Websites from $500. Here is what that means.
Most web design pricing is hidden behind a discovery call, which wastes your time and ours. So, both numbers up front: a three to five page site starts at $500 one-time, and upkeep is $99 a month if you want it. Below is what that includes, what pushes it higher, and why it sits below the agencies.
From $500, one-time.
That covers a small site — typically three to five pages — designed and built rather than assembled from a template. It is a starting point, not a fixed price, and what moves it is scope rather than which day you called.
Upkeep is $99 a month, and it is optional. It covers hosting, keeping the site fast and current, and small changes as your services, hours or team shift. You can decline it and run the site yourself — it is yours either way.
For comparison, Houston agencies publishing their rates tend to land between $2,500 and $8,000 for a small business build, with some offering monthly retainers from around $500. We are not disputing those numbers — for an agency carrying that overhead, they are probably honest.
What you get at the entry price.
- 01
Three to five pages, designed not templated
Typically home, services, about and contact. Laid out around the action you actually want — a call, a booking, a quote request — rather than dropped into a theme and recoloured.
- 02
Mobile-first, with a performance budget
The phone layout is designed first because that is how your customers arrive. Images compressed and sized properly, and nothing shipped that we would flag in someone else's audit.
- 03
Search foundations
Titles, meta descriptions, canonicals, a sitemap, robots rules and local business schema. Plus your Google Business Profile pointed at the right place with the right category.
- 04
A contact path that works
Click-to-call, a form that actually delivers to your inbox, and analytics so you can tell which pages produce enquiries. Forms silently failing is one of the most common things we find.
- 05
The domain and the site stay yours
Registered in your name, handed over properly. We would rather keep you because the work is good than because you cannot leave.
What pushes the number up.
Nothing here is an upsell waiting to happen. These are the things that genuinely take longer, and if none apply to you, none get quoted.
- 01
More pages
A separate page per service, or per suburb you cover, is usually worth it for search — but each one is real writing and real layout, not a duplicate with a word swapped.
- 02
Booking or payment integration
Connecting a booking platform, a payment provider or a financing application. The work is in doing it without wrecking page speed, which is where most embeds hurt you.
- 03
Content and photography you do not have yet
If the copy needs writing from scratch, that is time. Real photos of real work beat stock every time, and the sites that convert best are usually the ones where the owner spent an afternoon taking them.
- 04
Migrating an existing site
Preserving URLs, mapping redirects and carrying across pages that already rank. Skipping this is the fastest way to lose the traffic you already had.
Why it is cheaper.
This is the question the page exists to answer, because a low number with no explanation reads as cut-rate and it should.
You are not paying for an agency. No account manager, no sales team, no office, no reseller margin on hosting. The person who quotes your job is the person who builds it, and that removes most of the cost between those two things.
The stack matters too. Building on modern tooling is faster than wrestling a bespoke theme onto an older platform, and the speed and search foundations come as defaults rather than as extras someone has to bolt on afterwards.
And plainly: we are early in this market and building a reputation in it. That is worth something to us, and the pricing reflects it.
The rest of it.
Why is this cheaper than the agencies?
Because you are not paying for an agency. There is no account manager, no sales team, no office and no reseller markup on hosting — the person who quotes the job is the person who builds it. A modern stack also means less build time than a bespoke theme on an older platform. Local agencies publish $2,500 to $8,000 for a small business build, and a good part of that gap is overhead rather than output.
What is the catch at $500?
It is a floor, not a fixed price, and it buys a genuinely small site — three to five pages, your content or a light rewrite of it, no custom integrations. If you need twenty pages, a booking system and copy written from scratch, it will cost more, and we will say so before starting rather than after.
What does the $99 a month cover, and is it required?
It is optional. It covers hosting, keeping the site fast and current, and small changes as your services, hours or team shift — the sort of thing that otherwise sits in a to-do list for eight months until the site is quietly out of date. Plenty of clients decline it and run the site themselves, which is fine, because it is theirs. For comparison, some Houston agencies start their retainers around $500 a month.
Do you take a deposit?
Yes, and the free audit and redesign concept both come before any money changes hands. You see the concept of your rebuilt homepage first, so you are not paying to find out whether you like the direction.
How long does a build take?
Content is almost always the long pole, not the code. Once we have your copy and photos, a small site moves quickly. We will give you a realistic date once we have seen the scope rather than a number picked to sound impressive.
What if I only need the site made faster?
Then say so and we will scope that instead. Targeted speed and technical work on the site you already have is cheaper and less disruptive than a rebuild, and for a lot of businesses it is the right answer.
Still unsure what you need? The free audit costs nothing and tells you whether the answer is a rebuild, some targeted speed work, or nothing at all.
Get a number for your site.
Send your address and we will audit what you have, then come back with findings, a concept, and a scoped quote rather than a range.