A starter site is a proven template adapted to your business — $349 to $1,290, live in about a week. A custom build is designed from scratch — $2,500 to $15,000 over four to nine weeks. Choose starter when you need to be findable and credible; choose custom when the website itself has to differentiate you.
We offer both, at prices that look contradictory until you understand they are different products. This page explains the difference honestly.
Starter template
Custom build
vs 4–9 weeks
You own it either way
A template that already works for your trade, adapted with your colours, photos, words and services.
Wireframes, design concepts and revisions. Nothing about the layout is predetermined.
Because the structural decisions are already made and tested.
Discovery, design rounds, build and revisions. Most of that time is decisions, not code.
Send photos, services and hours. Review once. Done.
Discovery calls, design reviews, content decisions. Your involvement is the point.
| Starter site | Custom build | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $349 – $1,290 | $2,500 – $15,000 |
| Time to live | About 1 week | 4–9 weeks |
| Design | Template adapted | From scratch |
| Layout changes | Within the template | Anything |
| Custom functionality | No — integrations only | Yes |
| Page count | 1–6 | Unlimited |
| Revisions | One round | Two or more rounds |
| Performance work | Good by default | Engineered and measured |
| You own it | Yes | Yes |
When your customers need to find you, trust you and contact you — and your competitors' sites all look much the same anyway.
A useful test: if a customer would pay you more because your website looked exceptional, custom is worth considering. For most local trades the honest answer is no — they will pay the same either way, and the site just has to not put them off.
Yes, and plenty of businesses do. Start with a starter site to get online and generating enquiries, then move to a custom build in a year or two once you know what actually matters to your customers.
Your domain, content and photos all carry across. We do not charge extra for having built the first one, and there is no lock-in preventing you going elsewhere for the second.
Not if the template is good and it is adapted properly with your own photos and words. What looks cheap is stock photography, placeholder text and a layout that obviously does not fit the business.
Others may use the same underlying template, but with your photos, colours, services and copy it will not look like theirs. If that genuinely bothers you, that is a reason to go custom.
Yes, exactly as you would a custom build. The domain is in your name, the content is yours, and you can move it elsewhere whenever you want.
Neither, inherently. Ranking comes from your Google Business Profile, reviews, content and links. Both options are technically sound; a custom build only helps if you need content and structure a template cannot support.
Because most of our work is $2,500 and up, and we kept turning away local businesses who genuinely did not need that. The starter tier exists so we can say yes to a barber without pretending they need a $5,000 build.
Indicative ranges in USD. Every engagement is quoted to a written scope before work starts, so the number you approve is the number you pay.
$349 – $549
About 1 week
Best for: Being findable and callable
$749 – $1,290
1–2 weeks
Best for: Most local businesses
from $2,500
4–9 weeks
Best for: When the site must differentiate
Comparison
A 30-minute call, then a written proposal with scope, price and timeline within two to three working days. No retainer required to get a real number, and no obligation if the answer is that we are not the right fit.