Fixed-price web design: why we publish the number
Most agencies will not tell you what a website costs until you have had a call. Here is why, what a real fixed price requires, and how to spot a fake one.
Ours is $499 to build and $49 a month to run. It is on the homepage, on the service page and in this paragraph.
That is unusual, and the reason it is unusual is worth understanding before you buy a website from anyone.
Why agencies hide the price
Not, mostly, because they are hiding something. There are real reasons, and two of them are legitimate.
The work genuinely varies. If you build bespoke software, one client needs three weeks and the next needs nine months. A single published price would be wrong for almost everyone who read it.
Price without context loses good clients. A number on a page gets compared against a cheaper number on another page, with none of the reasons attached. Agencies would rather explain first, and that is a fair instinct.
And one that is not.
The call converts better. Getting you on the phone before you know the price means the number arrives after a rapport has formed and you have spent half an hour describing your business. That is not information architecture. That is a sales technique, and it works, which is why it is everywhere.
You can usually tell which reason you are dealing with by how the question is answered. "It depends, here is what it depends on, roughly this range" is honest. "Let's hop on a quick call to understand your needs" — when you have already described your needs — is the third reason wearing the first one's clothes.
What a real fixed price requires
A fixed price is only possible when the thing being sold is actually defined. That means someone has decided, in advance, what is in and what is out — and is willing to say the second part out loud.
That is the real work behind a published number. Anyone can put a price on a page. Staying profitable at it means having genuinely narrowed what you sell, and being disciplined about saying no to the rest.
It also means the price is only meaningful alongside its exclusions. A fixed price with a vague scope is not a fixed price. It is an opening bid.
How to tell a real fixed price from a starting price
"From $499" is not a fixed price. The word "from" is doing all the work. Ask what takes it above the number and how often that happens.
Ask what is excluded, specifically. A real answer is a list, and it will include things you might want — an online shop, a booking system, logo design, photography. If the exclusions are fuzzy, the price is fuzzy.
Ask what happens when you want a change. Included, or billed? Both are fine. Not knowing is not.
Ask what happens if it takes longer than expected. With a real fixed price, that is the seller's problem. If it becomes yours, it was never fixed.
Check the recurring cost is complete. A low build price with hosting, domain, certificate and maintenance arriving separately is four bills wearing one price tag.
What ours excludes
Since that is the test, here is our list.
$499 does not cover an online shop or payment checkout, a booking system connected to your calendar, logo design or brand identity, photography or copywriting, or a mobile app. All of those are possible, and all of them are quoted separately with the price agreed before anything starts.
What it does cover: a custom design for your business, four to six pages (we do not price per page), a working contact form, your local business details set up so you turn up on maps, and a site built to load fast on a phone. Then $49 a month for the domain, hosting, certificate, updates, monitoring and small changes.
Three working days from the point we have your text and photos. If we are late, that is our problem, not a change order.
The reason we do it this way
Publishing the price filters out the people we were never going to be right for, before either of us spends an hour finding that out. Everyone who does get in touch already knows what it costs and has decided they can afford it.
That is a better conversation for both sides, and it is the whole reason our service page leads with a number instead of a contact form.