WHAT THINGS COST
What changes when a WordPress site is replaced with a custom-built one?
You trade an editor and a pile of updates for a fixed set of pages, and it pays to know which side of that trade you are on before you pay.
Short answer · updated
Replacing a WordPress site with the $3,500 Website package gives you up to 7 pages on a custom design system, built without a CMS, in three weeks. What you give up is the editor: a text change becomes a request to us or an edit in the code, unless you say in the brief that you publish often.
What you stop looking after
A content management system is a database, an admin panel, a login and a security surface, and a site that changes a few times a year does not need that. The Website package is built without one, which is what its price list means by CMS-free. There is no admin address to protect and no plugin list waiting for its next update.
The design changes in the same move. A theme or a page builder lays your content out inside somebody else's structure. The package replaces that with a custom design system shown on real pages, so the seventh page looks like it belongs with the first rather than like a different template.
What you give up
The editor. With no admin panel, a change to the site is a change to the code. During the thirty days after handover, anything that does not work or breaks by itself is ours to put right at no charge. A change you decide you want is new work, and the terms say new work is quoted separately.
That is a real cost for some sites and none for others. A business whose pages change a few times a year can send the new wording and have it done. A business whose staff update the site every week would be paying to lose the one thing the old site did well, and the brief is the place to say so: the package page says that if you genuinely publish often, it is priced in.
What the old site has that this price does not cover
More than 7 pages: extra pages are quoted per page, and cost less than the first 7 because the design system already exists. A shop, a members' area or a booking system: that is a web application, from $7,500, and not a larger version of the Website. Content in a language other than English, unless it is agreed in the brief. Hosting and the domain, which you pay directly to whoever provides them.
The package list also says nothing about moving the old content across or redirecting the old addresses. If the current site has pages people arrive on, put them in the brief so it is agreed in writing before work starts. Anything outside the list is a separate package or a separate quote.
What stays exactly as it was
Ownership of the result and of the place it lives. The site is deployed wherever you want it, the keys are handed over, and you are not tied to the studio to keep your own site online. When the final payment clears the deliverables are yours, with third-party fonts and libraries staying under their own licences.
Payment works as it does for every fixed-price package: in full before work starts, in US dollars. A full refund is available any time before work begins, so the question of whether you can live without an editor can be settled before money is at risk.
How to tell which side of the trade you are on
Count how often the text changes and who changes it. A few times a year, by one person, the editor is overhead. Weekly, by several people who are not developers, the editor is the product and a fixed set of pages is the wrong shape.
If the real complaint is that the site is slow rather than awkward to edit, measure it before replacing it. The $900 technical SEO audit measures Core Web Vitals on real page loads and ranks what it finds, and it may show that the cure is smaller than a rebuild.
Worked examples
| If the old site has | The Website package lists |
|---|---|
| A theme or page builder deciding the layout | Custom design system |
| An admin panel, a login and plugins to update | CMS-free, no plugins or page builder |
| Pages added whenever somebody wanted one | Up to 7 pages |
| Search settings added afterwards | Technical SEO foundation |
| Changes agreed informally, one at a time | Three revision rounds |
The left column is your situation. The right column is the package's own wording, copied from the price list.
| Package | Price | Delivery |
|---|---|---|
| Website | $3,500 | 3 weeks |
| Custom Web App | from $7,500 | Dated once the scope is agreed |
| Custom Web App over Website | $4,000 more at the starting price | Not comparable: one is dated once the scope is agreed |
Both prices are the published ones on the package pages.
Included and not included
What each package lists as included, and what its page lists as not included.
| Package | Included | Not included |
|---|---|---|
| Website$3,500 |
|
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| Custom Web Appfrom $7,500 |
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| Landing Page$1,200 |
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What moves the number
- Pushes it up
- More than 7 pages, a shop or logins, a second language, publishing often enough to need an editor
- Pushes it down
- Fewer pages: a single page is the $1,200 Landing Page
- Does not change
- Where the site is hosted. You choose, and you hold the keys
Frequently asked questions
Why no CMS?
A CMS is a database, an admin panel, a login and a security surface, and a site that changes a few times a year does not need that. Leaving it out is why the site has no plugin to be attacked through and no admin login to guess. If you genuinely publish often, say so and we will price it in.
What if I need more than 7 pages?
Tell us in the brief. Extra pages are quoted per page and cost less than the first 7, because the design system already exists.
Do you host it?
No. We deploy it wherever you want it and hand over the keys. You are never locked into us to keep your own site online.
What happens after the work is delivered?
One-off projects carry thirty days of fixes at no charge from the day the work is handed over: anything that does not work, or that breaks by itself, is ours to put right. We watch the delivered work over that month rather than waiting to be told. Work you think of later is new work and is quoted separately. Monthly packages have no separate support window because the month you are paying for is the support.
Who owns the finished work?
When the final payment for a project clears, the deliverables become yours. We keep the right to use the work in our portfolio, described without naming you unless you agree otherwise. Third-party components (fonts, libraries, stock assets) stay under their own licences.
When do I pay?
Fixed-price work is paid in full before it starts. Monthly work is paid monthly in advance and can be stopped at the end of any paid month. Prices are in US dollars.
Where these terms are defined
- Web Vitals web.dev (Google)
- Moving a site with URL changes Google Search Central
The packages behind these numbers
Each one lists its full scope, what it excludes and how the work runs.
- Website A site of up to 7 pages with a real information architecture. $3,500
- Custom Web App A working product, not a prototype: auth, data, admin, deployment. from $7,500
- Landing Page One page built to convert, designed and coded from scratch. $1,200
The studio behind them: Web design & development.