Doing it yourself, or hiring us
You can build and run your own website, Google listing and customer follow-up — the tools are genuinely good now — or you can pay a team to do it and get the evenings back. This page is about which of those is right for you, not which one we sell.
Who should do this themselves
We are an agency, so read this section first and hold us to it. These are not edge cases. Each one describes a business owner we would tell, on a call, not to buy from us.
- You already have a site that works and the phone rings. A rebuild nobody needed is the most expensive thing on this page. The honest answer is to leave it alone and spend the money on something that is actually broken.
- You enjoy this part. Some owners do — the photos, the words, the fiddling on a Sunday. If it is the part of the week you look forward to, paying somebody to take it away is a bad trade at any price.
- You can find four or five uninterrupted hours to set it up, and about an hour a month afterwards, and those are not hours you would otherwise have spent earning. If the time is genuinely there and it costs you no work to spend it, spend the time instead of the money.
- You have no customers yet, or your season has not started. Anything monthly before there is a phone to answer is a cost with no job to do. Build it yourself now and hire someone the month it starts hurting.
- Your work comes entirely from repeat customers and people who were sent to you, and you are not trying to be found by strangers. Most of what we do is aimed at strangers finding you. If that is not the problem, we are not the answer.
The one-hour fix, written to be done without us If you decided on the list above, take this with you. It is the same first hour of work we would do, written so you can do it yourself, and it asks nothing of you afterwards.
The things that actually differ
These five were chosen before either column was written. They are the questions the decision turns on, not the ones we happen to win.
| What you are deciding | Doing it yourself | Working with us |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs over twelve months | A domain, a builder or hosting subscription, and your time. In dollars this wins, every time, and it is not close. | A one-time build plus a monthly plan. Both numbers are below, and both come from the same engine our checkout charges from. |
| Who does the work | You. The setup, and then every hours change, every new photo, every listing update and every review reply, forever. | We do. You keep a site editor and small changes in it stay free, so doing some of it yourself remains an option rather than a reversal. |
| What happens when it breaks | You usually find out when a customer mentions it, and you fix it on whatever evening you have. Nothing is watching it but you. | Hosting, security and small fixes are ours to keep working on every website plan, and there is a person to call instead of a help centre. |
| What you own at the end | Everything, always. The accounts are in your name and nobody can take them away. | Your site, your content, your customers and your data stay yours, and you keep them if you leave. There is one asterisk, and it is named below. |
| How fast you can change your mind | Immediately. Cancel a subscription and it is over. | Month to month. Cancel any time, keep the site and the data, and there is no term to run out. |
What each one costs
Doing it yourself
- A domain name, renewed once a year.
- A website builder subscription, or hosting if you assemble it yourself.
- Whatever photos, stock images or a logo cost you, if you do not already have them.
- Your own hours — the weekend to set it up, then the hour here and there that never quite stops.
We do not print a dollar range in this column. Builder and hosting prices move, they differ by plan and by whether you pay monthly or yearly, and quoting another company's price from memory is how a comparison page becomes untrue. Price it yourself on the day you decide — it takes about ten minutes and the number will be right, which ours would not be. The only figure on this page we can stand behind is ours.
Working with us
Accelerate website — the entry website plan.
- One-time build
- $500
- Every month after
- $25
- First twelve months, together
- $800
This is the smallest thing we sell that is a fair comparison to a site you would build yourself. Every figure here is read out of our pricing engine when this page is built, so it cannot drift from what the checkout charges.
What is in itWhat we do not do
- We do not promise results. Our guarantee is a satisfaction and month-to-month promise, not a revenue one — if a monthly service is not delivering in its first thirty days we make it right or refund that month, and that is the whole of it. Nobody honest can promise you customers, and we do not.
- We host what we build, and that is the asterisk on owning everything. Leaving costs nothing and you keep the site and the data either way. Asking us to move the site onto a host we do not run is a flat one-time fee. The exact fee, in our terms
- We do sell a build-and-hand-it-over, but we deliberately price it above the plan that includes ongoing care, and it hands over the finished site rather than the source code. If a one-time build with nobody attached afterwards is what you want, you can almost certainly buy it better elsewhere.
- We are not the cheapest option on this page and cannot be. If price is the only thing that matters to you, the first column wins and you should take it.
- Month-to-month agreement
- You own everything
- 30-day make-it-right guarantee
Wherever you landed
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“I am going to do this myself.”
Read the one-hour fixGenuinely the first thing to do, and none of it needs us. There is no form at the end.
-
“I am not sure yet.”
Answer four questionsThe growth plan asks what is actually going wrong and tells you what to fix first — including when the answer is nothing, and including things you can do without us.
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“I would rather someone else did it.”
See what it costsEvery price up front, month to month, with the one-time and monthly numbers separated.