Research, September 2026
1 in 13 business websites in construction and engineering don't work on a phone
We looked at 2,490 websites of Dutch companies in construction, installation and metalworking. For 186 of them (7.5%) the site is not made for a phone screen: visitors have to zoom in and scroll sideways to read anything. Among trade businesses in construction and finishing it is 1 in 10.
- 2,490websites examined
- 7.5%not made for phones
- 14.7%without a year after 2023 on the homepage
- 8.7%without a year after 2019 on the homepage
What we saw
Most people look up a contractor, installer or painter on their phone. A site that isn't built for that shows the desktop version shrunk down. The text is then unreadable without zooming in and buttons are too small to hit. We counted such a site when the page has no viewport setting, the rule that makes a site adapt to the screen.
We also looked at the most recent year on the homepage, for example in the footer, in news or in projects. If there is no year after 2023, chances are the site hasn't been updated for a while. That was true for 328 of the 2,236 sites with a year (14.7%). For 195 sites (8.7%) the most recent year was 2019 or older.
Big difference between the groups
We looked at 1,769 sites of trade businesses from public trade directories, spread over three sectors, and 721 sites of member companies of Bouwend Nederland (the Dutch construction industry association), all B.V.s.
Share of sites not made for phones, by group
Share of sites without a viewport setting. Construction and finishing: contractors, painters, roofers, paviors, plasterers, window frames, concrete and more. Installation: installation companies, plumbers, sanitary and security installers. Metalworking and machine building: metalworking, machine building, structural and welding companies. Reference date September 2026.
Among the trade businesses from the directories, 9.4% of the sites are not suitable for phones; among the members of Bouwend Nederland it is 2.6%, 1 in 38. For the year the difference is small: 14.8% versus 14.4% without a year after 2023. So members of Bouwend Nederland more often have a modern site, but don't update it more often.
How we measured
- For each company only the homepage was requested, once, in September 2026.
- “Not made for phones” means: the page has no viewport setting in its source code.
- “Year” is the highest year up to and including 2026 that appears in the source code of the homepage. 254 sites without any year are not counted for this.
- The sector follows from the trade directory the company was listed in. 862 sites from directories outside construction and engineering, such as car dealers and printers, were not counted.
- Parked domains and sites that did not respond were left out.
- About 150 sites we had looked at before, mostly badly outdated ones, are not in this count. The actual share is therefore somewhat higher.
- It is not a random sample of all Dutch companies. The figures apply to these groups.
We only publish totals and don't name companies. You may reuse the figures with attribution and a link to this page (licence CC BY 4.0). Questions about the method? Email info@modexsoftware.nl.
Follow-up research
In October 2026 we also measured speed and the system used for a larger group: speed and WordPress on business websites.
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