Website Design and Build
Your website is the marketing foundation and online anchor of your business. Whether you’re starting from scratch or need a website overhaul, we can help.
If you’re not ready to commit to the cost of a full or part-time website design and maintenance employee, our plans are flexible, extremely well-priced, and perfect for small businesses.
We offer 3 website levels plus several Add-On options. With any level you choose, your business will have a professional, responsive website that looks great on any device and is structured to add more features as you want them.
Although prices are listed below, the best way to get an accurate price for your website project is to schedule a free consultation. With several factors to consider, we'll help you choose the right plan to achieve your goals.
How pricing works:
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One-Time Cost — Website Design & Build: Starting prices of what you’ll pay to Austen Agency for designing and building your website are listed below. Your customized, final quote will be based on the additional features you request, number of products or services, and other factors.
Ongoing Cost — Your Domain Name: This can range from $12 - $40+/year for unique domain names. For competitive domain names, costs can vary from hundreds to thousands. We'll work with you to determine the best domain name and guide you through the purchase process.
Note: If you haven't purchased a domain name already, please wait and let us do this for you to help make the project run more smoothly.Ongoing Cost — Platform/Hosting: We build primarily on Shopify and Squarespace. The platform cost (website hosting) is a separate fee that’s paid directly to the platform since you will be the sole owner of your website.
These costs are set by the platform, not Austen Agency.
The annual cost starts around $300/year and increases depending on the capabilities you want. Most platforms allow either monthly or discounted annual payments. We will walk you through these costs during our consultation.(Optional) Ongoing Cost — Technical Support Plan Fees: After your website is published, if you do not have the time or technical skills to make ongoing changes to your website, we strongly recommend opting into a Technical Support Plan (TSP). If you opt in, it’s a 3, 6, or 12-month commitment with a separate cost, starting at $35 month.
You can start/stop the TSP at any time (outside of a paid term). Almost all of our clients use an annual TSP and find it very helpful to update content, add/edit products or services, add fresh content (helpful to SEO), and perform various updates to their website.Note: For eCommerce sites, one 6-month instance of a TSP is required.
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Once we've agreed to work together, we'll send you our “Agreement of General Terms & Conditions” to sign. This agreement covers important information about how we'll work together including our hours, response times, deadlines, scope changes, third-party providers, ownership and permissions, tools performance, content and more.
After the agreement is signed, we'll send you payment links for your deposit. All payments must be completed online and cleared before work can begin.
Plan Options:
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Free Consultation: We’ll explore your hopes and goals for your business and make a recommendation on which website level would work best for you. Schedule yours today.
Online Contract: No surprises or gimmicks. We’ll spell out what you’re getting and when.
Tech Start: When we initiate your Squarespace or Shopify plan for you, you may get a discount on your first year when you choose their annual payment plan, or no charge for the time your site is in development with us.
Domain Name Acquisitions or Transfers: We'll help you determine the best domain name for your business based on availability and experience.
If you don’t already own a domain name, please wait until our project starts so that we can use the domain easily with the new site.
If you already own a domain name, we'll evaluate where your domain lives and handle all domain name questions, issues, transfers (if needed), and set-up.
No Co-Branding: We never require (nor ask for) our name to be on your website (but we do reward referrals).
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer): Your site will be secure using the latest standards through Squarespace or Shopify. SSL ensures that your site's visitors' information is secure and encrypted on your site, and prevents hackers from stealing data submitted through your site's forms (and if you include eCommerce, your checkout page), including personal information.
Minimal Custom Code: We only use custom code on your site when absolutely necessary.
Free Template: Despite the marketplace of various costly templates costing hundreds of dollars, we can achieve almost everything our clients need using free templates built into Shopify or Squarespace. It’s a blank canvas that’s easy for us to build from, and a big savings for you.
SEO Start: We ensure good filenames, URLs, and keywords throughout the website that will help with your appearance in search results.
