers

We've had clients push back hard on showing prices — "but every job is different," "we don't want to scare people off." The instinct makes sense. It's also usually wrong.

"Contact us for a quote" feels like it's protecting the business. In practice, it's usually just protecting the business from a conversation it was already going to have to have — later, and with fewer people.

The Research Says Price Matters More Than Almost Anything Else

Nielsen Norman Group, a respected usability research firm, ran a study asking users to rank what mattered most across dozens of different types of website information — things like product details, availability, company background, and more. Price came out on top by a wide margin, ahead of every other factor tested, including availability.

That result isn't really surprising once you think about how people actually research a purchase. Before someone picks up the phone or fills out a form, they want a basic sense of whether they're even in the right ballpark. Without that, most people don't call to ask. They just leave.

Why Businesses Hide Prices Anyway

We get it — pricing varies by job, and nobody wants to commit to a number that doesn't fit every situation. But "it depends" isn't a reason to say nothing. It's a reason to say "from £X, depending on scope."

The fear is usually that a number will scare someone off before you get the chance to explain the value. In reality, the people that number scares off were rarely going to book anyway — you've just saved everyone the call.

What "Showing Prices" Actually Means

We always check the homepage hero first — and pricing clarity works the same way. It doesn't need an exact figure for every job. A starting price, a range, or "most projects run between X and Y" does the same job as a full price list, without pretending every job is identical.

This isn't a fringe opinion. One UX consultant who's spent decades studying this exact question put it plainly: there's a genuine cost either way — a small number of people may feel less able to negotiate once a price is visible — but it's usually a fair trade against the much larger number of visitors who simply leave when they can't find a number at all.

What Happens When You Don't

People don't email to ask "what does this cost" nearly as often as businesses assume. Mostly, they just leave — quietly, and usually to a competitor's site that gave them a number.

The £1,500 ads client's site had no pricing indication anywhere. Every visitor who wanted a rough idea before committing to a phone call had no way to get one — so most of them didn't make the call at all. That's not a hypothetical risk. It's what happens by default when pricing is invisible.

The Bottom Line

Hiding your prices doesn't protect your business from awkward conversations — it just moves those conversations to happen less often, with fewer of the right people. A rough range, a starting price, or a simple "most projects cost between X and Y" gives visitors enough to decide whether to reach out, without pretending every job costs the same.

If pricing is something you're actively rethinking, our post on what should a website actually cost covers the same principle from the buyer's side of the table.

Juan Manuel Armas is the founder of Just Sensations, a web and marketing agency building custom, ethical, high-performance websites for small businesses, freelancers, and nonprofits. He has 10+ years of experience in web design and digital marketing.