Logo design
From $300, one fixed number agreed in writing. A logo you own outright, in every format you will be asked for: vector, PNG, black, white, mono and favicon.
Where the price comes from
Websites from $1,495, one fixed price in writing. Here is what decides it.
A custom website from me starts at $1,495. "Starts at" is only honest if the next step is a real number, so yours is fixed in writing before any work begins and it does not move afterwards. This page shows what that price includes, what pushes a quote above it, the two cheaper ways to start, and where all of it sits against everyone else in Minnesota.
Text me anytime: (218) 818-1023. Skip the email if you like. I read and answer every text myself.
The range
From $1,495, and why that is what it is
A price is not a value judgement, it is a cost structure. Mine sits under the local studios because my costs are lower, not because I do less of the job.
What I don't have to charge you for
- No office. I work from a desk in Brainerd. Nobody is paying Minneapolis commercial rent out of your quote.
- No project manager, no account handler. In an agency your job is touched by four or five people and you speak to the one who does not build it. Here it is one person doing both.
- No salesperson and no commission. You found the price on a page instead of sitting through a call designed to find out what you can afford.
- No subcontractors. Nothing gets marked up on its way through somebody else.
- No page builder tax. I write the code by hand, with modern tooling that does the repetitive parts for me. Assembling the same thing out of a theme and a dozen plugins takes far longer and then needs maintaining forever.
Where that puts me against everyone else
Typical project prices for a small-business website. Figures gathered in August 2026 from published rates, marketplace averages and quotes I have seen in Minnesota. Treat them as the shape of the market, not a survey.
A Fiverr orderMost orders land in this range
$50-$500
The Minnesota budget floorCheapest local quotes: landing page / brochure site
$200 / $500
An Upwork small-business projectRough average
~$800
SwansonXNew-business package, landing page, custom website
$699 / $1,195 / $1,495+
US freelance, small-business projectThe wide national band
$1,500-$8,000
The Minnesota professional tierEstablished local freelancers and small studios
$2,500-$4,500
A Twin Cities agencySmall-business site, full process
$6,000-$9,000
I sit above the marketplaces and below the Minnesota professional tier. That is a deliberate position: enough to do the job properly, write the first draft of your copy and still be answering the phone in March, and well under what a studio with an office has to charge for the same five pages. If a four-figure quote is out of reach, the $699 package below exists for exactly that, and so does the free homepage.
What decides it
Three ways to start, and what moves the number.
Every website quote starts from one of these. The point of showing them is that you can see roughly where you are before you ask, and argue with it if you think I have you in the wrong place.
| What you get | Price |
|---|---|
| Designed and built by handNo template and no page builder, so there is nothing extra in it to slow it down | |
| The words, if you want themHand me your copy, or tell me about the business and I write the first draft | |
| A contact form wired to your inbox, and tested | |
| Your domain, registered in your nameAbout $15 a year, paid by you. I will not hold it | |
| The source code, on every job, without asking | |
| 30 days of free tweaks after launch | |
| One fixed price, agreed in writing firstHalf up front to book, half on launch | From $1,495 |
| What it is | Price |
|---|---|
| The new-business packageA one-page website, business card design, a logo if you need one, and three months of Site Care free. Only for businesses under a year old, or not trading yet | $699 |
| A landing pageOne headline, one offer, one call to action, built for traffic you are paying for. A year of hosting included, no monthly plan needed. Only worth it if you are actually running ads | From $1,195 |
| A free homepageA real homepage for your business on a real link, yours to keep whatever you decide next. Five businesses at a time | $0 |
| Same terms on all of themFixed in writing first, you own the code, 30 days of free tweaks |
| If you need it | Effect |
|---|---|
| More pages | The biggest one |
| Writing the copyThe first draft is in the number, and so is editing one you send | None |
| Sourcing and licensing stock photographyCropping and optimizing your own is included | Up a little |
| Designing a logoDesign work is its own fixed price, from $300 | Quoted separately |
| Booking or quote-request system | Up a step |
| Selling products onlinePayments, stock and tax are a different kind of build | Quoted separately |
| Thing | Effect |
|---|---|
| Where you areBaxter, Bloomington or Boise pay the same | None |
| Revisions inside the scopeChanging things during the build is the build | None |
| The job taking me longer than I thought | None, that is my problem |
| Wanting the source codeYou get it on every project | None |
| Skipping Site Care | None |
Tell me how many pages and what the site has to do and you get the exact number back in writing, usually the same day. Or start with a free homepage and see the work before you spend anything.
