Plumber hourly rate: why only 8 of 3,045 plumber websites post one

Short answer: you usually can't find a plumber's hourly rate online, because almost no plumbers publish one. In October 2026 we read the websites of 3,045 independent plumbing businesses in six U.S. metros. Eight of them posted an hourly rate. That is about one site in 380.

What we read

We listed every plumbing business with a Google listing in six metro areas: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Phoenix and Las Vegas. We set aside the national franchise brands and kept the independents, then read each one's own website the way a customer would: home page, services page, pricing page if there was one. Sites that ask robots not to read them were skipped.

• Independent plumbing businesses found: 4,463
• With a website: 3,457
• Websites we could read: 3,045

What they post

Most of the drain cleaning prices were “starting at” figures, not what a typical job costs. Coupons, job ads and financing offers were not counted.

No metro had enough posted hourly rates to publish a median. We will not print an average built from a handful of websites, so this post has none.

Why plumbers don't post an hourly rate

The plumbing businesses that explain their pricing tend to give the same reasons:

• Many quote by the job, not the hour. Flat-rate pricing means the customer agrees to a price before the work starts, so an hourly number would not describe what they pay.
• The job isn't known until someone looks. A slow drain can be a five-minute clear or a collapsed sewer line.
• A posted number gets compared without its context. Truck, parts on board, licensing, insurance and warranty all sit behind the price, and none of that fits on a rate card.

What this means if you need a plumber

• Ask on the phone whether they charge by the hour or by the job, and whether there is a fee just to come out.
• Ask whether that fee is credited against the repair if you go ahead.
• For anything bigger than a quick fix, ask for the price in writing before work starts.

What this means if you run a plumbing business

Customers are searching for prices: “plumber hourly rate” alone is typed into Google about 2,400 times a month in the U.S. Almost none of your competitors answer it on their sites. That doesn't mean you should post a number. Posting is a decision only you can make. But you should know what the plumbers around you show and what they leave out, and notice when that changes.

That's what MyIntelBrief does for a local business: a short weekly brief on what nearby competitors changed on their websites and listings. See what yours would show, free for four weeks.

About the data

Business listings and websites read in October 2026 across six metros. One price per website per type (the lowest regular posted figure). Franchise and national brands excluded. Counts only; no business is named. Free to cite with a link to this page (CC BY 4.0).