Kitchen fitter website design: winning project rates, not day rates
A kitchen install is a £2,000 to £4,000 fitting fee bought on the standard of a finish nobody can see over the phone. Here is how the website earns it: what it must show, the day-rate versus project-rate maths, and how the routes to getting one compare.
A kitchen fitter on a day rate is being paid to be slow. Charge £220 a day and a customer does the sum in their head, worries about how many days you will stretch it to, and treats your speed as a threat to their budget rather than a benefit. Price the same job at a fixed £2,800 for the fitting labour and the conversation changes: they are buying a finished kitchen, not renting a pair of hands, and if you fit it in four tight days instead of six that gain is yours. The problem is that nobody hands a stranger a fixed four-figure price without proof. A full kitchen is an £8,000 to £20,000 decision for the homeowner, and they give the fitting to whoever looks the safest pair of hands, not the cheapest daily figure. That proof lives on a website, or it does not exist. This post covers what a kitchen fitter's site must show, the pricing maths that decides your margin, and how the routes to getting one compare.
Kitchen fitter website design should be built to win project-priced work, not day-rate work. That means a before-and-after gallery of real finished kitchens grouped by style, genuine reviews, a clear list of what you fit, and an easy way to send photos for a quote. A project fee of £2,000 to £4,000 for the fitting beats a £200 to £250 day rate because it is judged on the finish, not the clock, but it only works when the customer already trusts your standard. The gallery is what builds that trust before you quote.
Why project rates beat day rates for kitchen fitters
A fixed project rate pays a kitchen fitter for the finished result, so being fast makes you more money, while a day rate caps your income and quietly punishes efficiency, and the only thing that lets you quote a project price to a stranger is visible proof of your standard.
The single biggest lever on a kitchen fitter's income is not the hourly figure, it is whether you sell days or outcomes. The worked example below is the same kitchen, priced two ways, with the fitter's real earning laid out like an invoice. It assumes a fitting job most independents will recognise: a full rip-out and refit of units, worktops and appliances that a competent fitter completes in four to five days.
| Line | Day rate | Project rate |
|---|---|---|
| Quoted to customer | £220/day, "about 6 days" | £2,800 fixed |
| Days you actually take | You slow down: 6 days | You push: 4.5 days |
| Labour you bank | £1,320 | £2,800 |
| Effective day earned | £220 | £622 |
| Customer's worry | "How many days will he stretch it?" | "What will it look like finished?" |
| Who benefits from your speed | The customer | You |
The day rate caps you at your slowest
On a day rate, every hour you save is an hour of pay you lose, so there is no reward for skill or speed. You are also asking the customer to sign a blank cheque, because "about six days" can become eight, and they know it. That uncertainty is what makes day-rate customers haggle and chase. The fitter who is genuinely good at the work is the one most penalised by pricing it this way.
The project rate pays for the finish
A fixed price for the fitting turns your competence into margin. Quote £2,800 and the four-day fitter earns more per day than the six-day one, the customer knows the number up front, and the whole conversation moves off the clock and onto the result. That is the better job and the better relationship. But you cannot quote it cold: a stranger will not accept a fixed four-figure fitting price from a name with no evidence behind it. The site is where the evidence sits, and the case for spending on one at all is in what a trade website is actually worth.
What lets you quote a project price with confidence
A customer accepts a fixed fitting price when the website has already answered their two fears: that you will do a poor job, and that you will disappear or overrun, so the site needs before-and-after proof, real reviews and named accreditations far more than it needs clever design.
Project pricing is a trust transaction. The homeowner is handing over a large sum for a room they use every day, sight unseen, on your word. The website's job is to remove enough doubt that the fixed number feels safe rather than risky. The checklist below is the set of things that does that, in rough order of how much each one moves a cautious buyer.
Before and after does the heavy lifting
Nothing sells a kitchen fitter like the same room shot twice: the tired old units, then the finished job in good light. It proves you did the work, shows the scale of change you deliver, and lets a homeowner picture their own dated kitchen becoming that. A gallery of finished-only shots is good. Paired before-and-afters are what let you charge the outcome price instead of the day price.
