What a site costs
One payment. No retainer, no monthly fee, nothing that renews. The number below is where projects start. What yours comes to depends on the business, and you get that figure before any work begins.
Projects start at
$500
one time after product delivery
A site designed from nothing for one business.
You want a site that looks like it belongs to your business and nobody else's, and you would rather have one good one than three cheap ones.
In every project, at every price
- A design drawn for your business, not a theme recolored
- Copy written from an hour on the phone with you
- A page for each service and each place you work
- Google Business Profile set up or cleaned up
- Forms, booking or ordering — tested with real submissions
- Revisions until you are happy, with no cap and no change fee
- Hosting set up and pointed at your domain
- Full handover — logins, files, ownership
Not part of the project
- Paid ads
- Ongoing SEO work after launch
Last updated 2026-08
Systems build
Quoted on scope
One time
For a site that has to run something, not just describe it.
Your customers order, book or pay on the site, and the thing they use has to work every time or you hear about it the same day.
In every project, at every price
- Everything in a website project
- Online ordering, with the menu or catalogue behind it
- Booking and scheduling, wired to how you actually run the day
- Card payments and deposits, taken properly
- Customer accounts and order history where the business needs them
- Tested with real orders and real card transactions before launch
- Written handover of how the system works, so you are not dependent on me
- Prebuilt Admin Page for you
Why that one has no number
Because the honest answer is that I do not know yet. An ordering system for a kitchen with twelve items and one location is a different piece of work from one with three branches, delivery zones and a card terminal already in place. I will not put a figure on the page that I would have to take back on the phone. Twenty minutes of questions and you get a real number, in writing, before anything starts.
What moves the number
Five things account for nearly all the difference between one project and the next. Twenty minutes on the phone and you will know which of them apply to you.
- 01
How many services you sell
Each one earns its own page, with its own writing and its own photographs. A single-trade business and a firm with nine services are two very different jobs.
- 02
How many places you work
Google treats San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale as three separate markets. Covering all three properly means a real page for each one, with the local detail that goes with it.
- 03
How much writing there is
Some businesses explain themselves in a paragraph. Others have to make the difference between two services clear before anybody will pick up the phone. That second kind takes longer.
- 04
Photography
If you have good photographs of your own work, we use them. If you do not, sorting that out becomes part of the project and part of the price.
- 05
Whether it has to take money
Online ordering, booking, deposits and payments all have to be built and then tested with real transactions. That is proper work, and it shows up in the number.
Three projects at a time
This is what the price pays for. Three sites at once, no more. That cap is what makes the hour on the phone, the writing from scratch and the unlimited revisions possible in the first place. If all three are running when you get in touch, I will tell you when the next one frees up rather than start yours badly.
The two bills that stay yours
These are not mine to charge you for, and they are not included in the price above. Both stay in your name.
- Your domain
- Roughly the price of a sandwich per year, paid to a registrar. If you already have one, you keep it and pay nothing new.
- Your hosting
- A few dollars a month at this size, and often free. The account is yours, so nobody can switch your site off but you.
Never included, at any price
- Paid ads or ongoing SEO management.
- Writing that pretends you do things you don't do.
You see the work before you buy it
Tell me about the business. If it is a fit, I will design a real homepage for it, using your services and your words, and send it over. No call needed to get that far, no card, no obligation. What you are looking at is the actual standard of the work rather than somebody else's portfolio.
Questions about money and ownership
Answered here so you don't have to book a call to find out.
EveryoneWhy only three projects at a time?
Quality over quantity, and three is where that line sits for me. An hour on the phone at the start, writing done from scratch, and unlimited revisions at the end do not divide across ten clients. The homepage shows how many of the three are running right now, read from the real list rather than typed in by hand.
EveryoneWhat if all three are taken?
You join the queue and I tell you where you are in it. No deposit, and nothing to cancel if you change your mind in the meantime. When a slot opens I work down the queue in order.
EveryoneWhy does the price start where it does?
Because a site designed from scratch for one business is a different job from a template with a logo dropped in, and it takes the time it takes. The pricing page lists exactly what moves the number: how many services you sell, how many places you work, how much writing is needed, photography, and whether the site has to take bookings or payments.
EveryoneDo I own the site after?
Yes, completely. You get the domain, the hosting account, the files, and every login. Nothing is held hostage. If you want to hand it to somebody else next year you can, and you will not need my permission or my help.
EveryoneWho hosts it, and what does that cost?
The site is hosted in your own account rather than mine, and the cost is small. Usually a few dollars a month, sometimes free at this size. Your domain renews separately, roughly the price of a sandwich per year. Both bills sit in your name, so I cannot hold either over you.
EveryoneWhat if I want changes in six months?
Message me and I will quote the change, or hand it to anybody you like. No retainer and no lock-in, which also means no monthly fee sitting there in the months you need nothing. Small text and photo swaps are usually quick and cheap.
EveryoneDo you work in Spanish?
The build itself runs in English. The calls, the emails, and the questions I will ask you. If your own customers read Spanish and you want Spanish on your site, say so on the form and we will talk about what that takes.
The number for your business is a conversation away.
Tell me what you do and what is not working. If it is a fit, I will design a real homepage for it and send it over before you have paid anything, with the actual figure alongside it.
Three projects at a time. It comes to me, not a queue.
Nikhil Sivaji
Founder · writes and builds every site