Is there a Trading Online Voucher in 2026?
There is no Trading Online Voucher in 2026. The scheme closed to applications at 5pm on Friday 13 December 2024. As of September 2026 the Local Enterprise Office’s digital voucher is the Grow Digital Voucher. It pays 50% of eligible costs, from €500 to €5,000, towards off-the-shelf software subscriptions, training and IT configuration, and it excludes bespoke website development. Our Grow Digital Voucher guide has the full eligibility rules.
Every figure in this post was checked against the Local Enterprise Office and Enterprise Ireland pages on 30 September 2026. Schemes change, so confirm with your own LEO before you plan around one.
What was the Trading Online Voucher, and when did it close?
The Trading Online Voucher was a Local Enterprise Office grant for small businesses with 10 or fewer employees and turnover under €2 million. It paid up to €2,500 or 50% of eligible expenditure excluding VAT, whichever was less. It closed to applications at 5pm on Friday 13 December 2024.
LEO Cork North and West published that closing date, and LEO Monaghan described the round as “the FINAL opportunity for small businesses to avail of this grant”.
Search has not caught up with the closure. Google in Ireland still suggests “trading online voucher 2026” and “trading online voucher application form”. When we searched in September 2026, some web design firms were still advertising a 2026 Trading Online Voucher worth up to €2,500. No Local Enterprise Office is taking applications for it.
Which website grants are open in Ireland in 2026?
Two national schemes are open as of September 2026, and one LEO programme comes before the first of them. Neither voucher pays for a bespoke website build.
Scroll the table sideways for the full detail
| Scheme | Run by | What it pays | For a website | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trading Online Voucher | Local Enterprise Office | Up to €2,500 or 50% of eligible spend | Was aimed at trading online | Closed 13 December 2024 |
| Grow Digital Voucher | Local Enterprise Office | 50% of eligible costs, €500 to €5,000 | A subscription platform new to the business; bespoke development excluded | Open |
| Digital for Business | Local Enterprise Office | A consultant’s review of your digital systems | Required before a Grow Digital application | Open |
| Innovation Voucher | Enterprise Ireland | €10,000 standard, co-funded projects up to €20,000 | Standard website development excluded | Open all year |
Local Enterprise Offices also run local and export supports, and some list export-related website work as eligible. Ask yours before you commit to a supplier. Enterprise Ireland’s Digital Discovery and Digital Process Innovation grants are covered in our post on AI grants for Irish businesses.
What does the Grow Digital Voucher fund for a website?
It funds a website only when the website is a software subscription that is new to your business. The LEO lists “Website Development” among its examples with a condition attached: it must meet the same subscription test, and the voucher “does not support bespoke website development”.
In practice three kinds of cost can qualify:
- The first year of a hosted website or ecommerce platform paid by subscription.
- IT configuration to set that platform up.
- Training for your staff.
Configuration and training together cannot exceed 50% of the project cost. Custom or bespoke software is ineligible, and so are systems for regulatory compliance.
Who can apply for the Grow Digital Voucher?
A wider group than the Trading Online Voucher allowed. That scheme stopped at 10 employees. Grow Digital is open to businesses with 1 to 50 paid employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of €10 million or less.
You must also:
- have been trading for at least six months;
- hold current tax clearance;
- be registered and operating in the area of the LEO you apply to;
- not be a client of Enterprise Ireland or the IDA;
- have completed a Digital for Business project within the previous two years.
The timing rule is strict. The LEO states that “an application must be submitted before any project expenditure is incurred or any project activity commences”. Pay a deposit first and the project can become ineligible. A business can receive two Grow Digital Voucher projects at most, and they share a cumulative cap of €5,000.
Does the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Voucher pay for a website?
No. The Innovation Voucher is open to small and medium-sized limited companies registered in Ireland, and it is spent with a registered knowledge provider such as a higher education institute. Its terms of reference (January 2025) list “standard website development and online optimisation” and “software purchases and software development” as ineligible. A private studio such as Loco cannot be paid with it.
It suits a research question that sits in front of a build. A standard voucher is valid for 18 months.
How do you split a website project so the eligible part is funded?
Most website projects hold both kinds of cost, and the LEO can only support the lines it can see. Separate them before anyone applies.
- Complete a Digital for Business project if you have not done one in the last two years.
- List every cost in the project on its own line.
- Mark each line as a new subscription, configuration, training or bespoke work.
- Get quotes for the first three, and check that configuration and training stay within half of the project cost.
- Talk to your LEO, then apply before you order or pay for anything.
- Fund the bespoke lines yourself and schedule them separately.
An online store shows the split. The ecommerce platform’s first-year subscription, its setup and staff training can be eligible. A custom theme, a booking engine or an accounting integration built on top cannot. Choosing between Shopify, WooCommerce and custom decides how much of the project falls on each side.
How does Loco handle grants on a website project?
Loco Digital is a digital product studio, and most of what we build is bespoke. Website projects start from €10,000 ex VAT, which is twice the most a Grow Digital Voucher can pay. We say at the first conversation that no voucher will fund the build. What a website costs in Ireland sets out the price bands.
Every project starts with a short consult that ends in a scoped, costed plan. That plan lists the off-the-shelf subscriptions, configuration and training on their own lines, so your LEO can assess them, and prices the bespoke work separately.
Two projects show where the line falls. Loco Digital designed and built the first Palmer Shore website in 2026. For ERP HEADtoHEAD we built a custom Stripe and WooCommerce booking engine set up to bill each event from its own company, in its own currency, from one site. Both are bespoke development, the category the voucher excludes.
Our web design service in Dublin covers how a built site is scoped.