Show the credentials that de-risk the job
A kitchen touches gas, electrics and plumbing, so the customer's second fear is a botched or unsafe job. If you or your regular subbies are Gas Safe registered for the hob connection, or you work with a Part P electrician, say so and show it. Naming real accreditations reassures the buyer that the fixed price does not come with hidden risk, and the full case for putting them on the page is in how to show Gas Safe and NICEIC on your website.
What a kitchen fitter's website must include
The non-negotiables are a style-split before-and-after gallery, a clear list of what you fit, your service area, genuine reviews and a photo-quote request, and the gallery does most of the selling because a kitchen is bought on evidence of the finish, not on the wording of the page.
A kitchen fitter's customer is slow, cautious and comparing you against two or three others while spending more than they spend on almost anything except a car or a holiday. The site has to answer, in the order they ask it: is your finished work the standard I want, do you fit the kind of kitchen I am buying, and how do I start the conversation without committing.
Split the gallery by kitchen style
A single dumped grid of kitchens is a missed sale. A homeowner set on a shaker kitchen should be able to click straight to your shaker installs, not scroll past handleless gloss to find one. Splitting the gallery by style lets the buyer see work like theirs in seconds and gives Google clean, separate signals about each kind of kitchen you fit. It is the same portfolio-led logic behind every carpenter website design build.
Spell out supply-and-fit versus fit-only
Kitchen customers arrive in two camps: those who want you to supply and fit the whole thing, and those buying their kitchen from Howdens, Wickes or Ikea who just need a fitter. If your site does not make clear you do both, you lose half of them. Naming fit-only work explicitly is how you win the direct customers who keep the whole fitting fee in your pocket instead of a showroom's.
How the routes to a kitchen fitter website compare
There are three real routes: a DIY builder at £10 to £25 a month plus your evenings, a one-off freelance build at £1,000 to £3,000 then your own upkeep, or a done-for-you plan from £50/month with everything included, and against the margin on one project-priced kitchen the price gap between them barely registers.
The sticker price on the website is not the number that matters. The number that matters is whether the site is good enough to let you quote project rates, and who keeps it that way as you finish new kitchens through the year. Here is the honest picture of the three routes, and the fuller builder-by-builder breakdown is in the best website builder for tradesmen guide.
| What matters | DIY builder | Freelance one-off | Done-for-you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up-front cost | £10 to £25/mo | £1,000 to £3,000 | £0 setup |
| Who builds the gallery | You, on evenings | A freelancer, once | Done for you |
| Adding new kitchens | Your job, forever | Pay per change | Send a message |
| Who keeps it live and fast | You | You, then stale | Included |
| Ongoing monthly | £10 to £25 + time | Hosting you arrange | From £50, all in |
Why the gallery upkeep is the real cost
A kitchen fitter's site is never finished, because every job you complete is a new before-and-after that should go on it. On DIY or a one-off freelance build, that upkeep falls to you, and in practice it stops: the gallery freezes at the day the site went live and slowly dates. Done-for-you keeps it growing, so the proof that lets you quote project rates gets stronger with every kitchen you fit rather than going stale.
Direct work is where the site pays for itself
Showroom partnerships are steady but they take the margin and set the terms. The website's real return is the direct customer, the one who bought their kitchen elsewhere and searched for an independent fitter, where you keep the whole fee and price it yourself. Winning more of that better-paid work is the point, and the mechanics of it are in how a website wins you better jobs.
Getting a kitchen fitter website built without losing weekends
A done-for-you one-pager is usually live in about a week for £50/month with hosting, security and edits included, and every kitchen you finish gets added to the gallery, so a busy fitter gets a project-rate-ready site without ever laying out a photo grid themselves.
What done-for-you removes
Done-for-you takes the whole job off your plate: the words, the layout, arranging your before-and-after shots into a gallery that actually looks good, getting it live, then hosting it, keeping it fast and adding each new kitchen through the year. You finish an install, snap the before shots you already took and the finished room, and send them. No editor to learn, no separate hosting bill, no half-built site nagging at you between jobs.
See yours before you pay
You do not have to decide blind. I build a free mockup of your actual kitchen-fitting business, your name, area and real installs, before you pay anything. Like it? A one-pager is £50/month and a full site is £100/month, done-for-you, with hosting, SSL and unlimited small edits included and no setup fee. See how a build is laid out on the carpenter website design page, then apply at sitework.uk/#apply to see yours finished.