Plenty of Irish small businesses are leaving free money on the table. Not because they don’t qualify, but because nobody told them the schemes exist, or the forms looked like too much hassle.
So here’s the plain version. The main grants available in 2026 for getting your business online and growing it, who they’re for, and how to spend them so they pay for themselves.
One thing first. Schemes change, and every Local Enterprise Office runs things slightly differently. Treat this as a starting point and check the details with your own LEO before you apply.
The Trading Online Voucher
This is the one most small businesses should look at first.
What it is. A grant from your Local Enterprise Office to help you sell or market online. It covers up to 50% of eligible costs, to a maximum of €2,500 (excluding VAT). You pay the rest.
Who qualifies. Broadly:
- Up to 10 employees
- Turnover under €2 million
- Trading for at least six months
- Based in the county of the LEO you apply to
- A limited online presence today, or a clear plan to do much more online
What it can pay for. Things like a new or rebuilt website, online booking or payment systems, e-commerce, SEO, online advertising to get you started, and training to help you run it yourself.
How it works.
- Attend the Trading Online Voucher workshop run by your LEO. It’s compulsory, and you’ll usually need to apply within six months of attending.
- Get quotes from suppliers for the work.
- Submit your application.
- Wait for approval. Don’t spend anything before you’re approved. Costs incurred before approval aren’t covered.
- Do the work, pay your supplier, then claim the grant back.
It’s a competitive scheme, so qualifying doesn’t guarantee approval. A clear plan helps.
The Grow Digital Voucher
A bigger, more specific grant for businesses that are a step further along.
What it is. Up to 50% of eligible costs, to a maximum of €5,000, to help you adopt digital tools.
Who qualifies. Small businesses with 1 to 50 employees that have completed a Digital for Business project with their LEO in the last two years, and aren’t Enterprise Ireland or IDA clients.
What it pays for. Software subscriptions for 12 months, and the setup and training that go with them. Think CRM, booking systems, stock management, marketing automation.
What it doesn’t pay for. Bespoke website development. That’s a common misunderstanding, so it’s worth saying clearly. For a website, the Trading Online Voucher is the route.
Other supports worth knowing about
- Digital for Business through your LEO. Free or subsidised expert help to build a digital action plan. It’s also your way into the Grow Digital Voucher.
- Enterprise Ireland supports for bigger, export-focused companies, including digital and innovation funding. If you’re already an Enterprise Ireland client, talk to your adviser.
- Your LEO’s mentoring and training programmes. Often free, often underused, and a good way to sharpen a plan before you spend.
How to spend it so it pays back
Here’s where we’d push back on how a lot of grant money gets spent. A voucher is a great reason to start. It’s a bad reason to buy the cheapest thing that fits the budget.
A grant-funded website still has to bring in enquiries, bookings or sales. That’s the whole point. A few things we’d always do:
Start with what the site has to achieve. More enquiries? Online bookings? Selling outside your area? Write it down. Every decision after that gets measured against it.
Measure from day one. The biggest gap we see in small business marketing isn’t traffic. It’s measurement. If you can’t see where enquiries come from, you can’t spend the next euro well.
Get found. A new site nobody visits is a brochure in a drawer. Put some of the budget into the basics of SEO so local customers can actually find you. More and more of them are also asking ChatGPT and Gemini for recommendations. We cover what that means in our piece on SEO in the age of ChatGPT.
Make sure you can update it yourself. You shouldn’t have to pay someone every time your opening hours change.
For most businesses, the website is the right place to start. Get that right, then build the marketing around it.
Choosing a supplier
Your LEO will want quotes, and you’ll want someone who’ll still answer the phone after launch. Ask:
- Have you worked on Trading Online Voucher projects before?
- What exactly does the quote include?
- How will we measure whether it worked?
- What does it cost to make changes after launch?
If you’re wondering what a fair price looks like, our guide to website costs in Ireland breaks it down.
The bottom line
Up to €2,500 towards getting your business properly online is worth an afternoon of paperwork. Do the workshop, get a clear plan, and spend it on something that brings customers in.
Thinking about applying? Tell us what you’re working on. We’ll help you scope the project so your quote is ready for the application, and talk through whether it’ll pay back. Get in touch, or see how we approach website design and build.
Scheme details correct at the time of writing, October 2026. Always confirm current rules with your Local Enterprise Office before applying.