Site Analytics: We’ll show you how to access your website health and visitor data at any time.
Ownership & Control: After your website is finished and your final payment is complete, we make sure you fully own and are in control of your domain name and website.
Responsive Design: Your website will be designed to look good and work well across desktop, tablet, and mobile.
Browser Icon/Favicon: We’ll design and implement the browser icon for your website.
Image Sourcing & Design: Based on your brand and where needed, we'll source and recommend any stock images needed for your site; we'll also design up to 2 custom graphics as needed.
Website Policies: Unless you provide your own, we’ll use the webiste platform provider’s latest templated Policies (such as Privacy Policy, GDPR/Cookies Policy, and Website Terms of Use), and integrated sales tax tools. (Although these templates are helpful, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring the legal and financial compliance for your website and business.)
Communication: We'll schedule a 15-minute weekly check-in during your project. If you have a change request, question, or concern at any time during your project and don't want to wait for our check-in, simply email or text us. We'll respond within 1 business day.
Site Overview: Once complete, we'll walk you through how to access and make minor changes to your site.
1 Free Week of Technical Support: We'll make minor changes to your site as requested for 5 business days after launch. After 5 business days, we're happy to keep serving you through our Technical Support Plan, which is a separate cost, paid for in 3 - 12-month increments.
Note: One TSP instance (of 6 months) is required for eCommerce sites.
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This is the perfect starting point for anyone seeking a budget-friendly, quick, and straightforward digital presence.
This plan does not include eCommerce features; visitors cannot make online purchases via your site, but they can subscribe to your email list, find links to your social media and marketplaces (if applicable), and contact you.
We use the Shopify or Squarespace platform for this website level. This gives you the option of adding eCommerce functionality later.
The Mini is essentially a 1-pager website with up to 7 sections. It includes everything in the “Standard Features” plus:
Pages: 1
Navigation: Basic
Home Page:
Header/Navigation with your name or logo + your social links
Large banner image and wording
Section featuring your products or services
About Section with image
Contact Form for consumers to reach you
Links to your social media and more
Subscribe Section with button link to join your mailing list (if applicable)
Footer with Copyright information
Timeline: After our Free Consultation, domain name acquisition, and you’ve submitted all of your images and wording for everything using our Upload Form, our build time is 3 business days.
Deposit: 50% (non-refundable) + any Add-Ons
Remaining Due (after completion and before we transfer ownership to you): 50%
View Add-On Options below.
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Standard is an excellent choice for anyone that desires a professional digital presence. Compared to Starter, this plan adds more pages, more content, design choices, and other options that provide an excellent impression and helps your SEO/AEO.
This level does not include eCommerce features; visitors cannot make purchases via your site, but they can contact you to purchase.
We recommend the Shopify or Squarespacee platform for this level, depending on whether you’re offering services, products, or both.
The Standard Plan features up to 8 pages including the Home page. It includes everything in the “Standard Features” plus the following:
Suggested Pages: Home, Feature Page, About, Contact, Policies, and your choice.
Navigation: Standard
Timeline: After our Consultation, domain name acquisition, and you’ve submitted all of your images and wording for everything (using our Upload Form), our build time is 7 business days.
Deposit: 50% + Add-Ons
Remaining Due (after completion and before we transfer ownership to you): 50%
View Add-On Options below.
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eCommerce is a smart investment for anyone who wants to optimize their profit by selling their products and/or services to buyers directly through their own professional online shop.
Built for life with our one-time Design & Build fee, you'll fully own your website on an eCommerce platform used by millions of businesses.
Compared to Standard, this plan adds a wide range of eCommerce capability options and creates an impressive website, enabling visitors to confidently purchase your products and services instantly. Buyers can pay using a wide range of cards, Apple Pay, be part of the Shop network, and more. You’ll also have full POS (point of sale) capability, and extend your offerings to Google Shopping, Meta Shops, and other marketplaces.
