Every number, and every catch
A website built for a fixed price, then operated at a price you pick.
Ask us any time and we hand over the complete source code, free, the same week. You can host it yourself using its documented runtime and services. There is no exit fee anywhere in the contract.
First, what it costs to build
One-time. Which of these you are on is an objective test, not a judgement call, and we tell you which side you are on before you commit to anything.
$3,500
Standard
One location, one language
$5,000
Complex
More than one location, a second language, events, online ordering, or a filterable catalogue
$2,000
Founding Ten
The standard build for the first ten clients we sign, until 31 March 2027
Then, what it costs to run
The build price above is the same whichever of these you pick. What you choose month to month is how much of our time is yours — not how big the site is.
Watch
$97
a month, cancel any month
- ✓ For a site whose content does not change
- ✓ Hosting, domain and SSL
- ✓ Security and dependency patches, across every site we run
- ✓ Daily uptime and contact-endpoint checks
- ✓ Backups, and a repo that still builds a year from now
- ✓ The complete source code, free, whenever you ask
- ✓ Move up to Operate any month you need us to change something
Operate
$297
a month, twelve-month minimum
- ✓ Everything in Watch
- ✓ 45 minutes of content changes a month — text, prices, hours, photos, staff — live the next business day
- ✓ Run over it and we still do the work, free, as the month allows
- ✓ One structural change a year, from the published catalogue
- ✓ A monthly summary, and one thing we think you should do about it
Partner
$597
a month, twelve-month minimum
- ✓ Everything in Operate
- ✓ Content changes with no monthly budget
- ✓ Same business day when it reaches us before 2pm Eastern
- ✓ Your work never waits behind another client's overflow
What the monthly does not cover
New integrations, a redesign, copywriting, photography, and any structural work beyond the one change a year. Every one of them has a published number, so nothing here needs a quote: a custom section outside the published catalogue is $750, a booking flow, payment flow or catalogue added after launch is $1,500, copywriting is $297 a page, an extra page beyond the three in your annual change is $350, and a structural change for a Watch client is $750. Photography is arranged at cost plus $250 coordination. We do not bill by the hour, so there is no meter running when you email us.
There is no overage bill. If you use more than your plan covers we do the work anyway and say so in the monthly summary. The only thing that ever changes is which plan you are on — with thirty days' notice, and you can leave instead.
- ✓ The monthly rises once a year by CPI, capped at 4 percent, written into the contract before you sign — Founding Ten clients are exempt for their first 24 months, then join it
- ✓ Twelve-month minimum on Operate and Partner. Watch is month to month, cancel any time
- ✓ No exit fee, ever — the minimum is a payment commitment, not a lock on the code
The questions people actually ask
- Which plan should I be on?
- If your hours, prices and photographs genuinely do not change, Watch. If they change a few times a year, Operate — 45 minutes a month is more than most of the sites we run actually use. If you send us something most weeks, Partner. You can move between them, and if you are consistently using more than you pay for we will tell you in the monthly summary rather than bill you for it.
- Why is there no way for me to edit my own site?
- Because the thing that makes it fast, cheap to change and portable is that it is plain files rather than a database and an admin panel. You get the trade in both directions: you cannot log in, and there is nothing to break, patch or get hacked. If editing it yourself matters more than that, Squarespace is genuinely a better fit and we will say so on the call.
- What happens if you two get hit by a bus?
- You own the domain, registered in your name from the start. Ask us any time — including now, before you sign — and we hand over the complete source code plus a static build you can host anywhere that serves files, with no dependency on us or our packages to run it. Free, same week. That is the answer to this question and it is why we can charge a monthly at all.
- What does it cost to leave?
- Nothing. There is no exit fee in the contract. On Operate and Partner the twelve-month minimum is a payment obligation, so if you leave in month four you still owe the remaining months — but the code is yours whenever you ask for it, including during the minimum. Watch has no minimum at all.
- Why is this cheaper than the agency that quoted me?
- Because we are not designing the machinery from scratch each time. One engine runs every site we build, so the part an agency bills as project management and front-end development is largely already done. What you are paying for is the decisions and the operating, not the plumbing. It is also why we are more expensive than a $400 freelance site: that price buys the plumbing and nothing after it.
- Can you do online ordering?
- Yes, and it moves you to the $5,000 build — $3,500 if you are one of the founding ten. Same for a second location, a second language, events, or a filterable catalogue of products, services or listings. If you are not sure which side of the line you are on, tell us on the call and we will tell you before you commit.
- How long does it take?
- Weeks, not months. The clock starts when your text and photos reach us, which is the single biggest thing you control. You get a firm launch date once we have them.
Now that you know the number.
Twenty minutes on what the business does and what the site has to make happen.