Why Your Web Designer Won't Tell You The Cost
How much does a website cost for a small business? If you've asked a web design agency in Lexington or anywhere in Central Kentucky, you probably didn't get a straight answer, just an invitation to a "discovery call." Here's why agencies keep their pricing hidden, what a build-plus-retainer deal really costs over two years (spoiler: more than $36,000), and the two questions to ask any web designer before you sign anything.
You've secured your starter loan, and you've signed the lease. You know your profession better than anyone around within fifty miles, and the idea is solid. You are ready.
Then someone asks what your website looks like.
You don't write HTML or CSS, and you've never opened Photoshop. The thought of writing an Instagram caption fills you with dread, and you've got a nagging feeling that someone nearby is searching for exactly what you sell right now and finding a competitor instead.
That feeling is correct, my friend. People find small businesses through search, through maps, and increasingly through AI assistants that answer questions using whatever's been published about you online. If that information is thin or three years out of date, you're invisible to somebody who was ready to buy today.
So you start searching.
The call before the number
You find a few good firms on Google. They've got great ratings, but not one of them will tell you what anything costs. Instead, you've got to fill out a "discovery form", for a "discovery call" next week to "discover" your pricing.
Then the worst news happens. The proposal arrives, and it's nasty. It's got a build fee, a monthly retainer, and a contract term.
Here's the part that nobody wants to admit. The discovery call isn't a service: it's how a firm finds out what you can afford before it decides what to charge you. That's why the number comes after the conversation, instead of prior.
Do that four times over, and a month of your life is gone...and you still don't have a working website.
What the retainer actually costs
Say the proposal is $8,000 to build plus $1,200 a month. That sounds pretty reasonable, right? Let's dive into the math.
$36,800
What a typical agency build plus retainer costs over twenty-four months.
It turns out, a year in, you've paid them more in retainer than you paid for the site. You still can't change your own hours without emailing someone. The hosting account is in their name, and so is the domain.
And if you stop paying, you find out very quickly how little of it was ever yours.
A three-page, simple site for a shop in Paris, KY doesn't need $1,200 a month of anything. What you're renting at that point is access and the right to ask someone to change a phone number.
Why I built this differently
I started Maverick Solutions because I kept having the same conversation with people who were exhausted and frustrated because they weren't getting their money's worth out of their web and marketing efforts through overpriced agencies with unavailable staff.
The pricing you see from other agencies is opaque on purpose.
So I publish mine. Every package, every deliverable and the actual number are sitting on a page you can read right now without talking to me first. It's right here.
I've been on both sides of the table.
I was able to take Good Foods Co-op to their first profitable quarter in 6 years because of successful SEO, web design, and social media revamps.
Your business needs the Maverick Difference.
When a project's done, it's done. You own the site, the brand files, the domain, and the hosting account. No invoice arrives next month.
You don't need what Big Design is selling you
If you run a shop in Carlisle, Cynthiana, Paris, Mt. Sterling, Winchester, Richmond, or Frankfort, the pitch you're getting was built for a different kind of business.
I grew up in Carlisle, Kentucky. I know the difference between a business that needs an online booking system and one that needs three good pages and a Google Business Profile that actually shows up when someone searches. Those are vastly different projects at wildly different prices, and you shouldn't overpay for the first when you really just need the second.
The firm that won't quote you until they've sized up your budget has no incentive to tell you that.
What to ask instead
If you take one thing from this, here's what I'd ask, and don't ask what a website costs. Ask these two questions instead:
What do I own when it's finished? The site, the files, the domain, the hosting login...are in whose name? Is it yours, or the design firm's?
What am I paying every month after launch, and what happens if I stop?
Those two answers tell you more about a shop than any portfolio will.
Every price at Maverick Solutions is published, including what's in each package and what it costs. See for yourself.