Platform Options:
We recommend Shopify for your eCommerce site.
The one-time Design & Build cost is $3500 for up small shops with up to 10 products or services. We’ll provide a custom quote for shops with 11 - 10,000+ products or services.
Shopify is the recommended eCommerce platform for several reasons, including:
Access to the popular Shop App Network with millions of ready buyers
Faster page load times than other platforms
More navigation/menu options
Easier addition of Wishlist/Favorites functionality
Robust product page layout options
Bulk edit functionality
Point-of-Sale integration
Ongoing innovation for lower costs due to millions of businesses using Shopify for eCommerce
And much more
Millions of businesses of all sizes use Shopify, but we can also consider other platforms. We’ll review your goals and help you decide in our free consultation.
View our Add-On options below to create the ultimate business website.
The eCommerce Plan includes the following:
Content Pages: Typically up to 10 including Home, Main Shop Page, About, Contact, Policies, Terms, and more. In Shopify, additional Collection pages are automatically created by the Category and Tags taxonomy we create.
Products or Services: Up to 10 are included at the base price. We build shops with thousands of products and variants. We’ll provide a custom quote after our consultation.
Navigation: Complex, Filtered, Mega menu and more. Shopify includes various navigation options.
eCommerce Requirements: Launching a website with eCommerce capability requires the business owner to have several policies and processes in mind; we can advise but not decide these for you. You’ll need to spend additional work time with us to ensure that your business details land in the appropriate areas. This includes:
Data required by Shopify Payments, Stripe, or other payment processors. Online payment processors integrated into these platforms, used by millions of businesses to process and manage consumer payments and payouts to business owners. This will require your legal name, address, social security info, business banking information and other important data.
Optional: Data required by Square or Shop, which are Point-of-Sale payment processor options
Selection of other payment options
Shipping Policies and Processes, including your shipping provider(s), the shipping options you want to offer, price of shipping, areas you’ll ship to, shipping insurance policies, and other information.
Refund Policies and Processes.
Sales Tax Policies and Processes. Please seek advice from your accountant. Shopify comes with basic tax integration.
Commitment to regular log-in to your website platform to manage transactions (to print shipping labels and mark orders as fulfilled, for example).
Categories of your work as applicable to allow visitors to use filters (such as size, theme, etc.)
Timeline: We’ll provide a custom quote based on your starting number of products or services. For small shops up to 10 products, the average build time (after we have all of the images and descriptions) is 14 - 21 business days.
Technical Support Plan for this Level: Due to the technical and process-oriented nature of eCommerce, we require at least 6 months of our Technical Support Plan after your website is built. 100% of clients have various questions and situations come up in their first few sales, and since we do not handle questions without a TSP, this is required.
Deposit: 50% of total cost including any selected Add-Ons
Remaining Due (after completion and before we transfer ownership to you): 50% of build fee, plus a minimum 6-month term of our Technical Support Plan.
View Add-On options below.
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Additional Products or Services beyond 10: A custom quote will be provided based on the type and number of products and/or services your offer.
ChatBot Set-up + Training: $250
Email Marketing Set-up + Training: $300
Developing a Video Banner for your Home Page (stock video): $200 - $500 depending on requirements
Blog Set-up + Training: $100 - $300 depending on your goal
View-in-Room + Virtual Exhibitions Technology Integration: $300 one-time fee; app/vendor cost is separate
Offer Online Courses - Set-up + Training: $1000
Membership Area(s) Set-up + Training: $1000
Custom Requests: We can integrate all sorts of apps and features into your eCommerce website. We’ll always provide a quote before work begins.
The Process:
Schedule your free consultation phone call to discuss which level would work best for your goals and budget. Once we agree to work together, we’ll send an agreement and payment link for the deposit, collect your files and wording, and get your website built. Depending on the website level you choose and other factors, this service will require 30 minutes to 5+ hours of your time across a few Zoom sessions for prep and review.
