What a small-business website actually costs

The short answer: with us, a small-business website starts at $2,500 as a one-time build, with published starting points up to $8,500+ depending on the four things below. An optional monthly plan for hosting, upkeep and local search starts at $750/month.

What actually moves the number

Four things account for most of the difference between a $2,500 website and one that costs several times that:

• How many pages you need. A five-page site for a single-location service business is a different job from a twenty-page site with a separate page for every service you offer.
• Whether the words and photos already exist. If you have usable photos and can describe what you do, that is a build. If someone has to write the copy for you, that is writing plus a build.
• Features that do something. A contact form is standard. Online booking, a store, or anything that has to talk to another system is real additional work.
• Whether it is a rebuild or a rescue. Moving an existing site that has years of content and search history attached is usually more work than starting clean.

Our real numbers

We publish these rather than making you ask. Builds are one-time, and each price is where that option starts:

• Starter — starts at $2,500, up to 5 pages. Core pages designed for your business, built from the text and images you supply, with light proofreading and a straightforward inquiry form.
• Standard — starts at $4,500, up to 10 pages. More service and content organization, light editing of your copy, and an existing booking-service embed or an expanded inquiry form when agreed in scope.
• Signature — starts at $6,500, up to 15 pages. More involved organization and page design, deeper editing of the pages named in your proposal, and an agreed gallery, portfolio or catalog-style presentation with a defined first set of entries.
• Advanced — starts at $8,500, individually scoped. Substantial functionality, integrations, moving an existing site, content development or design complexity, whether the site is small or large.

Every option includes mobile-friendly layouts, accessibility practices, foundational SEO, Google Business Profile setup, testing and help with launch. Your written quote can land above the starting price, because the four factors above are real; page counts show where an option starts, not what decides it. What it will not do is arrive as a single mystery figure with no breakdown, and we agree on the scope and price before any work begins. The full list, including add-ons like an extra page or a Spanish version, is on Services & Pricing.

On top of the quote: Texas sales tax is added to taxable services where it applies, and any third-party software or subscriptions your site depends on (a booking service, for example) are passed through at cost. Builds are paid half to start and half at launch.

The part people get surprised by

Some websites (WordPress, for example) need regular software and plugin updates to stay secure; simpler hand-built sites need far fewer. Either way, someone has to handle hosting, renewing the domain each year, keeping backups, and making sure your contact form still delivers. Decide who that is before you launch.

Our two monthly plans:

• Website Upkeep & SEO, $750/month: hosting, security, backups, uptime monitoring and upkeep, plus ongoing local search work (Google Business Profile management, local search pages and fixes, review-request tools set up for you, and a plain-English monthly report). Content changes you ask for are quoted as they come up.
• Website Upkeep, SEO & Updates, $1,200/month: everything above, plus your ongoing content updates included. (That's the $750 plan with the $450/month Content Updates add-on.)

Both plans include the local search work; the only difference is whether your content changes are included.

A monthly plan is optional on a site we build. If your site was built by someone else, it is not automatically eligible — we review its setup and condition first, then give you a written scope and price.

Ownership, and what happens if you leave

Once your build is paid for, the site is yours — domain, files and content. The monthly plan is a service fee, not a condition of ownership, and there is no long-term contract: cancel any time with 30 days' notice, with no early-cancellation fee. If you do cancel, we hand off what you need to host it somewhere else.

Four questions to ask anyone you are considering

These apply to us as much as to anyone else. They are the fastest way to find out what you are really being sold:

1. Is this the whole price, or does it turn into a subscription I cannot leave?
2. Who owns the domain, the files and the content when we are done?
3. What exactly is included each month, and what gets quoted separately?
4. If I cancel, what do I walk away with?

Someone who can answer all four in plain language is usually the safer bet, whatever their price turns out to be.