Starter
$1,500
A proper marketing site, shipped in 4 weeks.
- — Up to 5 pages, custom design
- — Mobile-first, fast, accessible
- — Contact form & email capture
- — Launch support & handover docs
4-week build
— for owners, not renters
Websites
you actually own.
Custom websites and software for independent businesses that care about the details — design studios, boutique fitness, creative shops, local services, and anyone who built their business by hand. Built by hand in Buffalo.
builds from $1,500 · optional managed hosting from $50 / mo · cancel anytime
— the problem
Your current
website is
a rental.
-
01
You pay every month to keep a website you don’t actually own.
-
02
Your designer locked you into a platform you can’t leave without starting over.
-
03
The plugins that make it work add up to more than the site ever cost.
It doesn’t have to work this way.
— the process
Five steps.
No surprise invoices.
-
Step 01
Intro call
A 20-minute call to figure out what you need and whether I’m the right fit.
-
Step 02
Proposal
Fixed-price scope within 48 hours. You know the number before we start.
-
Step 03
Design
Real mockups — fonts, layout, every detail. Refined with you until you sign off.
-
Step 04
Build
Live progress in your client portal, a weekly check-in, no surprise delays.
-
Step 05
Launch & own it
Code handed over, docs included, hosting optional.
— pricing
Three tiers.
No vague quotes.
Standard
$3,000
A full site with the moving parts a real business needs.
- — Up to 10 pages, custom design
- — Custom forms delivered to your inbox
- — Analytics & SEO baked in
- — Polished social previews & search setup
- — Everything in Starter
5-week build
Custom app
$5,000
The stuff a template site can’t do.
- — Booking & scheduling
- — Member logins & customer accounts
- — Custom database & dashboards
- — Connects to Stripe, Square, Mindbody, and more
- — Everything in Standard
6–8 week build
Starting points — your fixed price is set in the 48-hour proposal.
Managed hosting · $50/mo
Backups, patches, uptime monitoring, and unlimited small edits. A service, not rent — the code and the domain stay yours, and you can cancel at any time without losing anything.
— comparison
Side by side.
| Feature | Wix / Squarespace | WordPress + plugins | thesitenerds |
|---|---|---|---|
| You own the code | No — exported HTML only | Partial — tangled with plugins | Yes — your name on every file from day one |
| Monthly cost | $20–$60 forever | $30–$150 with plugins | $0 self-hosted · $200 managed |
| Platform lock-in | Total | High — plugins trap you | None |
| Custom features | Limited to their widgets | Limited to plugin ecosystem | Whatever the business needs |
| Ability to leave | Start over | Complex plugin migration | Hand the files to any developer |
— frequently asked
The seven questions
that always come up.
If there’s an eighth, ask it on the call — it’s a short one, and the answer’s usually shorter.
-
Why not Wix or Squarespace?
They’re rentals with a nice paint job. You pay monthly forever, the site lives on their servers under their rules, and if you ever want to leave you get an export of raw HTML that no developer will touch. Fine for a hobby, expensive for a business.
-
Why not WordPress?
WordPress can do almost anything, and that’s the problem. Most sites end up running 15–30 plugins from 15–30 strangers, each with its own update cadence and security history. What starts as a $30 theme turns into a $150/month plugin stack and a part-time job keeping it from falling over.
-
What if I don’t know exactly what I want yet?
That’s what the first call is for. Twenty minutes is usually enough to sketch a rough scope and figure out whether we should keep talking. If you’re still figuring out the shape of the project, even better — I’d rather help define it than build the wrong thing.
-
What if I want to leave?
You already have everything. From day one, the source code of your site lives in an account in your name — any developer can pick it up and have the site running in an afternoon. There’s no export step, no contract, no data to transfer. If you ever want to leave, you just stop renewing the hosting invoice.
-
Can I update it myself?
Not directly — there’s no admin panel to log into, which means nothing to break, patch, or remember the password for. Managed hosting clients get unlimited small edits as part of the monthly (text changes, image swaps, new pages — usually same-day). If you want hands-on control, the code is yours to hand to any developer.
-
What about SEO?
Every site ships with the fundamentals done right: fast page loads, clean semantic markup, per-page meta tags, Open Graph cards, a sitemap, structured data for local business schema, and analytics you actually own. Google rewards the boring technical stuff — the stuff a template site usually gets 70% right.
-
What happens if you get sick or take a vacation?
You own the code and the hosting from day one, so any developer can pick it up in an afternoon. Managed-hosting clients also get written instructions for everything — what the site is built on, how it goes live, who to call when something breaks. If you want extra peace of mind, the name of a Buffalo-area backup developer can go into the contract.
— a note from the founder
I started this because I was tired of watching good businesses rent their own websites.
I’m a software engineer. I’ve spent years building the kind of internal tools and web apps that real companies run on — the sort of things that quietly work for a decade and nobody thinks about. Somewhere along the way I noticed that the independent businesses I actually admired were stuck paying rent on websites they didn’t own, built on platforms they couldn’t leave.
So here’s what I mean by “you own your code.” Every project ships with the files that make up your site in an account under your name — fonts, content, database, and all. If you ever decide to take it somewhere else, you hand another developer a link and they’re running in an afternoon. No export tool, no plugin archaeology, no hostage situation.
If I get hit by a bus — the question everyone politely avoids asking a one-person studio — you still have everything, because you always had everything. That’s the whole point. Managed hosting is a service I offer, not a leash.
If any of that sounds like the kind of working relationship you want, the best next step is a short call. No pitch deck, no account manager, no pressure.
— Julian
— start a project
Tell me about the thing you’re building.
I read every note personally and reply within 24 hours — usually sooner. A rough description of the business and what you want the site (or app) to do is plenty to start. I’ll follow up with times for a short call.
or, skip the note
or, the old-fashioned way
julian@thesitenerds.com— message received
Got it. Thanks.
I’ll reply within 24 hours, usually sooner. In the meantime, browse the pricing or read the founder note above — and if you think of something you forgot to mention, just send a second note.
— Julian