Should You Show Prices on Your Website?

For most businesses, yes — show your prices. Price is the single biggest thing visitors come looking for, and when they can't find it, many simply leave. Hiding the number rarely creates the phone call you were hoping for. It usually just sends people to a competitor whose price they could see.

That's the short answer. But "show prices" isn't the whole story. The smarter question is which prices to show, when to give a range instead of a fixed figure, and how to lay them out so the number helps you instead of scaring people off. Here's what the research actually says.

Why do hidden prices cost you customers?

When buyers research a purchase, price is the first thing they want to know. In a survey of more than 2,000 B2B technology buyers, 45% ranked pricing transparency as the number one change they want from vendors (TrustRadius, N=2,058) — ahead of every other request. The same research found that 84% of buyers expect to find self-service pricing tools on a vendor's site (TrustRadius).

Usability research backs this up. The Nielsen Norman Group has long found that price is the top information need, and that people abandon sites that won't show it. A missing price doesn't read as "premium." It reads as "they're going to be expensive, and they don't want me to know yet."

45% of B2B buyers say pricing transparency is the single biggest thing they want vendors to fix (TrustRadius, N=2,058).

This is exactly the kind of number we design around. A website's job is to answer the question in the visitor's head before they have to ask it — and for most businesses, that question is "what does this cost?"

When is it OK to not show a price?

Showing a price doesn't always mean showing one fixed figure. For work that's genuinely custom — bespoke projects, large contracts, anything scoped to the client — a fixed number on the page would be misleading. The fix isn't to hide the price. It's to give an honest range.

"Starting at £2,000" or "projects typically run £5,000–£15,000" does two useful things. It qualifies the people who reach out, so you waste less time on mismatched enquiries. And it still gives the visitor an anchor, which removes the anxiety that makes them bounce. A bare "contact us for pricing" gives them nothing — and the gap between "free" and "terrifyingly expensive" is where most people quietly leave.

The pattern of hiding enterprise pricing is common but not necessarily wise: one analysis of nearly 1,000 startups found 61% offer an enterprise plan, but only 12% show its price upfront (Breadcrumbs, N=998). For high-ticket, custom work a gated price is defensible. For everything below that, transparency wins. We treat "show a number or show a range, but always show something" as a build rule, not a nice-to-have.

How many price options should you show?

Fewer than you think. Across a benchmark of 200 SaaS pricing pages, three visible tiers converted about 14% better than four or more (Atticus Li, 200-site benchmark). More options feel generous to the business and overwhelming to the buyer. The paradox of choice is real and measurable.

Three packages also let you guide the decision instead of leaving it to chance. Adding a clearly framed middle option — and marking it as the recommended one — reliably lifts conversions. Pages that highlight a recommended tier convert around 17% higher than pages that present every option as equal (Atticus Li, 200-site benchmark), an effect confirmed in a controlled eye-tracking study where the highlighted plan drew attention faster and was chosen more often (Speero/CXL, p=0.0171).

This isn't a trick. It's the well-documented anchoring effect: people judge prices relative to the options around them. The mechanism was first demonstrated by Huber, Payne and Puto (1982) and confirmed decades later as a robust, single-mechanism phenomenon (PNAS, 2020, N=189). A sensible top tier makes your middle tier look like the obvious, comfortable choice.

How should you display the price itself?

A few evidence-backed details matter more than people expect.

Round vs. "charm" pricing depends on who you're selling to. The classic "£49 instead of £50" effect is real for consumer and low-cost products — the left-digit effect was confirmed by Thomas and Morwitz (2005) and holds up across a meta-analysis of 69 studies (Nicolai et al.). But for premium and business services, round numbers (£2,000, £5,000) feel more trustworthy. A £4,999 quote on a high-end service reads as retail, not quality.

Skip crossed-out prices on recurring plans. When DoWhatWorks analysed 22 experiments from Spotify, Dropbox and Prezi, every strikethrough variant lost (DoWhatWorks). For ongoing services, a slashed price signals instability, not a bargain. Use a clear "save 20%" or "two months free" instead.

Put trust next to the number. Stating a specific customer count ("trusted by 12,000 teams") rather than a vague logo bar lifted conversion by 13%, and placing social proof above the prices rather than below added another 9% (Atticus Li, 200-site benchmark). The price is the moment of doubt — that's where reassurance belongs.

FAQ

Does showing prices scare customers away? Usually the opposite. A visible price lets the right buyers self-qualify and lets the wrong ones leave before they waste your time. A missing price is what scares people away, because they assume the worst.

What if my pricing is genuinely custom? Show a starting price or a range. "From £2,000" still gives buyers an anchor and filters enquiries, without committing you to a figure you can't honour on bespoke work.

Where should I put pricing on the page? On its own clear section, with three options at most, the recommended one highlighted, trust signals above the prices, and a short FAQ below. One analysis suggests a pricing FAQ can lift conversion by around 21% (WinSavvy) — treat that as directional, but the logic is sound: answer the doubt where it appears.

Should I crash my prices with a big discount? Be careful. Crossed-out prices consistently underperform on recurring plans (DoWhatWorks). Frame savings plainly ("two months free") rather than slashing a number.

We build fast, conversion-tuned websites informed by exactly this kind of research — including how and where to show your prices so they win you work instead of losing it. If you'd like a second opinion on your pricing page, book a call and we'll talk it through.