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Starting at $X, between $X and $Y, or by the yard: the format that decides your range
You'll know whether to use pricing by the yard, "starting at $X," or "between $X and $Y" by looking at one thing: how much your yardstick moves from job to job, and whether that variation has a ceiling.
By Yodai · Published on September 6, 2026 · Updated on October 12, 2026
Your yardstick is the unit that moves your price the most; the question is how you turn it into a number clients can read without flinching. Two home renovation companies set their pricing the same month. One posts "starting at $4,000." The other posts "between $4,000 and $15,000, depending on square footage and finishes." The same type of client reaches out to both: someone with an 85-square-foot bathroom who wants a quote. They message the first one and ask, "but what would mine actually run?" because $4,000 doesn't tell them anything about their specific case. With the second, there's almost no need to ask: they've already seen that their bathroom falls within the range and that the range makes sense.
Neither one is lying. Each format tells a different story about how your unit, the thing you charge by, whether that's the square foot, the hour, or the session, actually moves. Picking the wrong format is a very common way to write a price that's accurate and still confusing or off-putting.
Three ways to write it, one single question
There are three ways to write a number that isn't fixed: unit pricing, "starting at X," and "between X and Y." You don't pick one because you like it or because it sounds better. You pick it by looking at how much your unit varies from job to job, and whether that variation has a ceiling.
If your unit is something the customer can count before they call you, square feet, hours, words, pieces, unit pricing is the most honest option: you state the cost per unit and let them do the math for their own case. If your unit can't be counted by the customer but has a clear floor that no job ever falls below, "starting at X" works. If your unit moves between a minimum and a maximum that you already know from experience, the "between X and Y" range splits the difference without forcing you to stretch the truth at either end.
When the unit counts itself: price per unit
A certified translator charges by the word. A landscaper doing maintenance work charges by the hour. A product photographer charges per photo delivered. In all three cases, the customer can do the math before reaching out: they count the words in their document, calculate the hours their yard needs, decide how many photos they want. Here, price per unit isn't just the most honest option, it's the only one that doesn't force anyone to guess.
The problem with this format isn't using it, it's hiding the unit. "Price per session, call for details" hides the unit: it's really a "starting at X" dressed up as unit pricing. Unit pricing means writing the unit and the number together, with no footnote or separate condition attached. And if you work with individual consumers, that number needs to include sales tax where required: pricing laws call for giving the full, final price upfront, with no surprise add-ons at checkout.
When the unit has a floor but no ceiling: starting at X
A plumber who takes emergency calls can't use unit pricing, because the unit, the time and parts a job needs, isn't known until they're standing in front of the leak. But there's one thing they do know for sure: no service call runs less than $45, because that's the trip charge plus the first fifteen minutes. There, "starting at $45" says everything that can honestly be said before seeing the problem.
"Starting at X" only works if X is a real floor, not a hook. If 90% of your calls end up costing $120 and you advertise "starting at $45," the customer reads $45, builds a budget around it, and when the bill comes to $120 the problem isn't the price anymore, it's that they feel tricked by the first number they saw. If you work with individual consumers, "starting at" can't stand alone either: when a price can't be set in advance, the law calls for explaining how the final cost is calculated so the customer can check it, so spell out the rest, for example how much each extra fifteen minutes costs and that parts are billed separately.
When the unit moves within a known range: between X and Y
A bathroom remodel in the same city, with mid-range tile, runs between $4,000 and $15,000 depending on square footage and whether plumbing needs to move. A remodeler with two years of jobs behind them already knows that range: it's not a range they made up to sound flexible, it's the memory of their last twenty quotes. There, "between X and Y" doesn't hide anything, it states the real range and lets the customer place themselves within it.
The limit of this format is width. A range from $4,000 to $15,000 works because the customer understands that a small bathroom with standard tile falls near the minimum, and a remodel that involves moving plumbing falls near the maximum. A range of "between $500 and $5,000" doesn't inform anyone, it just multiplies by ten without explaining why.
- You state a real floor and leave the rest open
- Works when you don't know the maximum yet either
- Requires reviewing the floor every few months so it stays true
- You state a full range, with a minimum and a maximum
- Works once you have a track record of similar jobs
- It stops working once the maximum is so far from the minimum that the customer can't tell where they'd land
Which one should I use: Use "starting at X" in your first year in business, while you don't yet have enough jobs behind you to know the ceiling. Switch to "between X and Y" once you have enough quotes to see where almost all of them land: that track record is your range, and hiding it behind a "starting at" from then on isn't caution anymore, it just means you haven't sat down to look at your own numbers.
- You have the judgment to choose between price per unit, starting at X, and between X and Y based on how your unit moves
- You know that a "starting at" only works if it's a real floor, not bait to get someone to bite
- You know that a range that's too wide doesn't inform, and it needs to be narrowed or split in two
- Your listing can now carry the number in the format it actually calls for, not the one that just sounds better
Test yourself
Answer before opening each one. If one gives you trouble, go back to the section that explains it.
1. An electrician has three years of service calls under their belt and knows that 80% of jobs cost between $60 and $200, but every so often a repair comes up that runs to $800. Should they post "between $60 and $800"?
No. Multiplying the maximum by more than ten times the minimum doesn't inform, it scares people off. Better to post "between $60 and $200" for the typical job, and handle the big repair separately, not as part of the range.
2. A graphic designer makes logos and always bills the same number of hours, give or take two hours depending on revisions. Should she use "starting at X" or unit pricing?
Unit pricing, by the hour. Her unit is practically constant and countable; using "starting at X" would hide a unit that's already stable, and make it look less predictable than it really is.
3. A plumber advertises "starting at $45" but hasn't had a call come in under $90 in six months. What should change first?
The number, not the phrase. If the real floor is already $90, still advertising $45 turns your "starting at" into a hook that breaks trust the moment the bill arrives. Raise the floor to the figure people actually pay.
But there are trades where neither "starting at" nor a "between X and Y" range is honest, because the price swings wildly from one job to the next with no pattern at all. There, a range stops working, and you need to show something else.
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NextThe real-world example you show when even a range doesn't work