The monthly part
What $49 a month actually buys
It is a subscription and I am not going to dress it up as anything else. What makes it defensible is what a website builder charges for less.
$16-$46a website builder, monthly
vs
$49Site Care, monthly
A builder plan gets you hosting and a template, and you are still the one logging in at 10pm to change your opening hours. Site Care is $49 and it includes hosting, your domain and SSL, backups, security updates, uptime monitoring and up to three hours of website changes a month, done and tracked by me. Anything past three hours is quoted as a fixed price before I start.
You are already paying somebody for hosting every month. The only real question is what comes with it, and whether the person doing your edits is you.
The parts of it I would want told to me
- It is optional, at the start and afterwards. Say so up front and I will price the build alone. You get the source code and owe nothing monthly. Hosting and updates become your job instead.
- Cancel any time, no exit fee. You keep the code, the content and the domain.
- But the site does go offline. The plan is what pays for the hosting. Any developer can put it back up from the files you hold (it is an afternoon, not a rebuild), but I would rather you knew that now than found out later.
- Unused hours do not roll over. Most months nobody needs three hours, and that is what pays for the months somebody needs five.
Design work
Logos and brand work are their own fixed price
None of it is required for a website. Add it to a build or ask for it on its own.
Brand kit and print
Colors, type and the rules for using them, plus business cards, flyers and signage artwork set up properly for the print shop. Quoted as one fixed number before I start.
Someone to post for you
I do not sell social posts on their own. One post a week is part of the Partner Plan, which is for owners who want a developer on call every month.
Why I am not cheaper
There is a floor under this and it is not shyness about the number.
Much below this, a job stops being a design and becomes a template with your name typed into it. I could sell that. What I could not do is the discovery conversation, the accessibility and speed work, or the part where I am still answering the phone in March. Those are the parts that decide whether the site earns anything.
If the cheapest possible number is the whole decision, a builder or a $50 Fiverr order will beat me and I am not going to match it. That is a real option and the comparison page says when to take it.
Why I am not more expensive
The agency's extra five thousand dollars is buying real things. Just not always things a five-page site needs.
It buys strategy work, a team with redundancy in it, photography, campaign management, procurement processes, and somebody whose whole job is that your project does not get forgotten. For a business with real revenue riding on the site, that is money well spent.
For a new business that needs to look credible when somebody googles it before calling, it is mostly process you are paying for. That gap is the entire reason I have a business, and the tools I build with are the reason the gap is this wide.
Never on the bill
Things that will not appear on your invoice
A discovery-call gate
You do not have to sit through a call before you are allowed to know what it costs. The starting prices are on this page and the exact number is one text away.
"Starting at"
The fixed price is agreed in writing before any work begins and does not move afterwards. If the job runs long, that is my problem.
Change fees inside the scope
Revisions during the build are the build. You tell me what to change in plain English and I change it. Adding something new to the brief gets re-quoted first, never invoiced after.
A rush fee
Most single-page sites go live within a week anyway. If your deadline is not doable I will say so rather than charge extra to try.
Markup on hosting or your domain
On Site Care they are included at no margin worth mentioning. Off it, you pay the registrar and the host directly. I do not sit in the middle of that.
A charge for the quote
The quote, the advice and the honest answer about whether you should hire me at all are free, and stay free if the answer is no.
Questions
Pricing questions, answered
Is $1,495 really the whole price for a website?
It is where a custom website starts, with the design, the build, a first draft of the words, a tested contact form, the source code and 30 days of tweaks inside it. More pages, a booking system or sourced photography move it up, and selling online is quoted separately. You see the exact number in writing before anything starts. What never happens is a number moving after you have agreed it.
Why are your prices lower than a local studio?
Because my costs are lower, not because you get less of a site. No office, no project manager, no account handler, no salesperson, no subcontractors, and I live in Brainerd rather than Minneapolis. I also build with modern tooling that does the repetitive parts of the job for me. When prices change they change on the page, never on your invoice.
What happens if the job takes longer than you estimated?
That is my problem, not yours. The fixed price is agreed in writing before work starts and it does not move afterwards. The only thing that changes a price is you adding something that was not in the brief, and then we agree the new number before I build it.
Do I have to take the $49 Site Care plan?
No. Say so at the start and I will price the build alone. You get the source code, you arrange your own hosting, and you owe nothing monthly. The plan exists because most owners want a website rather than a second job, not because the build depends on it.
Want the number for your job?
Tell me how many pages, whether you have the words and photos, and what the site has to do. You get a fixed price back within 24 hours, free, and with no obligation attached to it.